my bow and two arrows are finished; so if
you're ready we had better turn in."

By this time Peterkin had thinned down his spear and tied an iron point
very cleverly to the end of it; I had formed a sling, the lines of which
were composed of thin strips of the cocoa-nut cloth, plaited; and Jack
had made a stout bow, nearly five feet long, with two arrows, feathered
with two or three large plumes which some bird had dropt. They had no
barbs, but Jack said that if arrows were well feathered, they did not
require iron points, but would fly quite well if merely sharpened at the
point; which I did not know before.

"A feathered arrow without a barb," said he, "is a good weapon, but a
barbed arrow without feathers is utterly useless."

The string of the bow was formed of our piece of whip-cord, part of
which, as he did not like to cut it, was rolled round the bow.

Although thus prepared for a start on the morrow, we thought it wise to
exercise ourselves a little in the use of our weapons before starting, so
we spent the whole of the next day in practising. And it was well we did
so, for we found that our arms were very imperfect, and that we were far
from perfect in the use of them. First, Jack found that the bow was much
too strong, and he had to thin it. Also the spear was much too heavy,
and so had to be reduced in thickness, although nothing would induce
Peterkin to have it shortened. My sling answered very well, but I had
fallen so much out of practice that my first stone knocked off Peterkin's
hat, and narrowly missed making a second Goliath of him. However, after
having spent the whole day in diligent practice, we began to find some of
our former expertness returning--at least Jack and I did. As for
Peterkin, being naturally a neat-handed boy, he soon handled his spear
well, and could run full tilt at a cocoa nut, and hit it with great
precision once out of every five times.

But I feel satisfied that we owed much of our rapid success to the
unflagging energy of Jack, who insisted that, since we had made him
Captain, we should obey him; and he kept us at work from morning till
night, perseveringly, at the same thing. Peterkin wished very much to
run about and stick his spear into everything he passed; but Jack put up
a cocoa nut, and would not let him leave off running at that for a
moment, except when he wanted to rest. We laughed at Jack for this, but
we were both convinced that it did us much good.