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diff --git a/old/55110-0.txt b/old/55110-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 867ac24..0000000 --- a/old/55110-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3956 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Vacation Camping for Girls, by Jeannette Augustus Marks - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Vacation Camping for Girls - -Author: Jeannette Augustus Marks - -Release Date: July 13, 2017 [EBook #55110] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VACATION CAMPING FOR GIRLS *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Mary Svela, Harry Lamé and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - Text printed in italics in the source document has been transcribed - between _underscores_, text in small capitals has been converted to - ALL CAPITALS. - - - - - VACATION CAMPING - FOR GIRLS - - - - - VACATION - CAMPING FOR - GIRLS - - By - JEANNETTE MARKS - - [Illustration] - - ILLUSTRATED - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - D. APPLETON AND COMPANY - 1913 - - - COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY - D. APPLETON AND COMPANY - - Copyright, 1912, by DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY - - Printed in the United States of America - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. CAMPING CHECK LISTS 1 - II. CAMP CLOTHES 13 - III. FOOD 24 - IV. COOK AND COOKEE 37 - V. LOG-CABIN COOKERY 46 - VI. THE PLACE TO CAMP 68 - VII. CAMP FIRES 77 - VIII. OTHER SMOKE 87 - IX. FITTING UP THE CAMP FOR USE 94 - X. THE POCKETBOOK 107 - XI. THE CAMP DOG 118 - XII. THE OUTDOOR TRAINING SCHOOL 127 - XIII. THE CAMP HABIT 139 - XIV. CAMP CLEANLINESS 147 - XV. WOOD CULTURE AND CAMP HEALTH 157 - XVI. WILDERNESS SILENCE 171 - XVII. HOME-MADE CAMPING 181 - XVIII. THE CANOE AND FISHING 193 - XIX. THE TRAIL 209 - XX. CAMP DON’TS 221 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - Camp Footgear 15 - A Group of Camp Utensils 33 - Nessmuk Range and Small Cook Fire 79 - Sleeping Bags and Camp Cot 99 - A Group of Tents 109 - Bough Lean-to and Frame 113 - Some Game and Water Birds 131 - Birds Every Camper Should Know 135 - Leaves of Familiar Trees 137 - Some Common Fish 199 - Fishing Tackle 201 - Rod Case, Tackle Case, Net and Creel 205 - Angling Knots 207 - The Dipper 213 - Moose, Buck, Doe, Fawn and Caribou 215 - Animals the Camper May Meet 217 - - - - - VACATION CAMPING - FOR GIRLS - - - - -CHAPTER I - -CAMPING CHECK LISTS - - -There are some considerations in camping which are staple; that is, -questions and needs all of us have to meet, just as there are staple -foods which all of us must have. No one knows better than the old -camper, who has shaken down his ideas, theories, practices, year after -year in the experiment of camping how true this is. If one is wise, one -goes well prepared even into the simple life of the woods or mountains -or lakes; and it is in a practical way, and under three so-called check -lists, (1) camp clothes, (2) camp food, and (3) camp equipment, that I -wish to tell you something about camp life for girls. - -From the point of view of clothes there are two kinds of camping: one -more or less civilized, the other “rough.” In the first perhaps we shall -be allowed a small box or trunk. In the second we have to depend -entirely upon a duffle bag or a knapsack. To the camper who plans for a -good many comforts, there is only one warning to be given: don’t be -foolish and take finery of any sort with you. Not only will it be in the -way, but also a girl does not look well in the woods dressed in clothes -that belong to the home life of town or city. - -There is an appropriate garb for the wilderness even as there is the -right gown for an afternoon tea. Except for this warning, what you will -put in your trunk will be simply an extension of the comforts which you -have in duffle bag or knapsack. - -As the capacity of duffle bag or knapsack is very limited, the check -lists for its contents must be made out with rigid economy. The most -important item is foot gear. A well-made pair of medium weight boots, -carefully tanned, drenched with mutton tallow, viscol, neat’s-foot oil, -or some similar waterproof substance, will prove the best for all-round -usefulness. These boots must be broken in or worn before the camping -expedition is undertaken. Nothing is so foolish as to start out in a new -pair. Have in addition to the boots a pair of soft indoor moccasins. -These are good to loaf around camp in. They are grateful to tired feet, -and, rolled, take up but little space in the knapsack. To the boots and -moccasins add from two to four pairs of hole-proof stockings of some -reliable make. If you can get a really first-class stocking and are -crowded for space, two pairs will do. One goes on to your feet and the -other into your knapsack. There should also be several combination -suits, preferably of two weights, high necked, and with shoulder and -knee caps. - -Now, see that the skirt you wear is of durable material; blue serge or -tweed (corduroy is often too heavy); that it has been thoroughly shrunk, -and is six inches off the ground anyway. Twelve would be better. Your -skirt should be provided with ample pockets; the sweater and jacket -also. Under the skirt wear a pair of bloomers, the lighter and slimsier -they are, the better; and the stouter the material, the more practical -for wear. I have tried many kinds, and believe percaline which is light, -strong, slimsy and washable, the best. Silk is not suitable at all. A -flannel shirt waist or blouse, a windsor or string tie, a soft felt hat -with a sufficiently wide brim, but not too wide, complete your costume. - -Into the knapsack put two coarse handkerchiefs, a silk neckerchief to -tie around your neck, the stockings and combination suit already -mentioned, a string of safety pins clipped one into another, a -toothbrush, tubes of cold cream and tooth paste (tubes take up the least -room and are the easiest to carry), a cotton shirtwaist, a nail file, -comb, small bottle of the best cascara sagrada tablets, a pair of cotton -gloves for rough work, a cake of castile soap, a towel, a stiff nail -brush, _and, if you are wise_, a book for leisure hours, preferably an -anthology of poems or a collection of essays which will afford food for -reflection. - -In your preparations let it be the rule to strip away every unnecessary -article. Take pride in getting your kit down to the absolute minimum. -Keep weeding out what you don’t need, and then after that, weed out -again. - -The