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Updated: June 5, 2025
His own room had to be aired a great deal in all weathers, and so that would not do at all. The wall above the kitchen fireplace would be a good location, for the chimney was nearly always warm. But Pepton could not bring himself to keep his bow in the kitchen. There would be nothing esthetic about such a disposition of it, and, besides, the girl might be tempted to string and bend it.
The most objectionable person in our club was O. J. Hollingsworth. He was a good enough fellow in himself, but it was as an archer that we objected to him. There was, so far as I know, scarcely a rule of archery that he did not habitually violate. Our president and nearly all of us remonstrated with him, and Pepton even went to see him on the subject, but it was all to no purpose.
"`Miss Rosa, said I," continued Pepton, without regarding my interruption, "`it has been my fondest hope to see you wear the badge. `But I never could get it, you know, she said. `You have got it, I exclaimed. `Take this. I won it for you. Make me happy by wearing it. `I can't do that, she said. `That is a gentleman's badge. `Take it, I cried, `gentleman and all!
Pepton was, indeed, most wonderfully well equipped; and yet, little did those dear old ladies think, when they carefully dusted and reverentially gazed at the bunches of arrows, the arm-bracers, the gloves, the grease-pots, and all the rest of the paraphernalia of archery, as it hung around Pepton's room, or when they afterwards allowed a particular friend to peep at it, all arranged so orderly within the ascham, or when they looked with sympathetic, loving admiration on the beautiful polished bow, when it was taken out of its bag little did they think, I say, that Pepton was the very poorest shot in the club.
We had met very promptly that afternoon, and had finished our regular shooting much earlier than usual; and now a knot of us were gathered together, talking over this unfortunate occurrence. "I don't intend to stand it," Pepton suddenly exclaimed. "I feel it as a personal disgrace. I'm going to have the champion here before dark.
"But it's the correct way?" "There's no doubt of that," said I. "Well," said Pepton, "then I shall make it my way." He did so, and the consequence was that one day, when the champion happened to be away, Pepton won the badge. When the result was announced, we were all surprised, but none so much so as Pepton himself.
"I can't tell you all that happened after that," continued Pepton. "You know, it wouldn't do. It is enough to say that she wears the badge. And we are both her own the badge and I!" Now I congratulated him in good earnest. There was a reason for it. "I don't owe a snap now for shooting an eagle," said Pepton, springing to his feet and striding up and down the floor. "Let 'em all fly free for me.
Good old lady! She would have kept Pepton in a green baize bag, had such a thing been possible. The next morning, full two hours before church-time, Pepton called on me. His face was still beaming. I could not help smiling. "Your happiness lasts well," I said. "Lasts!" he exclaimed. "Why shouldn't it last!"
When the champion had finished shooting he went home to his dinner, but many of us stood about, talking over our great escape. "I feel as if I had done that myself," said Pepton. "I am almost as proud as if I had shot well, not an eagle, but a soaring lark."
Once she put an arrow right into the centre of the gold, one of the finest shots ever made on the ground, but she didn't hit the target again for two weeks. She was almost as bad a shot as Pepton, and that is saying a good deal.
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