CHAPTER IV.
THE MOUNT AIRY TOXOPHILITES.
LOREN and Ralph Farnsworth, in spite of Tom's predictions to the contrary, had no trouble in scraping an acquaintance with the first bowman they met. It was Arthur Hastings, the secretary of the company and one of the best shots in it. They drew his attention by touching their hats to him as he passed (that is, the brothers did, Tom being in too bad humor to be civil), and Arthur seeing that they desired to speak to him, stopped and opened the conversation himself.
"I know almost every stranger here this summer, but I don't remember to have seen you two before," said he, pulling off his white gloves and extending a hand to each of them.
"We came on the early morning train," replied Ralph. " We were just in time to witness your parade, which I assure you was 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 our affairs are managed," answered Arthur, who did not quite like the tone in which Tom uttered these words. "You must know that we are not copying the aborigines, but the Merry Bowmen of Robin Hood's time. Of course we have to work, for if we didn't we couldn't give exhibition drills; but somehow we see plenty of fun with it all. The idea was suggested to us, not by our histories, but by an old man who lives up here in the woods," added Arthur, turning to Loren, at the same time jerking his thumb over his shoulder and nodding his head toward an indefinite point of the compass. If he intended by these motions to give his auditors an idea of the direction in which the old man referred to lived, he failed completely. "He has seen better days. He used to belong to an archery club in his own country—that's England, you know—and I tell you he is a boss shot. He makes a very good living with his bow now; but he is so much ashamed of the accomplishment—"
"Excuse me," interrupted Loren. "I don't see why he should be ashamed of it."
"Neither do I," said Arthur. "But you see, there are very few people in this country who take any interest in archery, and sportsmen, as a general thing, look upon the long bow as a toy; but they always change their minds when they see what it can be made to do in the hands of an expert. Now take those two boys, for example," added Arthur, directing Loren's attention to the master bowman and his bugler. "It isn't every rifle shot who can break as many glass balls in the air as they can."
"Who are they?" inquired Tom. "We noticed them particularly during the drill."
"They are Wayring and Sheldon. Would you like to know them? They're good fellows."
Arthur looked at Tom as he said this, but Tom didn't act as though he heard him. He wasn't anxious to make the acquaintance of boys who could beat him at any thing, but his cousins were not so mean spirited.
"Certainly we would," replied Ralph. "It looks now as though we were coming here to live; and if we do, we should like to know something about the boys into whose company we shall be thrown."
It would seem from this that Ralph took it for granted that he and his brother and cousin would get into the company without the least trouble, and he was somewhat surprised because Arthur did not offer to take in their names at the very next meeting; but he did not even ask them what their names were. He led them to the place where the master bowman and his bugler were standing in the midst of a party of their friends, and, as soon as the opportunity was presented, introduced them as visitors who thought it possible that they might one day become permanent residents of the village. Then he excused himself and went off to hunt up one of the girls with green and white badges, who were carrying little buckets of lemonade around among the thirsty firemen and soldiers.
Tom and his cousins found the young archers to be very pleasant and agreeable fellows, but a trifle too independent to suit them. They did not seem to think that Tom was better than any other boy because his father was a banker, and owned a yacht in which he talked of going to Florida during the coming winter, and neither did they ask him and his cousins to step 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 the same conclusion. So did their fathers and mothers; and so it came about that a couple of Mr. Wayring's handsome cottages, on the other side of the lake, were rented until such time as Mr. Farnsworth and his brother-in-law could erect houses on the grounds they had leased in the village.