same principle of rigid economy in selection will obtain in the -check list for food. It is the minimum of expense in the woods that will -bring the maximum of comfort. In arranging for the “duffle” to be taken -with you there is one thing that can be counted upon with mathematical -certainty: hunger. You are going to be hungrier than you have been in a -long time. The problem is, then, how to tote enough food and _get_ -enough food to supply your wants. The carriage, the keeping, the -nutritive value, all these things have to be taken into consideration in -wood life. At home we have fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meats -in abundance. How can we supply these things for our camp table? We -can’t! But desiccated potatoes, dried apples, apricots, prunes, peaches, -white and yellow-eye beans, dried lima beans, peas, whole or split, -onions, rice, raisins, nuts, white and graham flour, corn meal, pilot -biscuit, rolled oats, cream of wheat, cocoa (leave coffee and tea at -home), sweet chocolate, syrup for flapjacks, baking soda, sugar, salt, a -few candles (helpful for lighting a fire in wet weather, as well as -good for illumination), matches, molasses, a little olive oil--all -these things, with careful planning, we may have in abundance. To these -items you should add good butter--the best salted butter is none too -good--some cans of condensed milk and evaporated milk and cream, and a -flitch of bacon. Meat makes a dirty camp, and a dirty camp means skunks -and hedgehogs prowling around. In a properly thought-out dietary it will -be entirely unnecessary to tote meat. All that is needed for use you can -get at the end of your fish rod or through the barrel of your shotgun, -and upon the freshness of what you catch or shoot you can depend. Dr. -Breck, in his “Way of the Woods,” says that if he were obliged to choose -between bacon and dried apples and chocolate, he would always take the -apples and chocolate. Both portage and health will be served by avoiding -the carriage of a lot of tin cans. The ration of each article needed you -can work out with your mother or housekeeper, according to the number -of people to be in the party, the menus you plan, and the length of your -stay. For a cooler for your food, you will find a wire bait box, sunk in -clean running water, excellent. The question of grub, or duffle, as it -is called in camp life, in proper variety, abundance and freshness, is -the most difficult question of all. To this problem a seasoned camper -will give his closest attention. - -There are other articles, plus the food stuffs, which we must add to our -check lists--chiefly articles of equipment. Two or three pails nesting -into each other, a tin reflector baker for outdoor cooking, enamel-ware -plates, cups and bowls, pans, dishpans, dishmop, chain pot-cleaner, -double boiler, broiler, knives, forks, spoons, pepper and salt shakers, -flour sifter, rotary can opener, long-handled and short-handled fry -pans, a carving knife and a fish knife. The cost of these things -carefully bought, will be about six dollars. There should also be in -your kit some nails and a hatchet, toilet paper, woolen blankets, -mosquito netting (tarlatan is better), twine, tacks, oilcloth for camp -table, and some fly dope. - -With these articles, plus a little knowledge of woodcraft, there is -almost no wilderness into which a capable girl cannot go and make an -attractive home. But a little woodcraft we must know; the rest we can -learn as we go. There is one fuel in the woods which skillfully used -will kindle any fire, even a wet fire, and that is birch bark. You can -always get an inner layer of dry birch bark from a tree. Keep a check -list of different kinds of wood and have it handy until you learn these -woods for yourself. Brush tops or slashings will help to start a quick -blaze. Hickory is fine for a quiet hot fire. The green woods which burn -readily are white and black birch, ash, oak and hard maple. Look for -pitch, which you are most likely to find in old trees, and that will -always help out and start any fire. Woods that snap, such as hemlock, -spruce, cedar and larch, are not to be recommended for camp fires, as a -rule. To be careless or stupid about the camp fire may be to endanger -the lives not only of thousands of wild creatures in the wilderness, but -also the lives of human beings. - -Be careful to have pure water to drink. You cannot be too careful. If -you are in doubt about the water, don’t drink it, or at least not until -it has been thoroughly boiled. Take with you, besides those I give, a -few useful recipes for cooking experiments. They will bring pleasure and -variety on dull days. Choose a good place for your cabin or shack or -tent, whichever you use, especially a place where the natural drainage -is good. Know before you set out whether black flies, mosquitoes and -midges have to be encountered and go prepared to meet them. They are -sure to meet you more than halfway. Don’t take any risks on land or -water. The people who know the way of the woods best are those who are -least foolhardy. Common sense is the law that reigns in the wilderness, -and, in having our good time, we cannot do better than to follow that -law. - -So much for skeleton check lists, many of which, in the chapters to -come, at the cost of repetition, I shall amplify. Among the questions -which I shall take up are the all-important ones of camp clothes, camp -food, cooking, the place, camp fires, furnishing the camp, the -pocketbook, the camp dog, the outdoor training school, the camp habit, -wood culture, camp health, camp friendship, homemade camping, the canoe, -fishing, and the trail. This great, big, beautiful country of ours is -full of girls, real CAMP FIRE GIRLS, who love the keen air of out of -doors and the smell of wood smoke and the freedom of hill and lake and -plain, and to them I want my little book to come home and to be a camp -manual which will go with them on all journeys into the wilderness. