On each balloon a number was painted in white. A wide ribbon was
stretched barrierwise across the walk about fifteen feet from the trees,
and near it were several large baskets, one full of bows and dart-pointed
arrows, and the other heaped with expensive toys and bonbon boxes of
painted satin, for prizes, each article being numbered.
"Step up, ladies and gentlemen. Stand in line by the ribbon and take your
turn at the most unique shooting match ever seen in this county,--one at
a time,--and whoever points the arrow at anything but the balloons is
ruled out," rattled Mr. Vanderveer, after the manner of a fakir at a
country fair, and beaming with pleasure. For Evan says that outside of
business dealings he has the reputation of being the most good-natured
and generous of men, and that to invent ways to lavish money upon his son
and his friends is almost as keen a pleasure to him as to promote schemes
for winning it.
Mr. Vanderveer picked up a bow and dart to illustrate the game, aimed at
a balloon, the arrow glanced off, but at the second shot the balloon went
pop and shrivelled away with the whistle of escaping gas and shouts of
applause from both children and their elders.
Feeling assured that my boys were quite at their ease and not likely to
balk and act like wild rabbits, as is sometimes the case with children
when they find themselves among strangers, and seeing nothing that they
would be likely to fall out of or into, except a great bowl of lemonade
arranged in a bower that represented a well, we came away, Lavinia Dorman
sniffing in the spectacle like a veteran war-horse scenting powder, and
enjoying the gayety, as I myself should have done heartily if it had not
been for the boys.
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