th.

It was glorious. At every twang away flew the arrow or the piece of
tobacco-pipe I used instead; and at last, after losing one shaft in the
short turf, I found myself beside the big pond over on the far side, one
that had the reputation of being full of great carp and eels.

My idea here was to shoot the fish, but as there were none visible to
shoot I had to be content with trying to hit the gliding spiders on the
surface with pieces of tobacco-pipe as long as they lasted, for I dared
not waste another arrow, and then with my mind full of adventures in
foreign countries I walked home.

The next afternoon my aunt went out, and I took the bow down the garden,
leaving my uncle enjoying his pipe. I had been very busy all that
morning, it being holiday time, in making some fresh arrows for a
purpose I had in view, and, so as to be humane, I had made the heads by
cutting off the tops of some old kid gloves, ramming their finger-ends
full of cotton-wool, and then tying them to the thin deal arrows, so
that each bolt had a head like a little soft leather ball.

"Those can't hurt him," I said to myself; and taking a dozen of these
bolts in my belt I went down the garden, with Buzzy at my heels, for a
good tiger-hunt.

For the next half-hour Streatham was nowhere, and that old-fashioned
garden with its fruit-trees had become changed into a wild jungle,
through which a gigantic tiger kept charging, whose doom I had fixed.
Shot after shot I had at the monster--once after it had bounded into the
fork of a tree, another time as it was stealing through the waving
reeds, represented by the asparagus bed. Later on, after much creeping
and stalking, with the tiger stalking me as well as springing out at me
again and again, but never getting quite home, I had a shot as it was
lurking beside the great lake, represented by our tank. Here its
striped sides were plainly visible, and, going down on hands and knees,
I crept along between two rows of terrible thorny trees that bore sweet
juicy berries in the season, but which were of the wildest nature now,
till I could get a good aim at the monster's shoulder, and see its soft
lithe tail twining and writhing like a snake.

I crept on, full of excitement, for a leafy plant that I refused to own
as a cabbage no longer intercepted my view. Then lying flat upon my
chest I fitted an arrow to my bow, and was cautiously taking aim,
telling myself that if I missed I should be seized by