I think he discovered it as soon as
anybody.
Perhaps he knew it by a feeling of something starting in his own
veins--a sort of spring stir in his legs and arms, which tempted him to
stand on his head, or throw a handspring, if he could find a spot of
ground from which the snow had melted.
The sap stirs early in the legs of a country boy, and shows itself in
uneasiness in the toes, which, get tired of boots, and want to come out
and touch the soil just as soon as the sun has warmed it a little.
The country boy goes barefoot just as naturally as the trees burst their
buds, which were packed and varnished over in the fall to keep the water
and the frost out.
Perhaps the boy has been out digging into the maple-trees with his
jack-knife; at any rate, he is pretty sure to announce the discovery as
he comes running into the house in a state of great excitement, with
"Sap's runnin'!"
And then, indeed, the stir and excitement begin. The sap-buckets, which
have been stored in the wood-house, are brought down and set out on the
south side of the house and scalded.
The snow is still a foot or more deep in the woods, and the ox-sled is
got out to make a road to the sugar camp.
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