ound that the dressing was nothing but knocking
off any rough lumps with a chisel. I remember every bit of it. And every
time I look at dishes I think there are ever so many things we use every
day and don't know anything about.

ARCHERY FOR BOYS.

Mr. Maurice Thompson has excited all the grown-up boys who loved in their
younger days to draw the bow, by his graceful articles on archery for
young men and women.

[Illustration: Fig. A.]

I want to tell the boys who are wide awake how they may, without too much
labor and with but little expense, make their own bows and arrows and
targets, having _their_ fun, like their elders, in this health-giving and
graceful recreation.

In the first place, after you have made your implements for the sport,
you must never shoot at or towards anyone; nor must you ever shoot
directly upwards. In the one case you may maim some one for life, and in
the other you may put out your own eye as an acquaintance of the writer's
once did in Virginia.

To make a bow take a piece of any tough, elastic wood, as cedar, ash,
sassafras or hickory, well-seasoned, about your own length. Trim it so as
to taper gradually from the centre to the ends, keeping it flat, at
first, until you have it as in this sketch--for a boy, say, five feet in
height: (Fig. A)

This represents a bow five feet long, one and a quarter inches broad in
the middle, three-fourths of an inch thick at the centre, and a half-inch
scant at the ends in breadth and thickness.

Bend the bow across your knee, pulling back both ends, one in each hand,
the centre against your knee, and see whether it is easily bent, and
whether it springs readily back to its original position. If so your bow
is about the right size. Cut near each end the notch for the string as in
this figure: (Fig. B.)

[Illustration: Fig. B.]

Bevel the side of the bow which is to be held towards you, so that a
section of your bow will look like this figure: (Fig. C.)

[Illustration: Fig. C.]

The back or flat part is held from you in shooting, and the bevelled or
rounded part towards you. Scrape the bow with glass and smooth it with
sand-paper.

To shape your bow lay it on a stout, flat piece of timber, and drive five
ten-penny nails in the timber, one at the centre of your bow, and the
others as in figure below, so as to bend the ends for about six inches in
a direction contrary to the direction in which you draw the bow: (Fig.
D.)

[Illustratio