There were two members of our company whose proud souls could not brook this treatment, and they determined that they would give these impudent fellows a taste of their quality. They followed the young men a little way, and then ran up a low bank on the side of the road. There they fitted arrows to their bows, and prepared to shoot at the fellows who had insulted them.
As soon as the rest of us saw what our companions proposed to do, we hurried to them, and urged them to come down and let the young men alone; it would not do to rouse the anger of such fellows, who looked as if they might be very rough customers if they chose to be. But our bold companions were not to be restrained; their souls chafed under their injuries, and before we could stop them, each had drawn an arrow to its head and let it fly at the young men, who were now barely within range. One of the arrows struck its mark, and the other fell near by.
Instantly the enemy stopped and turned, and beholding the two boys standing on the bank with their bows in their hands, had no reason to ask who had shot at them. But instead of hurrying away to avoid another discharge of arrows from these bold archers, the young men made use of some very violent language, and without the slightest hesitation ran towards the two boys, who turned and fled across a field.
The chase was short, for the young men were powerful runners. The valiant archers were caught by the collars of their blue uniforms, their bows were wrenched from their hands, and the next moment each one of them was receiving a sound drubbing with his own weapons. The arrows which they had in their belts were taken and broken, and they were told in very strong language that if they did not get out of sight as fast as they could they would have another whipping. This advice was taken, and the disarmed archers fled.
All this happened so quickly that the other members of the Ringgold Archers had no chance to do anything in defence of their comrades, even if they had felt able. But now we perceived that we must do something to defend ourselves, for the young men—still speaking angrily—advanced towards us. We stood our ground, for we had seen that there was no use in running; and, besides, why should we run? We had done no wrong to any one.
The young men jumped down from the bank, and without delay or explanation ordered all of us to surrender our arms. To this we vehemently objected. We had committed no offence towards them; we had even advised our comrades to refrain from their attack, and there was no reason why we should give up our bows and arrows. But the young men were in no mood to consider reasons. They seized our bows, forced them from our hands, and jerked our arrows from our belts. I can remember now how stoutly I held on to my bow, and how soon I became convinced of the superiority of a man's strength over that of a boy.
Our disarmament was complete; not a bow or arrow was left to us. We continued to expostulate against the injustice that had been done to us, but the two fellows paid not the slightest attention to our words. Pleased with their easy victory, they began to amuse themselves. Standing at a little distance from us, they discharged our arrows at various marks. They were miserable shots, and could not hit anything, and so, on concluding that this was no fun, they shot our arrows far and wide into the thickets, where it would be almost impossible to find them again.
This exercise seemed to dissipate their anger, and when the arrows were all gone they came to us and threw all our bows on the ground.
"There!" said one of them. "You can take them and go home with them, and the best thing you can do is to give up coming out here with your bows and arrows and stick to your charcoal!"
Sadly the Ringgold Archers resumed their homeward march, and it was not long before they were joined by their two comrades, who had been hiding in the bushes. Some of us were inclined to give the young scamps another whipping for getting us into such a scrape, and we were the more angry because they did not seem in the least sorry for what they had done; but finally the matter was smoothed over, and we marched peaceably on together.