nature. Harry
looked, asked a question or two, took the bow in his own hands, and
with "This way, Eustace; don't you see?" had an arrow in the outer
white.

"Yes," said Eustace, "of course, stupid thing, anybody can do it
without any trouble."

"It is pretty work," said Harry, taking up the third arrow, and sending
it into the inner white.

"Much too easy for men," was Eustace's opinion, and he continued to
despise it until, being capable of perseverance of a certain kind, and
being tutored by Harold, he began to succeed in occasionally piercing
the target, upon which his mind changed, and he was continually singing
the praises of archery in the tone (whispered Viola) of the sparrow who
killed Cock Robin with his bow and arrow!

We used to practise for an hour every afternoon, and the fascination of
the sport gained upon Harold so much that he sent for a bow and arrows,
and shot with us whenever he was not too busy, as, between the agency
and the potteries, he often was. He did not join the club, nor come to
the weekly meetings at Northchester with Eustace and me, until, after
having seen a little of the shooting there, I privately hinted to him
that there was not the smallest chance of the champion belt changing
hands unless he took up the family cause. Whereupon, rather than that
Eustace should be disappointed, he did ask to be admitted, and came
once with us to the meeting, when, to tell the truth, he did not shoot
as well as usual, for--as afterwards appeared--in riding into
Northchester he had stopped to help to lift up a great tree that was
insecure on its timber waggon, and even his hands shook a little from
the exertion. Besides, Eustace had discovered that Harold's new bow
shot better than his, and had insisted on changing, and Harold had not
so proved the powers of Eustace's as to cure it of its inferiority.

Eustace really came to shooting so tolerably as to make him look on the
sport with complacency, and like the people he met there. All this
hardly seems worth telling, but events we little thought of sprang from
those archery practices. For the present we found them a great means
of getting acquainted with the neighbours. I bowed now to many more
people than ever I had done before, and we had come into great favour
since the Hydriots had astonished the county by announcing a dividend.
It was only three per cent., but that was an immense advance upon
nothing, and the promise of the future was gr