d get Preston to saw it up
into sticks one inch square and five and a quarter feet long. Then bring
them over here, and Stuart will show you how to make a bow. Stuart will
have a lot of pine and spruce sawed up for arrows, and you must get all
the goose and turkey feathers you can, and bring them over too, and he
will tell us about arrow-making. Now go and tell the rest of the boys,
and get your sassafras to Preston's as soon as you can. Perhaps we can
get ready to go out Saturday."

After school the next day six eager boys stood around Stuart as he took
a sassafras stick, and showed them how to make a hunting bow, talking as
he worked.

"Now look close, youngsters. First plane one side of the stick straight
and smooth. This is to be the 'back' of the bow, and mustn't be touched
again. Next mark the middle of the stick, and lay off four and a half
inches to one side for a handle. Then turn the stick on its back, and
plane away the 'belly' of the bow, tapering it truly from handle to
'tip.' Do the same to the sides, leaving each tip about three-eighths of
an inch square. Now take a file or a spokeshave, and round off the
'sides' and 'belly' carefully, taking care not to touch the 'back' of
the bow. There, the bow is in good shape, but it may not bend truly; so
file a notch with a small round file in each tip half an inch from each
extremity, running the groove straight across the 'back,' and slanting
it across the sides away from the tips toward the middle or handle of
the bow. Make a strong string of slack-twisted shoe-maker's thread, with
a loop in each end, so that when the string is put on the bow by
slipping the loops into the nocks, it will bend the bow so much that
the middle of the string is five inches from the handle. If the bow when
thus bent is too stiff in any spot, file it a little there till it bends
right; and when it finally bends truly from tip to tip, put on a piece
of plush for a handle, and smooth and polish your bow ready for
exhibition. There, Harry, that is your bow. Now one of you may go to
work at another stick, while I go and feather some arrows."

At it Henry went, eager and enthusiastic; but it was a bothersome job
for young and inexperienced hands. The stick would slip, and the plane
would stick, in spite of him, and his face grew very red and his eyes
very bright. With Stuart's aid, however, he finally completed a very
fair bow before dark, and when he had actually shot an arrow from it,