Mary tried to send him, and he was going in a minute, but
the minute stretched and stretched, and both of them were surprised
when the door opened and Dannie entered with an armload of spiles,
and the rat-skinning was all over. So Jimmy went on unwinding
lines, and sharpening hooks, and talking fish; while Dannie and
Mary cleaned the spiles, and figured on how many new elders must be
cut and prepared for more on the morrow; and planned the sugar making.
When it was bedtime, and Dannie had gone an Jimmy and Mary closed
their cabin for the night, Mary stepped to the window that looked
on Dannie's home to see if his light was burning. It was, and
clear in its rays stood Dannie, stripping yard after yard of fine
line through his fingers, and carefully examining it. Jimmy came
and stood beside her as she wondered.
"Why, the domn son of the Rainbow," he cried, "if he ain't testing
his fish lines!"
The next day Mary Malone was rejoicing when the men returned from
trapping, and gathering and cleaning the sugar-water troughs. There
had been a robin at the well.
"Kape your eye on, Mary" advised Jimmy. "If she ain't watched close
from this time on, she'll be settin' hins in snowdrifts, and
pouring biling water on the daffodils to sprout them."
On the first of March, five killdeers flew over in a flock, and a
half hour later one straggler crying piteously followed in their wake.
"Oh, the mane things!" almost sobbed Mary. "Why don't they wait for it?"
She stood by a big kettle of boiling syrup at the sugar camp,
almost helpless in Jimmy's boots and Dannie's great coat.
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