ts
and imparted to many some portion of his own devotion to the immemorial
implement he may be said to have, in this country and among its white
inhabitants, reinvented. Seated in our easy-chair, we follow him gayly and
untiringly into the depths of the woods, drink in the rich, cool, damp
air, and revel in the primeval silence that is only broken by the twang of
the bowstring or the call of its destined victim. We enjoy his marvellous
shots with some little infusion of envy, and his exemplary patience under
ill-success and repeated failure with perhaps more. We end, like his
"Cracker" friend, with respecting sincerely the "bow-and-arrers" we were
at first disposed to view with amused contempt; and we close the book with
an unqualified recognition of the value of the bow as a means of athletic
training--a healthful recreation for those who have difficulty in finding
such means.

This ancient weapon of war and the chase, which has won so many battles
and conquered so many kingdoms, has since the introduction of gunpowder
been too readily allowed to sink into a plaything for boys. They retain
something of a passion for it. Many can remember when they were wont to
select the choicest splits of heart-hickory from the wood-pile, lay them
aside to season, and then shape them, or have them shaped by stronger and
defter hands, into the four-foot bow, equivalent to the six-foot bow of
the man. The arrows were harder to get in any satisfactory quantity, for
they were rapidly shot away, and they were hard to properly point and
scientifically feather. The processes were altogether too abstruse to come
out well from homemade work in boyish hands. So the results were not
usually brilliant, being confined to the destruction of a few sparrows,
the breaking of some windows and the serious maltreatment of the family
cat. Such achievements did not commend themselves to parents, and archery
rested under a cloud from which it failed to emerge as the youthful
practitioners grew up. It retained its charm for them in books, however.
The visit of Peter Parley to Wampum was the most delightful part of that
historian's works; and Robin Hood and William Tell earned a yearning and
trustful admiration which refuses to yield to the criticisms employed in
reducing those characters to myths--triumphs of the "long-bow" in another
sense. And here we are reminded that Mr. Thompson's affection is lavished
wholly on the long-bow. The cross-bow, a weapon whic