Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/175

the new bow, Sequanawah teaching. There was much to learn. First, the cord must be of the right tension, and, since it was of rawhide, it seemed never twice the same. Then the arrow must be chosen with a view to both distance and conditions of air. With a hard wind blowing across the course of the flight, a heavy arrow was needed, and so when the distance was great; and to that end the missiles that Sequanawah had provided varied both in length, thickness, and head. There was, it appeared, both a right way and a wrong way to draw the bow; or, rather, there was one right way and several wrong ways; and for a time David found only the latter. At first the boy felt embarrassment because of the audience that gathered, for all the old men of the village as well as many of the younger stood by and discussed each shot. But before long he became accustomed to them and minded not their grunts of disapproval or their guttural words of approbation. It was soon evidenced to him that his tutor was one of the tribe’s most skillful handlers of the bow. This he could tell both from the marvelous shots that Sequanawah made and from the evident respect paid him by the others. He was a stern yet patient