Tom and his cousins lost no time in getting ready to enjoy themselves. Before another week had passed away, they had the finest sail and row boats, and the most expensive canoes on the lake; and in anticipation of their immediate admittance to the ranks of the Toxophilites, they sent for a supply of bows and arrows and ordered uniforms of their tailor. But the old saying, that there's many a slip, held good in their case; and this was the way they found it out:
One afternoon they and their parents were invited to a lawn party, at which the Toxophilites, girls as well as boys, appeared in force and in uniform, the girls wearing white dresses, green sashes and badges, and light straw hats, turned up at the side and fastened by a tiny silver arrow, which, at the same time, held in place the long black plume of the company. Tom declared that they looked stunning; and when he saw how they sent their arrows into the target, hitting the gold almost as often as they missed it, and played croquet and skipped about the lawn tennis ground, he added that he had never been to such a party before, nor seen handsomer girls. He was going to apply for admission to the club, and he wasn't going to waste any time in doing it, either. With this object in view, he hurried off to find Arthur Hastings.
"I don't wonder that you fellows are happy here," was the way in which he began the conversation.
"Yes, I suppose we see as much pleasure as falls to the lot of most people," answered Arthur, "but we have any amount of hard work as well."
"I never see you do any," said Tom.
"That's because you are not acquainted with us or our ways. I drilled until after ten o'clock last night, and spent this forenoon in working in the garden and wrestling with my geometry; getting ready for next term you know."
"Do you study and work during vacation?" exclaimed Tom, who had never heard of such a piece of foolishness before.
"Of course I do; we all do."
'Tm glad that I haven't such parents as you seem to have," said Tom, rudely.
"Our parents have nothing whatever to do with it. It's the rule of the company."
"That you shall work during vacation?" cried Tom.
"That we shall keep busy at something—yes. We are told that an idle brain is the workshop of a certain old chap who shall be nameless, but we go further, and hold that there is no such thing as an idle brain. It is at work all the time during our waking hours, and sometimes when we are asleep—dreams, you know—and if it is not busy with good things, it is ready to take in bad ones. Have you seen any boys loafing around the corners since you have been here? Then you can bet your bottom dollar that they didn't belong to us."
"Well, when I get to be a member of the company, I shall vote down all such rules as that," said Tom to himself. "A fellow needs a little time to be lazy, and I shall take it, too, without asking any body's consent." Then aloud he asked, as if the thought had just occurred to him: "By the way, when do you hold your next meeting?"
"Thursday night."
"Well, take in our names, will you Mine and my cousins'."
"I should be glad to oblige you, but I can't do it."
"You can't do it?" said Tom, who was angry in an instant. "Why not, I'd like to know?"
"There are two reasons. In the first place, you have not been here long enough—we don't know any thing about you."
"If that isn't a little ahead of anything I ever heard of I wouldn't say so!" exclaimed Tom, as soon as his rage would permit him to speak. "My father is—"
"We don't care who or what your father is; we must know what you are. In the second place, our membership is limited, and the boys' roster is full."
"Couldn't you suspend the rules for once?"
"That's no rule. It is a part of the constitution."
"Well, couldn't you amend it?"
"No, we couldn't. It has been tried in the case of one of the best fellows in town—or, rather, he was one of the best until he found that he couldn't wind eighty boys and girls around his finger, and then he turned against us and stands ready to-day to do us all the harm he can."
"And you will find, to your cost, that my cousins and I will do the same thing," thought Tom, and it was all he could do to keep from uttering the words aloud. "Things have come to a pretty pass when a lot of Yahoos can make gentlemen knuckle to them. Who is this boy?"
"His name is Prime; but I tell you, as a friend, that you must not have any thing to do with him if you want to get into the company. There are half a dozen of our fellows going away this fall, and then, if you feel like it, you can make a try for membership. Perhaps I shall be able to help you to the extent of one vote, though I can't promise to do so."
"How about the yacht and canoe clubs?" said Tom, with something like a sneer in his tones. "No doubt they are full, too."
"Oh, no, they're not. Any good fellow who owns a boat or who intends to get one, can come in there. Are you and your cousins good swimmers Then why don't you join us and enter for the up-set race that will come off next month."
"I don't know what kind of a race that is."
"It'll not take long to tell you. You see the contestants come out clad in some light stuff that won't hold much water, and when they are well started in the race, a signal is given, generally the blast of a bugle, whereupon each fellow must overturn his boat, climb into her again and go ahead as if nothing had happened. The one who crosses the line first, is of course the winner."
