Many of us tried hard to win it
from him, but we never could succeed; he shot too well.
On the morning of one of our meeting days, the champion told
me, as I was going to the city with him, that he would not be
able to return at his usual hour that afternoon. He would be
very busy, and would have to wait for the six-fifteen train,
which would bring him home too late for the archery meeting. So
he gave me the badge, asking me to hand it to the president, that
he might bestow it on the successful competitor that afternoon.
We were all rather glad that the champion was obliged to be
absent. Here was a chance for some one of us to win the badge.
It was not, indeed, an opportunity for us to win a great deal of
honor, for if the champion were to be there we should have no
chance at all. But we were satisfied with this much, having no
reason--in the present, at least--to expect anything more.
So we went to the targets with a new zeal, and most of us
shot better than we had ever shot before. In this number was O.
J. Hollingsworth. He excelled himself, and, what was worse, he
excelled all the rest of us. He actually made a score of eighty-
five in twenty-four shots, which at that time was remarkably good
shooting, for our club. This was dreadful! To have a fellow who
didn't know how to shoot beat us all was too bad. If any visitor
who knew anything at all of archery should see that the member
who wore the champion's badge was a man who held his bow as if he
had the stomach-ache, it would ruin our character as a club.
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