Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/70

 something we did not expect to see up here in the woods. You bowmen are bully soldiers."

"Thank you," said Arthur, raising his hand to his hat in response to Tom's very slight nod. "There must be something in what you say, for every one who comes up here tells us the same. The truth is, we ought to be proficient. We have been under the strictest kind of a drill-master, and have done plenty of hard work since our organization two years ago."

"What first put the idea into your heads?" inquired Loren. "You got it out of your history, didn't you?"

"And if you did, why don't you dress up like Indians and adopt their system of tactics?" chimed in Tom, who for the moment forgot that he had resolved that he would not have a word to say to any of the bowmen. "I have read that the Sioux have a drill of their own which is so very bewildering that our best troops can't stand against it. It seems to me that you make hard work of something that might, under different management, be made to yield you any amount of pleasure."

"We are very well satisfied with the way