Yan was not satisfied, but he contented himself with promising that he
would some day make some arrows of Arrow-wood shoots and now he
would finish at least one with his knife. He did so, but Sam, in the
meantime, made six much better ones with the smoothing plane.

"What about heads?" said he.

"I've been thinking," was the reply. "Of course the Indians used stone
heads fastened on with sinew, but we haven't got the stuff to do that.
Bought heads of iron with a ferrule for the end of the arrow are best,
but we can't get them. Bone heads and horn heads will do. I made some
fine ones once filing bones into the shape, but they were awfully
brittle; and I made some more of big nails cut off and set in with a
lashing of fine wire around the end to stop the wood splitting. Some
Indian arrows have no point but the stick sharpened after it's
scorched to harden it."

[Illustration: SIX SAMPLE ARROWS, SHOWING DIFFERENT FEATHERS]

"That sounds easy enough for me," said Sam; "let's make some of them
that way."

So the arrows were made, six each with nail points filed sharp and
lashed with broom wire. These were called "War arrows," and six each
with fire-hardened wood points for hunting arrows.

"Now for the feathering," and Yan showed Sam how to split the midrib
of a turkey feather and separate the vane.