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Enjoying a good breakfast, Molly marvels at Fibber’s appetite, and jokes about points in butter rationing. When the maple syrup runs dry, Fibber is bent on making his own from his own maple trees. Molly warns him this is the wrong time of year to tap maple trees for brewing syrup. Beulah is called on with a more practical solution. Go to the grocery store to get syrup. What kind of containers do they have to catch the syrup? Billy Mills plays, Cheek to Cheek.
Fibber thinks he ought to find a couple barrels, and phones Mirt the operator. How’s every little thing? Fibber learns about the corn trouble her grandfather has. Alice Darling arrives to check on her phone calls, and learns about Fibber’s old vaudeville act. Harlowe Wilcox arrives to turn talk of boyfriends and maple trees to the National War Fund, rather than to the sponsor.
Doc Gamble pops in, but can’t stay long since he has a maternity case waiting. He tells Harlowe how he operates and makes his patients think he’s wonderful. Will the doc and Harlowe stick around to see how Fibber operates on removing sap from a tree? The Kingsmen sing, the Trolly Song.
Worried about the tree, Alice, Doc, and Harlowe go outside to witness Fibber’s exploits. Will the tree need an anesthetic before the drilling begins? Will the spurt of sap gush out as strongly as Fibber claims? The trickle of raw sap is far from the yummy taste of maple syrup, but there’s one other mistake Fibber made.
Note: Molly is right about tapping maple trees. The sap is always there, but it flows from the roots to the tree in early spring, or about February to March. This time of year, all the sap has already flowed out of the tree, causing leaves to fall off with the sap in the roots. Even if It were the right time of year, the raw sap has to be processed by boiling it down in a solution of sugar and water, and monitored as it begins its slow process into something recognizable as syrup.
