School in Ettrick was held in the parish church. As such, John had been able to make a name for himself as the peddler of tree sap to schoolchildren of all ages in and around the village. He fancied himself as a sort of pied piper to the rest of the students – not particularly physically impressive, but cunning and calculating. The teachers disliked him at first, as other students seemed to pay more attention to John than they did their studies. But through the consistent effort he made inside and out of the classroom, they eventually turned a blind eye to John's ventures.
Every day, John would shuffle home with his two mason jars – one filled with pennies, and the other empty and sticky. His rattling often spooked the grazing sheep he passed on his way back to the valley house. The sheep learned to give him a wide berth. 'Ooh here comes that Johnny-boy with his jar full of pennies, better move out of the way' John fancied the sheep warbling to each other as he hobbled by.
The real obstacle was getting inside the house without his mother hearing the jingling money in his pocket. It was her custom to nitpick John's appearance upon his return home. If it wasn't his clothes that were dirty, it was his posture, his attitude, his sour face – he wasn't ever what his mother deemed 'perfect. '
John's room, shared with Catrina, was in the loft just above the kitchen. Only accessible by a ladder, John took extra care to ascend slowly lest the sounds of coin in his pocket should betray his capitalistic enterprise. Once in the safety of the loft, which his mother refused to visit on account of the ladder, John would count his earnings of the day – which was notably less and less as his resources slowly ran dry. There were only so many trees to be picked at in the small forest. However, with today's profits, John totaled a sum of seven pounds sterling. Despite his hoarded pennies, the boy wasn't after anything in particular. There was a simple joy that swelled his chest with pride to look upon his jars of wealth. He liked that. But more so, he enjoyed the effect he was had on the other children. His jar of sap was famous, and the looks of excitement on the faces of his patrons as he handed out the fragments were an unrivalled source of happiness. He wouldn't let his mother take it away from him.
Perhaps it was his leg, or his fraternizing with Jamie, or his above average performance in school, but it seemed to John that his mother resented him. He would often speak with Jamie about this.
"If she thinks you're a cripple then she's a screwball." Jamie would say, "You got more brains than any of the sheep herders in this town I'll tell you that. More 'an me even."
"But you told me about the sap." John replied.
"Yeah but you made something out of it. You have a head on your shoulder Johnny-boy."
As things stood, John was fast running out of material. The trees near Ettrick Water were the healthiest and gave off the sweetest sap. But as the weather grew colder, the sap became hard and impossibly stuck to the tree bark. Washing his jar out in the river, John proceeded with his collecting. At times, it became difficult not to be distracted by the myriad of bugs that made their homes in the soggy lowlands, but he stuck dutifully to his task and kept mining.
Using a spoon, John used his weight as leverage to pull the sap from the tree. With the force, the sap would lift free and he would pluck it from the tree with his fingers. He turned it over in his hands a few times. He frowned as he looked upon his find – there was a bug stuck in the sap. No one would want to eat that. He tossed it over his shoulder with a sigh.
"Is that why my brother is sick?"
John whirled around at the voice. An older boy stood scowling, his hands in his pockets. Behind him were two other boys. "What?" John asked.
"My brother." The boy repeated, "He's been buying that boggin' crap from you every week and now he's sick. And I think it's cause you don't know what a dirty bug looks like." John got to his feet, brushing the mud from his legs.
"Now listen. I make sure that my sap is free of all –" The older boy advanced on John and yanked him by the collar of his jacket.
"If I were you, I'd stop your little candy store fantasy and stay with yer mum like the cripple you are." Before John could react, he found himself waist deep in mud and water with a bloody nose, his hat in the river, and his mason jars smashed.
John stopped selling sap after that.