5.  A very elaborate drill-socket; it is made of tulip wood, carved to represent the Thunderbird.  It has eyes of green felspar cemented in with resin.  On the under side (5a) is seen, in the middle, a soapstone socket let into the wood and fastened with pine gum, and on the head a hole kept filled with grease, to grease the top of the drill before use.

6.  The drill, 12 to 18 inches long and about 3/4 of an inch thick; it is roughly 8-sided so the thong will not slip, pointed at each end.  The best wood for the drill is old, dry, brash, but not punky balsam fir or cotton-wood roots; but basswood, white cedar, red cedar, tamarack, and sometimes even white pine, will do.

7.  Fire-board or block, about 3/4 of an inch thick and any length handy; a is notch with pit just below shows the pit after once using and in good trim for a second time; c shows the pit bored through and useless; the notch is 1/2 inch wide and 3/4 inch deep.

8.  Shows the way of using the sticks.  The block (a) is held down with one foot, the end of the drill in the pit, the drill-socket (c) is held on top in left hand, one end of the bow (d) is held in the right hand the bow is drawn back and forth.

9.  Is a little wooden fire-pan, not essential but convenient; its thin edge is put under the notch to catch the powder that falls.

IX

The Bows and Arrows

“I don’t think much of your artillery,” said Yan one day as they were shooting in the orchard with Sam’s “Western outfit.”  “It’s about like the first one I made when I was young.”

“Well, grandpa, let’s see your up-to-date make?”

“It’d be about five times as strong, for one thing.”

“You couldn’t pull it.”

“Not the way you hold the arrow!  But last winter I got a book about archery from the library and learned something worth while.  You pinch the arrow that way and you can draw six or eight pounds, maybe, but you hook your fingers in the string—­so—­and you can draw five times as much, and that’s the right way to shoot.”

“Feels mighty clumsy,” said Sam, trying it.

“Of course it does at first, and you have to have a deep notch in the arrow or you can’t do it at all.”

“You don’t seem to manage any better than I do.”

“First time I ever had a chance to try since I read about it.  But I want to make a first-class bow and a lot of arrows.  It’s not much good going with one.”

[Illustration:  The Archer’s Grip]

“Well, go ahead an’ make an outfit if you know how.  What’s the best wood?  Did the book tell you that?”

“The best wood is Spanish Yew.”

“Don’t know it.”

“An’ the next is Oregon Yew.”

“Nope.”

“Then Lancewood and Osage Orange.”

’Try again.”

“Well, Red Cedar, Apple tree, Hickory and Elm seem to be the only ones that grow around here.”