"Me for the bushes," he cried. "Language fails me; I'll have to make a bow and arrow."
"It's the easiest way," nodded Tom. "Bring me a switch and I'll make the arrow while you make the bow."
"Who's got a piece of string?" inquired Roger a few minutes later as he held up his handiwork for the admiration of his friends,
James produced the necessary string and Roger strung the bow.
"Now, then, let's see what it will do," he said.
Adjusting the arrow he drew the cord and sent the simple shaft whizzing through the air against a tree where it stuck in the bark for an instant before it fell to the ground.
"Do you think it's safe for Dicky to have an arrow as sharp as that?" inquired Helen.
"That's not sharp enough to do any damage. It didn't hold in the tree."
Dicky was delighted with his new toy and went off to test its power, followed by Elisabeth of Belgium, Sheila, Luigi and Pietro Paterno, Olga Peterson and Vasili and Vladimir Vereshchagin. The romper-clad band stirred the amused smiles of the elders watching them.
"They certainly are the cunningest little dinks that ever happened!" cried Ethel Brown, establishing herself comfortably to help make small bows and arrows for the rest of the flock.