nts; but next shoot day he was punctually on hand, carrying a
small paper parcel.

"Here's another prize," said he.

They opened it eagerly. It contained a large round leather disk to which
a safety pin had been sewn.

"That's for the one who makes the worst score," explained Grandpa Orde
chuckling.

Thenceforth the poor shots had an interest. If they could not hope to
compete with Bobby and Carter Irvine, at least they could try not to
stand at the bottom of the list. A new by-law was adopted, making
compulsory the conspicuous wearing of the leather medal.

As has been hinted, the supremacy generally lay between Bobby and
Carter. Johnny occasionally carried off all honours by a most brilliant
score; but the week following he was likely to escape the leather medal
only by the narrowest margin. The latter decoration was shared by his
sister and Grace Jones. Caroline English disliked firearms; and took
part in the contest only because she did not care to be left out. Both
she and Grace held the weapon directly in front of them, the two hands
clasped tight at the same point just behind the trigger-guard. May
Fowler, Walter and Morton "furnished packing," as Morton said, between
the leaders and the losers.

In this manner the children came to a thorough respect for the muzzle of
a gun; and a deep pride in handling a weapon in a safe and sportsmanlike
manner. By the time the snow and cold weather put a stop to the
shooting, each child would have been mortified and ashamed beyond words
to have been caught doing anything "like a greenhorn."

XV

THE UPPER ROOMS

On Mr. Orde's return from the woods, he was promptly called upon to
redeem his promise. He therefore, showed Bobby a few of the simpler
wrestler's tricks which Bobby adopted and brooded over in his manner.
The first game of robber and policeman thereafter, he tried one on
Johnny, but bungled it and got sat on harder than ever. Bobby's trouble
in the practice of such matters arose from the fact that he was too
analytical. Before an idea could become part of his make-up, he had to
revolve it over in his mind, examining it from all sides, understanding
the relations of its component parts, making the mechanism revolve
slowly, as it were, in order to comprehend all its correlations. This
analytical thought naturally made him, to a certain degree,
self-conscious in his movements. It destroyed the instinctive,
superconscious accuracy valuable in all games