"Who among you is the best at that kind of a race?"
"Well," replied Arthur, with some hesitation, "it is nip and tuck between Wayring, Sheldon and me."
"I expected as much," said Tom, to himself. "Wayring, Sheldon and Hastings are better than the rest at every thing. I shall enter for that or some other race, and if I don't take the conceit out of all of you, I shall never forgive myself. Then it would not be of any use for me to try to get into the Toxophilites?" he said, aloud.
"Not the slightest. I'll tip you the wink when there is an opening, and you can apply or not, just as you think best. We never ask any body to join us."
"But you asked me to join the canoe and yacht clubs."
"I know it, and I had a right to. The three organizations are governed by entirely different rules. There's the bugle," said Arthur, catching up his bow which lay on the rustic bench on which he and Tom had been sitting during this conversation. "I must go and shoot as soon as I can find my girl. Come on, and see us punch the gold three times out of five."
"I can't," replied Tom. "I must hunt up the hostess, tell her I have had a very pleasant time and all that, and bid her good-by. I have another engagement."
This was not quite in accordance with the facts of the case. Tom had no other engagement, but he wanted to go off by himself, or in company with Loren and Ralph, and give full vent to his feelings of disappointment and rage. He shook his fist at Arthur when the latter turned his back and hurried away, and it would have afforded him infinite satisfaction if he could have followed him up and knocked him down. He found his cousins after a while, and although they stood in the midst of a jolly group and were laughing gaily, and appeared to be enjoying themselves, Tom was well enough acquainted with them to tell at a glance that they were as angry as he was.
"Sorry to break in upon so pleasant a gathering as this one seems to be," said Tom, approaching the group, one of whom was the young lady in whose honor the party was given, "but our time is up."
"Why, Mr. Bigden, you don't mean to say that you are going away so soon, and before supper, too?" exclaimed the young lady, who looked so charming in her neat uniform that Tom had half a mind to go back and pound Arthur Hastings for telling him that he couldn't become a Toxophilite at once.
"Must—can't be helped," answered Tom, giving his cousins a look which they understood. "We are indebted to you for a very pleasant afternoon, Miss Arden."
"I don't believe you have enjoyed yourselves one bit," exclaimed the fair archer. "If you have, why do you go away so early? The next time you attend one of our lawn parties, be sure and arrange your business so that your other engagements can wait."
After a little more badinage of this sort, Tom and his cousins lifted their hats and walked off. As soon as the front gate had closed behind them, the expression on their faces changed as if by magic, and the three boys turned toward one another with clenched lists and flashing eyes. After each one had glared savagely at his neighbor as if he were going to strike him, they all put their hands in their pockets and moved away. Tom was the first to speak.
"Now that I look back at it, I don't see how I kept my hands off that Hastings boy while he was talking so insolently to me," said Tom. "He told me that he didn't care who or what my father was, but I couldn't get into the archery club, and that was all there was about it. They must stick to their constitution, no matter if the world goes to pieces on account of their obstinacy. He asked me to join the canoe and yacht clubs, but said they never asked any body to apply for admission to the Toxophilites."
"I guess Ralph and I know just what he said to you first and last," remarked Loren, "for Sheldon talked to us in about the same way. We are going to enter for the upset race."
"I thought you would," answered Tom, "and so I made up my mind to go in too. We'll make it our business to see that neither Sheldon nor Wayring wins that or any other race. If we find that we can't beat them by fair means, and I have an idea that I can paddle a boat about as fast as the next boy, although I never got into one until last week, we'll foul them, and sink their boats so deep that they will never come up again."
"Loren and I talked that matter over, and resolved upon the same thing," said Ralph. "Did Hastings tell you any thing about a George Prime who is down on them because they would not take his name before the Toxophilites? Sheldon told us to give him a wide berth, but Loren and I thought we would do as we pleased about that."
