"Well, grandpa, let's see your up-to-date make?"
"It'd be about five times as strong, for one thing."
"You couldn't pull it."
"Not the way you hold the arrow! But last winter I got a book about archery from the library and learned something worth while. You pinch the arrow that way and you can draw six or eight pounds, maybe, but you hook your fingers in the string—so—and you can draw five times as much, and that's the right way to shoot."
"Feels mighty clumsy," said Sam, trying it.
"Of course it does at first, and you have to have a deep notch in the arrow or you can't do it at all."
"You don't seem to manage any better than I do."
"First time I ever had a chance to try since I read about it. But I want to make a first-class bow and a lot of arrows. It's not much good going with one."
[177] "Well, go ahead an' make an outfit if you know how. What's the best wood? Did the book tell you that?"