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -CAMP CLOTHES - - -If you have been camping once, there is no need for any one to help you -decide what wearing apparel to take the next time. Through the mistakes -made and the discomforts involved, the girl will have learned her lesson -too well to forget it. But there is always the girl who has not been -camping. It is chiefly for her benefit that I am writing these chapters -on camp life for girls. - -In the first place, there are two kinds of camp clothes to be -considered, for there are two kinds of camping: (1) the expedition which -permits taking a box or trunk with you, and (2) the rougher camping that -allows only the carrying of a duffle bag or a knapsack. If you are -limited to a knapsack or a duffle bag, your kit must be of the most -concentrated sort and chosen with the greatest care. You will find ten -or fifteen pounds the most you wish to tote long distances, although at -the beginning this size of pack may seem like nothing at all to you. As -I have found personally, even seven pounds, with day after day of -tramping, may make an unaccustomed shoulder ache under the strap. - -[Illustration: MOCCASIN BOOT] - -[Illustration: TOBIQUE MOCCASIN] - -[Illustration: HURON INDIAN MOCCASINS] - -[Illustration: MOCCASIN SHOE] - -[Illustration: MECCOMOC OXFORD] - -[Illustration: ELKSKIN MOCCASIN] - -If you are to be limited to a small duffle bag, or a fairly capacious -knapsack, what are the articles of clothing without which no girl can -start? Let us take up the most important item first, and that is -foot-gear. Wear a well-made pair of medium weight boots, thoroughly -tanned, soaked with viscol, or rubbed with mutton tallow both on the -inside and the outside, to make them waterproof. _Never start out with a -new pair of boots on your feet._ If necessary, get your boots weeks -beforehand, and wear them from time to time till they are thoroughly -comfortable. In addition to these boots which you wear, take a soft pair -of indoor moccasins. These can be worn when you are tired and loafing -around camp, or while the guide is drying or greasing your boots. If you -have ever worn moccasins and are going to tramp in a moccasin country, -that is, a country of forest trails and ponds, then buy a pair of heavy -outdoor moccasins; larrigans or ankle-moccasins are best. These should -not be too snug. Worn over a heavy cotton stocking, or a light woolen -one, or woolen stockings drawn over cotton, the moccasin is the most -ideal foot-gear the wilderness world can ever know.[1] Neat’s-foot oil -is also excellent for greasing moccasins. Buy from two to four pairs of -hole-proof stockings of some reliable make. If these stockings are -first class and can be depended upon, two pairs will do. One pair you -will wear, the other goes into your knapsack. Have also several -combination suits, some for your bag and one for your back. These suits -should be high-necked and with shoulder and knee caps; of sufficient -warmth for cold days and nights; in any case porous and of two weights. - - [1] If you have room take with you an extra pair of shoes. When you - have become a real woodswoman you will never be without woolen socks - and moccasins. The thick, soft sole of sock and moccasin spare tender - feet which are not accustomed to hard tramping and rough paths. - -If you are going to tramp in a skirt, as you must if your route touches -upon civilization, _see that it is short_. Six inches off the ground is -none too much, and twelve is a good deal better. In an outing of this -sort it is as poor form to wear a long skirt as it would be to wear a -short skirt at an afternoon tea in civilization. The skirt should be of -some good quality khaki, army preferably, or a tweed; it should be -thoroughly shrunk, and if it seems desirable, it should be possible to -put this camp skirt in water and wash it.[2] Have ample pockets on -either side of the front seams. If I had to choose between the best of -sweaters and a jacket with a lot of pockets in it, I should always -choose the latter, and that is not on account of the pockets alone, but -because it is a more convenient article of clothing. In case of cold -weather it affords better protection, also better protection against -rain as well as cold. You can have it made with two outside pockets and -several inside--the more the merrier. Underneath the skirt wear a pair -of bloomers. The lighter and stouter these are, the more of a comfort -they will be. I have found a good quality of percaline to be the best -investment. Percaline is light, strong, slimsy after a little wearing, -and washes well. I have never yet found a silk that was practicable in -the woods. Silk bloomers go well with the comforts of civilization, but -they are not fit to endure the test of roughing it. A flannel shirtwaist -or blouse, a Windsor or string tie, a soft felt hat--you may have it as -pretty as you wish, provided it is not too large or over -trimmed--complete the outfit which you carry on you, so to speak. - - [2] You can buy an ideal hunting suit at any of the big shops in - Boston, New York or Chicago for from $8 to $10. - -Now to return to the outfit you carry in your pack and not on your back. -A pair of indoor moccasins, an extra pair of hole-proof stockings (these -you must have, not only on account of a possible wetting, but also -because the stockings must be changed every day, for you cannot take too -good care of your feet), two coarse handkerchiefs of ample size, a silk -neckerchief to tie around your neck, an extra combination suit, a few -safety pins clipped one into another until you have made a string of -them, a tooth brush, a little tube of cold cream and a tube of tooth -paste (the tubes are not breakable and take up the least room, they are -therefore the best to carry), a cotton or linen shirtwaist of some kind, -a nail file, a comb, a small vial of cascara sagrada tablets, several -rolls of film for your camera--the camera itself can be slung on a strap -from the knapsack--a pair of garden gloves for rough work with sooty -pots and kettles, a good-sized cake of the best castile soap, a towel, a -good stiff nail brush, and one or two books. - -Personally I feel that the books are as indispensable as anything in the -knapsack, for in moments of weariness, or when storm-bound, they prove -the greatest comfort and resource. The volume taken must not be a novel -which read through once one does not care to read again. Better to take -some book over which you can or must linger. I have tramped scores of -miles with the “Oxford Book of English Verse” in my knapsack, and it has -proved the greatest imaginable pleasure and solace. A small anthology -or a book of essays, or something that you wish to study, as, for -example, guides about the birds or the trees or the flowers, are good -sorts of volumes to tote with you--besides, of course, this camping -manual. - -Your kit for the rougher kind of camping, provided you have guides or -men folks who will carry the food, or “grub,” as it is called in camp -parlance, and the blankets, is now complete. But for the one girl who -goes on this rougher sort of camping