A couple of days have passed, and the Spiets family has had a chance to unwind from the tensions of traveling. Everyone is all up to date now with all the news and current events, so Mr Schuurman has decided he will rent a couple of horses and a mule the next day, and get some gear together so that the day after the two men and the boys will go see if they can find Jack's monastery.
Jack and Victor are in the shed, whittling toy soldiers.
"Jack, do you belong to Cubs or Scouts or anything like that? Or do they have that here?"
"I don't know if they do or not. What's it all about?"
"It's groups of boys who belong to a sort of club, for being outdoors and doing things like camping and surviving in the woods. You learn how to set up a tent, cook on a campfire, and make all the different types of knots with rope, for mountain climbing, and tying up boats and things. Do they have that here? I was in Cubs, and when I got older I went into Scouts. I've got all kinds of badges. You earn the badges by learning to do all those things. It's a lot of fun."
"I don't think they have it here. I've never heard of it, anyway."
"Oh, too bad. Did you ever play at being Indian? You know, North American Indians with cowboys and stuff."
"No, I never did."
"I did. I was always making bows and arrows. I used willow branches for the bows, and there was a partition behind the chicken house made out of reed, like bamboo. I would get arrows out of there. I even got mom to make me a feather bonnet. I collected a bunch of long feathers out of the chicken pen and she sewed them onto a head band. I was so surprised she did that. Usually it's 'Oh we'll do that sometime.' But when I asked her that, she did it. Right away. Pretty good, hey?"
"Yeah. I guess so."
"But around here! I was surprised, they really know how to use a bow and arrow. When I first saw them all doing that, I thought I might be able to join in, but they would make me look silly. They take it seriously, with competitions and everything. Like sharpshooters in the army. Have you learned to shoot a bow and arrow?"
"No. They don't get into it much at the monastery."
"Boy, Jack. You haven't done much of anything except study, have you? You've got a lot of catching up to do.
Tell me about those soldiers. Did they march all together, really loud. And were they wearing big iron helmets like round buckets on their heads?"
