That afternoon Teddy saw his sister trying to do something with bits
of string and sticks in a shady spot on the porch.
"What are you making, Jan," he asked. "A cat's cradle?"
"Pooh! you don't make a cat's cradle with sticks," said the little
girl.
"Well, I thought maybe it was a new kind, or maybe a _kitten's_
cradle," laughed Teddy.
"Nope; it isn't that either," went on Janet, as she kept on twisting
the strings around the sticks.
"Well, what _are_ you making?"
"A bow and arrow."
"Ho! Ho!" laughed Jan's brother "You can't make a bow and arrow _that_
way. Anyhow you don't need a string for an arrow."
"I know _that_!" Jan said. "But I'm making the bow first, and then I'm
going to make the arrow. The arrow part is what you shoot, isn't it,
Ted?"
"Yes," he answered. "I'll help you, Jan. I didn't mean to laugh at
you," he went on, for he saw that Janet was very much in earnest
about what she was doing. "I know how to make a bow and arrows."
"Oh, please show me!" begged Janet. "I want to know how to shoot
like the Indians."
Teddy, however, did not have much better luck making the bow than
his sister had had. The trouble was that the sticks Janet had picked
up were not the right kind. They would not bend, and to make a bow
that shoots arrows a piece of wood that springs, or bends, is needed.
For it is the springy action of the wood that shoots the arrow on its
way.
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