expedition, twenty go into the -woods to be happy in a quite civilized log cabin or shanty. These girls -will be taking a camp box with them, or a trunk, and can add to their -wardrobe. There is no excuse, however, for adding the wrong sort of -thing. There is no excuse for wearing unsuitable, unattractive old rags -about camp, clothes which have served their civilized purpose and have -no fitness for the wilderness life. Let me give you one other word, -from an old timer at camping, about what you should wear. _Don’t be -foolish and put in any finery._ The finery is as out of place in camp as -your camp boots would be at a garden party at home. But several middy -blouses, more shoes, more stockings, another skirt, a number of towels, -a few more books--all will prove just that much added food for pleasure; -first, last, and always, be comfortable in camp. There is no reason for -being uncomfortable unless you enjoy discomfort. Anything, however, over -and above what you actually need will be only a hindrance. Those who go -camping, if they go in the right spirit, are looking for the simple -life; they want to get rid of paraphernalia, not to add to it. To learn -the happy art of living close to nature, means stripping away -unnecessary things. There is no place in camp life for fussiness or -display of any sort. All that is beyond the daily need is so much -litter and clutter, making of camp life something that is a burden, -something that is untidy, uncomfortable, confused. Of no thing is this -more true than of a girl’s camp clothes. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -FOOD - - -There are several reasons why the camp food is almost more important -than any other consideration. To begin with, most girls are leading a -more active life than they are accustomed to living at home. This makes -them hungry, and, add to the exercise the natural tonic of invigorating -air, the camper becomes fairly ravenous at meal time. There are other -reasons, too, why food is an all-important question. If one is in the -real wilderness, it will be difficult to get. One is obliged, therefore, -to consider carefully beforehand the kinds of food necessary for a -well-provided table and a well-balanced diet. Another reason for taking -thought about this whole subject is the portage. All the foods must be -toted in, and not all kinds will prove suitable or economical in the -long run for this sort of portage. Finally, there is the question of the -ways and means for keeping the food, after it is once safely in camp, in -good condition. - -As a rule, when we go on our expeditions we leave regions where it is -easy to get a great variety of foods. The city or its suburb or a -comfortable country town, is the place we call home. Our tables are -filled the year long with fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meats, -and all kinds of bread. This dietary in all its variety, to which we -have been accustomed at home, is quite impossible of realization in the -camp. We might just as well make up our minds to that at once. Yet -accustomed to vegetables and fruits as we are, we need them both in -wholesome quantities. How shall we get them? Potatoes of course, if the -camping expedition is for any length of time, that is ten days or more, -must be lugged. And lugging potatoes is heavy work over a trail. As for -the other vegetables and fruits, and even meats, most people buy large -quantities of tinned articles and so get rid of the whole question. -Personally I think that this is a great mistake. It was a delight to me -to find in Doctor Breck’s “Way of the Woods” that he, if obliged to -choose between bacon and dried apples and chocolate, would always choose -the chocolate and dried apples. And when the question of portage as well -as health enters in, it may be said right here that it is quite -impossible to carry a pack full of tins. But aside from the comfort of -the guides, a tin-can camp is not likely to be a wholesome one. I am -convinced that tin-can camping is responsible for whatever ills people -experience when they go into the woods. - -It is quite simple to get different kinds of dried vegetables and -different kinds of dried fruits--and the best are none too good--in -bulk. At present there are even evaporated potatoes on the market for -campers. Such dried foods pack and carry best and are most wholesome. -Both white and yellow eye beans, dried lima beans, peas, whole and -split, onions, evaporated apples, dried prunes, dried peaches and -apricots, rice, raisins, nuts of all kinds, lemons, oranges, and even -bananas, if they are sufficiently green, can be quite easily taken into -camp. Various sorts of flour and meal, too, will be needed. Find out how -much it takes to bake the bread at home and add that to the length of -your stay plus the number of the campers and plus a little more than you -actually need, and you will be able to work out the flour problem for -yourselves. There should be then white and graham flour, or entire -wheat, corn meal, pilot bread (memories of toasted pilot bread in camp -can make one smile from recollected joy), some rolled oats, cereals like -cream of wheat which carries well, cooks easily, and is hearty, and -various sorts of crackers. - -Now the writer does not think meat necessary in camp. Except for the -fish caught and the birds shot, none need be eaten. All the meat element -or proteid necessary is provided for in the beans, peas, and nuts. But -it is well to take a flitch of bacon or a few jars of it to use in -broiling or frying the fish or game. Pork and lard are entirely -uncalled-for in a properly thought out dietary.[3] Sufficient good -fresh butter is very much needed. If campers feel that they must have -other tinned meats, the best kinds to take are the most expensive, ox -tongue, and that sort of thing. Several months ago four of us started -off on a ten days’ camping expedition into a very northern wilderness -unknown to us. One of the party, needlessly ambitious, took a preserved -chicken in a glass jar bought from the finest provision house in Boston. -By the time we reached our destination, the chicken was anything but -preserved. Indeed, unless all signs failed, it had already embarked upon -a new incarnation. No arm in the party was long enough to carry it out -and set it on a distant rock for the skunks to visit. Nor shall I soon -forget a certain meat ragout which we concocted in a Canadian -wilderness. We had the ragout, but alas, we had a good deal else, too, -including a doctor who had to cover half a county to reach us! Aside -from the fact that people who live in cities and towns eat altogether -too much meat, in camp there is not only the question of its -uselessness, but also the fact that there are no ways to care for it -properly. Meat makes a dirty camp.