Draw a good bow!" cried Appleyard. "Yes! But who'll shoot me a good

shoot? It's there the eye comes in, and the head between your shoulders.

Now, what might you call a long shoot, Bennet Hatch?"

Well," said Bennet, looking about him, "it would be a long shoot from

here into the forest."

"Ay, it would be a longish shoot," said the old fellow, turning to look

over his shoulder; and then he put up his hand over his eyes, and stood

staring.

"Why, what are you looking at?" asked Bennet, with a chuckle. "Do, you

see Harry the Fift?"

The veteran continued looking up the hill in silence. The sun shone

broadly over the shelving meadows; a few white sheep wandered browsing;

all was still but the distant jangle of the bell.

What is it, Appleyard?" asked Dick.

Why, the birds," said Appleyard.

And, sure enough, over the top of the forest, where it ran down in a

tongue among the meadows, and ended in a pair of goodly green elms, about

a bowshot from the field where they were standing, a flight of birds was

skimming to and fro, in evident disorder.

The Black Arrow