The entrails
of the woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable
by rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but
afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used them,
properly dressed for the purpose.
Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a
true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with
shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even
Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was now
seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned from his
rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which are plentiful
at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass over in their
migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return thither for the
acorns and berries that are to be found in great abundance. Squirrels, too,
are very plentiful at this season. Hector and Louis remarked that the red
and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other.
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