[4] - - [3] A brother camper says that he thinks even the fish would feel - neglected without pork. On the contrary, trout are very sensitive to - good bacon--in short, prefer it to salt pork. If you do not believe - this true fish story, then catch two dozen half pound trout, slice - your bacon thin and draw off the bacon fat. Take out the bacon, put - the fat back into the frying pan--don’t burn yourself--and pop in - one-half dozen trout. After the first mouthful you will find that my - contention that trout are most sensitive to bacon entirely true. Be - sure to put a little piece of bacon on that first bite. Following - that, all you have to do is to keep on biting until your share of the - two dozen trout is consumed. Remarkable how those two dozen will - fly--almost as if the little fellows had turned into birds! The reason - I am opposed to pork and lard camping is that we all know nowadays how - diseased such meat may be. To go into the woods for health and run any - avoidable risks is folly. Get a flitch of the best bacon and the best - bacon is Ferris bacon. From this you will get enough fat for all - frying purposes; also, in case you use fat as a substitute for butter, - there will be enough bacon fat for cakes, etc. - - [4] I cannot emphasize too often the absolute importance of keeping a - _clean camp_. Mr. Rutger Jewett, to whom this camping manual and its - author are indebted for many wise suggestions, thinks that it is not - always feasible to burn up everything. “Every camp,” he writes, “has - some empty tin cans. It seems to me that the best plan in this case is - to have a small trench dug, far enough from the camp to avoid all - disagreeable results and yet not so far away that it is inaccessible. - Here cans and unburnable refuse from the kitchen can be thrown and - kept covered with earth or sand to avoid flies and odors. Everything - that can be burned, should be.” The only difficulty in my mind is, in - case the region is hedgehog-infested, that those charming creatures - will form their usual “bread-line”--this time to the trench--and add - digging to their accomplishments in gnawing. However! Better rinse out - your tin cans; Sis Hedgehog is less likely to mistake the can for the - original delicacy. - -All food refuse should be burned up, anyway, never thrown out into the -brush, and it is difficult to burn meat bones. The girl or woman who -keeps a dirty camp is beneath contempt. There is likely to be one -neighbor, if not more, in the vicinity of every camp, who will make -things uncomfortable for the campers. He should be called the camp pig, -and he is the hedgehog. Also his cousin, the skunk, will hang around to -see what is carelessly thrown out or left for him to eat. The hedgehog -is the greediest, most unwelcome fellow in the woods, and even the fact -that the poet Robert Browning had one as a pet will not redeem him in -the eyes of the practical camper. He hangs around any camp that is not -kept clean, gnaws axe handles which the salty human hand has touched, -licks out tin cans which have not been rinsed as they should be before -they are thrown away--in short, he follows up every bit of camp -slackness. There is only one way to keep off hedgehogs and that is to -have an absolutely tidy camp. - -In addition to the food stuffs already mentioned, there are several -others which should be taken in the necessary quantities. Salt and -pepper--better leave tea and coffee at home and take cocoa--soda, sugar, -a few candles (helpful in lighting a fire in wet weather, as well as for -illumination), matches, in a rubber box if possible, kerosene if your -camp outfit will permit such a luxury, olive oil, maple syrup for -flapjacks, molasses, condensed and evaporated milk or milk powder. - -[Illustration: REFLECTOR BAKER.] - -[Illustration: HOLD-ALL.] - -[Illustration: PATENTED FRY PAN.] - -[Illustration: HUNTING KNIFE.] - -[Illustration: BIRCH BARK CUP.] - -The articles which need to be cooled can be kept fresh in a nearby -brook. Dead fish, however, should never be allowed to lie in water, but -should be wrapped up in ferns or large leaves. If you are camping for -any length of time, by making a little runway out of a trough you can -have freshly flowing water, cooling butter and other food stuffs, all -the time. Or a receptacle constructed something like a wire bait box -will prove as good as the flowing water. This sunk into a cool pond or -lake, makes an admirable ice chest, into which the finny creatures -cannot get. In some rotation which you have decided upon, the care of -the food should receive the especial attention from one girl every day. -In this way hedgehogs, skunks, mice, rats, ants, will all be kept at a -distance. - -There are in addition to these various food stuffs and their care, as I -said in the first chapter, many articles necessary for camp life about -which we must think. If you are going off for a few days with a guide, -he will attend to these things for you. But if you are setting up a camp -for yourself, you will need to have them in mind. They are, two or three -tin pails of convenient sizes nesting or fitting into one another so -that they can be easily carried, a tin reflector baker for outdoor -cooking, a coffee pot if you are foolish enough to take coffee, -enameled ware plates and cups, basins, pans, dishpans, a dishmop, a -chain pot-cleaner, a double boiler, a broiler, knives and forks, spoons -big and little, pepper and salt shakers, flour sifter, a rotary can -opener, a frypan, long-handled and short-handled, a carving knife and a -fish knife if you intend to do a great deal of fishing. There are many -kinds of cooking kits. There is a good one for four persons which may be -obtained at about six dollars from any large hardware dealer. Add to -these things which have been mentioned fish hooks, a lantern, lantern -wicks, nails of different sizes, a hammer--don’t forget the -hammer!--toilet paper, woolen blankets, mosquito netting (if it is a -mosquito-infested district), fly dope to rub on hands and face, oilcloth -for camp table, some twine and some tacks. - -Equipped with these articles and what you carry in your knapsacks and -what you wear, there is almost no wilderness in which a girl cannot -have a good time, improve her health, and be the wiser for having -entered the wilderness. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -COOK AND COOKEE - - -Any of you who have ever seen a lumber camp will remember something of -how it is constructed. Separate from the main building is the -superintendent’s office, a little cabin built usually of tar paper and -light timber; then there is the hovel, as it is called, in which the -horses and cows are stabled, and finally there is the big main building -where the crew sleep and eat. But separated from the men’s dormitory by -a passageway that leads into the outdoors, is the big room used as -kitchen and dining room. Just beyond this and opening into the kitchen, -is the room in which the cook and his assistant sleep. - -In these two rooms in the wilderness, cook and cookee reign supreme. -They are the most important persons in the camp. They are the best -paid. Their word is law. They have a room by themselves, partly for -cleanliness’ sake, and also because the success of the whole camp -depends more or less upon them. But it is not alone the lumber cook and -cookee who make or mar the success of camp life. It is also the cook in -the hotel camp, and even more, the cook in the hundreds of thousands of -home camps which make glad our holiday season. The king pin of life, -physically--and I might say morally, too, for wherever the health is -excellent the morals are likely to be so--is good, pure, abundant food, -properly cooked. - -Nowhere is the art of cooking put so to the test as in camp. You have -less to do with; you have bigger appetites to do for and more need -physically for the food you eat. There is one article which, if you are -planning to do more cooking out of doors than can be done in a pot of -water over a fire and a frying pan, you must have, and that is a tin -reflector baker. One year I was caught in the steadiest downpour which I -have ever known while camping. We were on the West Branch of the -Penobscot, in an isolated region at the foot of Mount Katahdin, the -highest mountain in the state of Maine. We had nothing to sleep under -except a tent fly, and the rain drove in night and day, keeping us -thoroughly wet. Our Indian guides managed to make the fire go in front -of the leaky tar paper shack which we used as a kitchen. There was -nothing we could do profitably but cook, so I amused myself cooking. I -managed to bake, in the rain, before an open fire, within that little -tin reflector baker, some tarts which were very successful. Many other -articles, too, were cooked and came out thoroughly edible. That was -indeed a test of the little tin baker which I shall never forget. - -There is one sort of kindling fuel unfailingly useful in the woods. Even -the rain cannot dampen its blaze. The fuel to which I refer is -birch-bark. It will light when nothing else will light, I suppose -because of the large amount of oil in it. Even when you take it wet from -the ground, instead of stripping it from a tree--and you can always get -an inner layer of dry birch-bark from a tree--it will burn and kindle a -good fire. A box of matches is a natural possession for a boy, but I am -not so sure that this is true with a girl. Every camper should have a -hard rubber box of matches in his possession, should know where it -is--always in an inside pocket if possible--and should take good care of -it. But to go back to that wet day and the shining little tin baker on -the West Branch at the foot of Katahdin. There are some woods which are -good for rapid, quiet burning and some that are poor, as every -experienced woodsman will tell you. You must keep, until you know it by -heart, a check list of different kinds of wood, just as you must keep a -food check list and other check lists. If it is a big camp fire, which -for jollity’s sake or the sake of warmth you wish to start, and do not -care to keep going for a long time, almost any sort of wood will serve. -Brush tops or slashings will do quite well to start such a blaze. -Hickory is the best wood for use when you want a deep, quiet hot fire -for cooking. There is scarcely any better wood for the camp cook to use -than apple, but that most campers are not likely to be able to get. The -green woods which burn most readily and are best to start a quick fire -with are birch, white and black, hard maple, ash, oak, and hickory. The -older the tree the more pitch there will be in it, and the pitch is an -effective and noisy kindler of fires. Hemlock, spruce, cedar, and the -larch, all snap badly. I have been obliged to use a good deal of cedar -in an open Franklin in my camp study this last summer. It has never -been safe to leave one of these cedar fires without shutting the doors -of the Franklin stove. I have known the burning cedar to hurl sparks the -entire length of the cabin. As the chinking is excelsior, you can -imagine what one of those cedar sparks would do if it snapped onto a bit -of the excelsior. Cabins not chinked with excelsior are usually chinked -with moss, which is almost as inflammable. With woods that snap, the -camper can never be too careful, and no fire made of snappy wood should -ever be built near a cabin or a tent. One spark, and it might be too -late to check the quickly spreading fire. - -There is another thing about which the camp cook and all girls camping -need to be very careful, and that is the drinking water. One cannot be -too exacting in this matter, too scrupulous, too clean. Provided there -is spring or lake water about whose purity there can be no doubt, the -question is settled. In this connection it may be said of drinking: -when in doubt, don’t. A quarter of a mile, a half a mile, a mile, is -none too far to go to get the right sort of water. This can be done in -squads, one set of girls going one day and another the next. This water -must be used for the cooking, too. If there is any doubt about the water -supply, it should be filtered or boiled or both. Go into camp ready to -make pure water one of your chief considerations, and never, under any -circumstances, drink water or eat anything, even fish, which may have -been contaminated by sewage. How vigilant one has to be about this an -experience of my own, some months ago, will show you. The pond to which -we were going was indeed in the wilderness, inaccessible except by -canoe. I had walked one long “carry,” paddled across a good-sized -pond--two miles wide, I think--and had been poling up some quick-water. -The “rips” were low, and scratching would better describe the efforts -to which we were put than poling does. My hands became so dry from the -incessant work with the pole that I had to wet them to get any purchase -on it at all. A greased pig could not have been harder to hold than that -pole. When finally we reached the little mountain-surrounded pond for -which we were making up the quickwater, I was hot, breathless, -exhausted. I could think of only one thing, and that was a drink of -water. There were a few camps about the lake, but it did not enter my -mind that they would empty their sewage into it and take their fish and -their water out of it. Yet after I had drunk, the first thing I noticed, -in passing one camp, was that they unmistakably did empty their sewage -into the pond. No evidence was lacking that it all went into the water -not far from where I had taken a drink. It is not a pleasant subject, -but it is one about which it is necessary to speak. - -It is well to take in your kit some place, unless you are an -accomplished cook and have it all in your head, a small, good cook book. -The first thing which you should recollect about the rougher sort of -camping is that you will have no fresh eggs or milk with which to do -your cooking. You should have recipes for making your biscuits, -johnnycake, bread, corn-pone, cakes, flapjacks, cookies, potato soup, -bean soup, pea soup, chowder, rice pudding, and for cooking game and -fish. In that veteran book for campers, “The Way of the Woods,” some -good recipes for the necessary dishes are given. Whatever dishes you -plan to make in the wilderness should be simple and few. Anything beyond -the simplest dietary is not in the spirit of camp life, and will only -detract from rather than add to the general pleasure. Those recipes -which seem to me absolutely necessary I will give to you in the next -chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -LOG-CABIN COOKERY - - -Did you ever get to a camp fire or log-cabin stove at eleven o’clock and -know that there must be a hearty meal by twelve? I have lots of times. -The only way to do, if one must meet these emergencies on short notice, -is to have what I call “stock” on hand. In using this word I do not mean -soup stock, either. What I mean is that there must be some vegetables or -cereals or other articles of food at least partially prepared for -eating. - -I remember one summer when I was very busy with my writing. I was chief -cook and bottle washer, besides being my own secretary, and I had three -members in my family to look out for--a friend with a hearty appetite, a -big dog with a no less hearty appetite and a rather greedy little Maine -cat. The question was how to carry on the work which was properly my -own and at the same time attend to cooking and other household work. I -hit upon a plan which served excellently with me. I do not recommend it -to any one else, especially to girls who will be going into the woods -for a vacation and will have no duties except those connected with their -camp life. But this plan of mine demonstrated to me once and for all -that, even if one is very busy, it is possible to have a bountifully -supplied table. - -The first day I tried the experiment I went into the kitchen at eleven -o’clock. Never had I been more tired of the everlasting question of what -to have to eat. It seemed to me that there was never any other question -except that one, and I determined, with considerable savage feeling, to -escape from it. At eleven o’clock I chopped my own kindling, started my -own fire, and began twirling the saucepans, frying pans and baking tins -which I wanted to use. I was set upon cooking up enough food to last for -three or four days, and I did. At two o’clock not only was all the food -cooked and set away for future consumption, but also we had eaten our -dinner. In that time what had I prepared? There was a big double boiler -full of _corn meal_. After this had been thoroughly boiled in five times -its bulk of water and a large tablespoonful of salt, I poured it out -into baking tins and set it away to cool. Various things can be done -with this stock; among others, once cool, it slices beautifully, and is -delicious fried in butter or in bacon fat, and satisfying to the -hungriest camper. Also a large panful of _rice_ had been cooked. This -had been set aside to be used in _croquettes_, in _rice puddings_ and to -be served plain with milk at supper time. So much for the rice and the -corn meal. I had broken up in two-inch pieces a large panful of -_macaroni_. This was boiled in salt water, part of it cooled and set -away for further use, some of it mixed with a canful of tomato and -stewed for our dinner and the rest baked with tomato and bread crumbs, -to be heated up for another day. On top of the stove, too, I had a -mammoth _vegetable stew_. In this stew were potatoes, carrots, parsnips, -cabbage, beets, turnips, plenty of butter and plenty of salt. The stew -remained on the stove, carefully covered, during the time that the fire -was lighted and was put on again the next day to complete the cooking, -for it takes long boiling to make a really good stew. Inside the oven -were two big platefuls of _apples_ baking. These had been properly cored -and the centers filled with butter and sugar and cinnamon; also two or -three dozen potatoes were baking in the oven, some of which would serve -for quick frying on another day. In addition to the food mentioned, I -set a large two-quart bowl full of lemon jelly with vegetable gelatin. -It took me exactly fifteen minutes to make this jelly and during that -time I was giving my attention to other things besides. I made also a -panful of baking powder biscuits which, considering the way they were -hustled about, behaved themselves in a most long-suffering and -commendable fashion, turning out to be good biscuits after all. - -Now, the import of all this is that, with planning, a little practice -and some hopping about, a good deal of cooking and preparation of food -can be done in a short time. Unnecessary “fussing” about the cooking is -not desirable in camp life. The simpler that life can be made and kept -the better. The more we can get away from unwholesome condiments, highly -seasoned foods, too much meat eating and coffee drinking, too many -sweets and pastries, the better. The girl who goes into the woods with -the idea of having all the luxuries--many of them wholly unnecessary -and some of them undesirable--of her home life, is no true “sport.” The -grand object for which we cook in camp is a good appetite and that needs -no sauce and sweets. - -What are some of the recipes a girl should have with her for log-cabin -cooking? In the first place, we must take with us a good recipe for -_bread-making_. There are