Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/74

 up to the armory when they fell into ranks and marched up to put away their bows and quivers. They left them standing in the park, as they did scores of others who had been talking to them, and that was a slight that Tom said he would not soon forget.

"You are altogether too touchy," said Loren, with some impatience in his tones. "You appear to think that every boy who lives outside the city limits must, of necessity, be a greenhorn. These fellows know as much about New London as we do."

"When I become a member of that company, I shall use my best endeavors to bring about a different state of affairs," said Tom, decidedly. "If they are taking pattern after Robin Hood, why don't they pass their time as he and his men did, lounging about in the greenwood under the shade of the trees, instead of parading through the streets on a hot day like this? I don't see any fun in that."

Nevertheless, before he had passed a week in Mount Airy, Tom Bigden decided that it was just such a place as he had always thought he should like to live in, and his cousins came to