' WOOD MAGIC • AND ' BEVIS ' 167 







Shall we wear armour ?" 



That would be bow-and-arrow time. Bows and 

 arrows don't make any banging." 



' " No more they do. It wants lots of banging and 

 smoke, else it's nothing." 



No ; only chopping and sticking." 

 And smashing and yelling," 

 No, and that's nothing." 



' " Only if we have rifles," said Mark thoughtfully, 

 " you see, people don't see one another ; they are so far 

 off ; and nobody stands on a bridge and keeps back all the 

 enemy all b}^ himself." 



' " And nobody has a triumph afterwards with elephants 

 and chariots, and paints his face vermilion." 



' " Let's have bow-and-arrow time," said Mark ; " it's 

 much nicer ; and you sell the prisoners for slaves and get 

 heaps of money, and do just as you like, and plough up 

 the cities that don't please you." 



' " Much nicer," said Bevis. " You very often kill all 

 the lot, and there's nothing silly. I shall be King Richard 

 and have a battle-axe — no, let's be the Normans !" 



' " Wouldn't King Arthur do ?" 



' " No ; he was killed ; that would be stupid. I've a 

 great mind to be Charlemagne." 



' " Then I shall be Roland." 



' " No ; you must be a traitor." 



* " But I want to fight on your side," said Mark. 



' " How many are there we can get to make up the 

 war ? 



' They consulted, and soon reckoned up fourteen or 

 fifteen. 



• " It will be jolly awful," said Mark. " There wiU be 

 heaps of slain." 



' " Let's have Troy," said Bevis. 



' " That's too slow," said Mark. " It lasted ten 

 years." 



' " Alexander the Great — let's see, whom did he 

 fight ?" 



