Miracles on Maple Hill

The winter is long, cold, and full of snow. One snowstorm is so bad that the children can’t go to school for four days. After Valentine’s Day, Marly feels like the season has shifted and spring is around the corner. When Mr. Chris announces that the sap is ready for harvesting, Marly declares it a miracle and anxiously awaits the sugaring process that she fell in love with last year. Daddy and Fritz help Mr. Chris prepare all the supplies, and they work all day to chop wood for the fire, drill holes into the trees, and hang the buckets from devices called spiles that help the sap drip slowly. Joe and Marly help cover each bucket, and as the buckets begin to fill almost immediately, Mr. Chris declares that it will be a good sugaring season. Mr. Chris tells them how he learned to make syrup from his grandfather; he plans to teach Daddy how to tap his trees and will help him with his first harvest of sap. They work until sundown and hang 500 sap buckets.

Fritz arrives early the next morning to help Marly’s family prepare their maple trees. Afterward, they check on Mr. Chris’s buckets, which are already full of clear sap. The work invigorates Marly, and she feels like the sugaring season is the perfect beginning of spring. Daddy and the children help Mr. Chris work the fire late into the evening, and Marly treasures the peaceful time they have around the fire. However, early the next morning, Fritz arrives with bad news. Mr. Chris overworked himself and experienced numbness and paralysis in the middle of the night. He is on the way to the hospital in an ambulance. Marly sinks to the floor in shock and sadness.

Daddy, Mother, Marly, and Joe help Fritz collect the sap harvest since Mr. Chris is in the hospital. The next day, the children skip school to collect their family’s sap and then move on to Mr. Chris’s buckets. Marly works until she is exhausted, but when Fritz arrives, he reports no change in Mr. Chris’s condition. Daddy works tirelessly to mind the fire in the sugar house, even staying overnight to keep it going. They rise the next morning to start the process all over again. Though everyone is exhausted, the sight of neighbors helping each other brings Fritz joy. Chrissie has reported that Mr. Chris is showing some signs of improvement, but his heart is still enlarged. Either from sadness, exhaustion, or both, Marly begins to weep, and Joe scolds her for acting “just like a girl” (115). As their argument escalates, Mother tells them to stop fighting and focus on finishing the work for Mr. Chris. The children skip school for another day and develop a system for swiftly emptying the buckets into tanks that Fritz transports to the sugar house. Marly works hard to keep up with the men until they empty all the buckets. She rests in the sugar camp with Daddy as Mother serves them dinner. The coziness of the scene reminds her of why Mr. Chris loves the sugar house so much.

Fritz says Mr. Chris’s condition is unchanged, and they all return home hoping that the sap will not freeze overnight. Fritz tastes Daddy’s batch of syrup and declares it delicious, but they wonder if they should keep their batch separate from what Mr. Chris already made. That evening, Mother makes pancakes, and they eat them with the syrup Daddy cooked. That night Marly struggles to sleep as her mind is plagued with anxious, frightening thoughts. She thinks about how Mr. Chris taught her that it is natural for some things to die so that others might live. Once after their cat ate a bird and left the bones at the door, Mr. Chris said, “I guess you’re not going to eat any more drumsticks or any more eggs?” (120) However, she can’t think of one good thing that would come from Mr. Chris dying. The next day, they work tirelessly again, though everyone is exhausted. Fritz tries to get help from other neighbors, but everyone is busy collecting their own sap. At the end of the day, Fritz brings good news. Mr. Chris is well enough that Chrissie is coming home. Suddenly Marly’s buckets feel lighter, and that night she sleeps well for the first time in days.

Miss Annie Nelson, the school nurse and local truancy officer, visits Maple Hill to find out why Marly and Joe aren’t at school. Mother explains that the children are helping Mr. Chris, but school rules dictate that the children must attend school unless they’re sick. Miss Annie explains that her nickname is “Annie Get Your Gun” because, as she says, “Nobody gets away with playing hooky from my schools” (123). Miss Annie asks to go inside the sugar camp to get out of the cold. She examines the workings of the syrup production with great interest and asks Daddy many questions about how the syrup is made. When the syrup beings to bubble over, Daddy lets Joe do the cream trick, which amazes Annie. She tastes the syrup and agrees that it tastes like all the best parts of spring. Annie thinks that schoolchildren should learn about syrup production. She asks how people first discovered how to turn sap into syrup. Daddy explains what he’s learned from Mr. Chris, that it was first discovered by Indigenous people. Miss Annie declares that she will conduct research on the matter and in the meantime, the children will be excused from school to continue working in the sugarbush. After she leaves, the children are relieved, and Marly determines that it’s a miracle.

Later, Miss Annie phones the house and explains that she has spoken to the superintendent as well as to Marly and Joe’s teachers, and everyone agrees that the children can miss school to help with the sap collection. Moreover, Joe’s school is sending as many boys as are willing to help with the work. Marly thinks that the girls should be able to help as well, and Miss Annie agrees. She also reports that through her research, she has learned that the Indigenous peoples discovered sap by accident when a woman set a cooking pot near a tree and found it full of a clear liquid that they called “tree water” (128). The family also receives a phone call from Chrissie saying that Mr. Chris is doing much better. He writes a letter thanking the children for their help and declares it a miracle.

At the end of the sugaring season, Marly finds the first flower of spring blooming under a maple tree, which seems “to be a sign” (130). Finally, the day has come that Mr. Chris is well enough for a visit, and Marly takes a cake along with the flower in a pot. Though Mr. Chris is in bed and looks frail, he is still jovial and very happy to see Marly and her family. When she runs to hug him, she accidentally spills the flower and soil onto the bedsheet. Mr. Chris doesn’t mind, and Marly tells him about which flowers are starting to bloom. Mr. Chris is anxious to taste the syrup, but Daddy insists that it can’t be as good as the first batch Mr. Chris made. He explains that they kept their syrup separate from his, and they can inform the customers of the difference. Joe and Marly fight over who gets to bring up the heavy jug and must flip a coin. Joe wins the toss, but Marly helps by getting a cup and spoon. However, when Mr. Chris tastes the syrup, he proclaims that he can’t tell the difference between his batch and Daddy’s. It was a historic sugaring year for the entire state of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Chris declares that it is because Marly came to Maple Hill. Through the window, Marly can see the buds of spring, and she is thankful for another season of miracles.