Thus it happened that when the bad spirits
following after Nanahboozhoo and Nokomis saw the brilliant colors through
the haze of that Indian Summer day they thought the whole country was on
fire, and they turned back and troubled them no more. Nanahboozhoo was
pleased that the beautiful maple trees had been of so much assistance to
him. He decided to dwell among them for some time, so he prepared a very
comfortable wigwam for himself and his grandmother.
"It was in the wigwam among the maples that the deputation found
Nanahboozhoo. He received them kindly, and listened to their story and
their request.
"At first Nanahboozhoo was perplexed. He was such a great traveler that he
had often been down in the great Southland, and well knew how the sugar was
there made. He had seen the fields of sugar cane, and knew the whole
process by which the juice was squeezed out and then boiled down into
sugar. He also knew that it required a lot of hard work before the sugar
was made.
"When Nokomis heard the request of the deputation to her grandson she was
very much interested--for had not Nanahboozhoo several times, when
returning from those trips to the South, brought back to her some of the
sugar?--and she had liked it very much; and so now she added her pleadings
to theirs that he would in some way grant them their request.
"Of course Nanahboozhoo could not refuse now, so he told them that, as the
beautiful maple trees had been so good to him and Nokomis, from this time
forward they should, like the sugar cane of the South, yield the sweet sap
that when boiled down would make the sugar they liked so much.
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