select a wood of young and thrifty
trees; and, instead of making loaves of the size of a lump of candy, dam'me,
'duke, but I'd have them as big as a hay-cock.«
    »And purchase the cargo of one of those ships that, they say, are going to
China,« cried Elizabeth; »turn your potash-kettles into tea-cups, the scows on
the lake into saucers; bake your cake in yonder lime-kiln, and invite the county
to a tea-party. How wonderful are the projects of genius! Really, sir, the world
is of opinion that Judge Temple has tried the experiment fairly, though he did
not cause his loaves to be cast in moulds of the magnitude that would suit your
magnificent conceptions.«
    »You may laugh, cousin Elizabeth - you may laugh, madam,« retorted Richard,
turning himself so much in his saddle as to face the party, and making dignified
gestures with his whip; »but I appeal to common sense, good sense, or, what is
of more importance than either, to the sense of taste, which is one of the five
natural senses, whether a big loaf of sugar is not likely to contain a better
illustration of a proposition, than such a lump as one of your Dutch women puts
under her tongue when she drinks her tea. There are two ways of doing every
thing; the right way, and the wrong way. You make sugar now, I will admit, and
you may, possibly, make loaf-sugar; but I take the question to be, whether you
make the best possible sugar, and in the best possible loaves.«
    »Thou art very right, Richard,« observed Marmaduke, with a gravity in his
air, that proved how much he was interested in the subject. »It is very true
that we manufacture sugar, and the inquiry is quite useful, how much? and in
what manner? I hope to live to see the day, when farms and plantations shall be
devoted to this branch of business. Little is known concerning the properties of
the tree itself, the source of all this wealth; how much it may be improved by
cultivation, by the use of the hoe and plough.«
    »Hoe and plough!« roared the Sheriff; - »would you set a man hoeing round
the root of a maple like this,« - pointing to one of the noble trees, that occur
so frequently in that part of the country. - »Hoeing trees! are