"That's just what I thought," answered Tom. "I think it would be a good plan to hunt him up the very first thing we do. If he has reason to dislike Wayring and his friends, we might induce him to strike hands with us."
"That was our idea," said Ralph. "It can't be possible that Prime is the only boy in this village who does not like Wayring and the rest, and if we find them to be the right sort, and can raise enough of them, what's the reason we can't get up a club of our own?"
"That's another idea," said Tom, who was delighted with it. "I wish I had thought to ask Hastings where Prime lives."
"I know where his father's drug-store is, for I saw the sign over the door," said Loren. "Let's go down there and get a cigar, and trust to our wits to learn something about him."
The others agreeing to this proposition, Loren led the way to the drug-store, and the three stopped in front of the show-case near the door in which the cigars were kept.
"That's Prime, and I know it," whispered Tom, as a dashing young fellow, who was seated at the further end of the store reading a paper, came up to attend to their wants. "He looks to me like a chap who isn't in the habit of allowing himself to be imposed upon, and that's the sort we want to run with."
"See-gahs? Yes, sir," said the clerk. "Being from the city, you want the best, of course. There you are, sir. Genuine imported."
"How do you know that we are from the city?" inquired Loren, as he made a selection from the box that was placed on the show-case.
"Because I was a city boy myself, until father took it into his head that he wanted to spend a summer at Mount Airy," replied the clerk. "That was a bad move for me, for we have been here ever since. Besides, in a little place like this, every body knows more about your business than you do yourself. I know who you are, and where you came from, and all about it."
"Then it was a bad change for you, was it?" said Ralph. "You don't like to live here? Neither do we."
"I don't blame you," said the clerk. "Wait until you get acquainted with some of these old-timers and find out what an exclusive lot they are, and you will dislike it worse than you do now. There are a few of them, especially the Toxophilites, as they call themselves, who try to monopolize all the fun there is going."
"Why don't you join them?" asked Tom.
"Because they won't let me—that's why."
"Then you must be George Prime."
"That's my name, and you are Tom Bigden, and you two are Loren and Ralph Farnsworth."
"You've hit it," answered Tom. "They wouldn't take us in either. They told us so not more than an hour ago. Why didn't you go to the party?"
"Because they didn't invite me," said Prime, angrily. "I don't get invitations to any thing any more. I showed rather too much spirit to suit them, and so they dropped me."
"Probably they will do the same by us," said Loren. "We have always been in the habit of doing as we pleased, and we don't intend to change our mode of life for the sake of getting into an archery club that makes its members drill until ten o'clock when they might see more fun in playing billiards. There will be some vacancies this fall, and then we shall make another attempt to get in."
"Is that what you have made up your minds to? Well, now, look here." As Prime said this, he came out from behind the counter and stood in the open door, looking up and down the street. "You must begin by doing your smoking in secret," he continued, as he came back and motioned to the boys to follow him toward the rear of the store.
"Do you mean to say that the Toxophilites look with disfavor upon a good cigar?" demanded Tom.
"I do, indeed. You mustn't use tobacco in any form, and you must be temperate in all things—in eating, drinking and talking. They'll fine you if you use any language while you are out with your companions, that you wouldn't use if your mother or sister was present. Now sit down here, and if you see any body coming, you can put your cigars out of sight."
"But we don't know all the members of the club," said Loren.
"No difference. Don't let any one see you with a weed in your mouth. If you do, good-by to all your chances of being a Toxophilite."
"Why, it's the meanest little town I ever heard of!" exclaimed Ralph, who was greatly surprised as well as disgusted. "I didn't suppose that there were any such boys in this wicked world. I thought they all lived in Utopia."
"So did I, until I found some of them right here in Mount Airy," answered Prime. "The girls are at the bottom of it—you know that they are never easy unless they are kicking up a row of some kind—and if I had been a member of the club when it was organized, wouldn't I have worked hard to keep them out? I was very anxious to get into it once, but I don't believe I care to be one of them now."
Tom and his cousins began to feel the same way.