He did not join the
club, nor come to the weekly meetings at Northchester with Eustace
and me, until, after having seen a little of the shooting there, I
privately hinted to him that there was not the smallest chance of the
champion belt changing hands unless he took up the family cause.
Whereupon, rather than that Eustace should be disappointed, he did
ask to be admitted, and came once with us to the meeting, when, to
tell the truth, he did not shoot as well as usual, for--as afterwards
appeared--in riding into Northchester he had stopped to help to lift
up a great tree that was insecure on its timber waggon, and even his
hands shook a little from the exertion. Besides, Eustace had
discovered that Harold's new bow shot better than his, and had
insisted on changing, and Harold had not so proved the powers of
Eustace's as to cure it of its inferiority.
Eustace really came to shooting so tolerably as to make him look on
the sport with complacency, and like the people he met there. All
this hardly seems worth telling, but events we little thought of
sprang from those archery practices. For the present we found them a
great means of getting acquainted with the neighbours. I bowed now
to many more people than ever I had done before, and we had come into
great favour since the Hydriots had astonished the county by
announcing a dividend.
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