so many I will give none. The best one to have -is the one used at home, but let me say here that no flour so answers -all dietetic needs in the woods as entire wheat. Delicious baking powder -biscuits can be made from it as well as bread. Also know how to _boil a -potato_. You think this is a matter of no importance? It would surprise -you then, wouldn’t it, to know that there are some people devoting all -of their time teaching the ignorant and the poor the art of boiling a -potato. You can boil all the good out of it and make it almost worthless -as food, as well as untempting, or you can cook it properly, making it -everything it ought to be. Know, too, how to _clean a fish_. Oh, dear, -you never could do that! It makes you shiver to think of such a thing. -Very well then, camp is no place for you. Your squeamishness which might -seem attractive some place else will only be silly there, making you a -dead weight about somebody else’s neck. Does your brother Boy Scout know -how to clean a fish? Did you ever know a real boy who did not know how -to clean a fish? Why not a real girl, then, perhaps a Camp Fire Girl? -Oh, but the cook--no, you will be the cook in camp or the assistant -cook. Then get your brother to show you how to cut off its head and to -scale it, if it is a scaly fish, how to slit it open, taking out the -entrails, how to wash it thoroughly and dry it, how to dip it in flour -or meal and to drop it into the sizzling frying pan, how to turn it and -then finally the moment when, crisp and brown, it should be taken out -and served. Know, too, how to pluck and clean a partridge.[5] One day -this last summer I went up the cut behind my camp, intent upon finding a -partridge for our supper. I hadn’t gone far before I found one and with -the second shot of my rifle brought the poor fellow down. I took him -home to the cook whom I had with me then, the daughter of a neighboring -farmer. I gave her the bird and told her to get him ready for supper. -She said she couldn’t; she didn’t know how. - - [5] If your mother and brother have not taught you how to _clean fish_ - and _pluck partridge_, then it would be best to go to the butcher and - fishman and take lessons of them. If it is possible to go on your - first expedition with a good guide, that will settle the whole - difficulty, for your guide will know the best way and be glad to teach - you. - -“Don’t know how?” I asked. “What do you mean?” - -She said that she did not know how to pluck and clean a partridge. - -“Well,” I replied, “you know how to clean a chicken, don’t you?” - -“Mercy me, no!” she objected, looking pale and silly. “Mother always -cleans the chickens.” - -Mother always cleans the chickens! Mother does a good deal too much of -the things that are somewhat unpleasant in this American home life of -ours. This girl had been perfectly willing that her mother should do all -the work which seemed to her too disagreeable or unpleasant to do -herself. But I am glad to say, and her mother ought to have been -grateful to me, she helped in dressing that partridge and I did not care -a tinker when, after it had been cooked, she seemed to feel too badly to -eat very much of it. I wonder how her mother had felt after all the -hundreds of chickens she had killed, plucked, cleaned and cooked for -that very girl of hers. - -You must know, too, how to _boil an egg_, and do not do as I saw that -same incompetent farmer’s daughter do--I suppose because she had left -almost everything to her very competent mother--do not boil your eggs in -the tea kettle. The water in the tea kettle should be kept as clean and -fresh as possible. There is no excuse for a _dirty tea kettle_. We -should be able in the woods, too, to know how to scramble eggs, if one -has them, and to make omelets, and to boil corn meal, and the best ways -for cooking rice and of baking fruits. Good apple pies, too, if you can -make pastry without too much trouble, will not go amiss. - -There are a few recipes which you must get out of the home cook book, -besides the few which I will now give you. _Baking powder biscuits_ are -not easy to make. Even very good cooks sometimes do not have success -with them. Do not be discouraged if at your first effort you should -fail. Keep on trying. You must learn, for I think it can be said that -baking powder biscuits constitute the bread of the woods. I know farming -families in northern Maine who do not know what it is to make raised -bread. They have nothing but baking powder or soda and cream of tartar -bread. Use one quart of sifted flour, one teaspoonful of salt, three -rounding teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one large tablespoonful of -butter and enough milk, evaporated or powdered milk, or fresh if you -have it, to make a soft dough. Mix these things in the order in which -they are given, and when the dough is stiff enough to be cut with the -top of a baking powder can or a biscuit cutter, sprinkle your bread and -also your rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough. It will depend -upon your oven somewhat, but probably it will take you from ten to -fifteen minutes to bake these biscuits. - -A recipe for corn meal cake, too, should be in one’s camp kit. The -simpler that recipe the better. Some forms of _corn bread_ take so long -to prepare that they are not suitable for the woods. The one I shall -give you will prove practicable. You might take one from your own home -cook book, too, if you wish. Mix the ingredients in the order in which -they are set down and bake them in a moderately hot oven. If you haven’t -anything else to use, bread tins a third full will serve. One cup of -whole corn meal, a half a teaspoonful of salt and a cup of sugar, a -whole cup of flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder--these should be -level--one egg, one cup of milk and a tablespoonful of melted butter. - -_Pancakes_ you must also know how to make. One can’t very well get along -in the wilderness without some sort of griddle cake, the simpler the -better. Sour milk pancakes are the best, particularly as it is not -necessary to use eggs if one has sour milk, but that is not always -feasible, as frequently you will have to use evaporated milk. Mix a -pint of flour, a half a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of soda, one -pint of sour milk, and two eggs thoroughly beaten. See that your frying -pan, for in camp you will cook your cakes in the frying pan, has been on -the stove some time. Grease it thoroughly with bacon fat or butter; -never use lard unless you have to. Cook the cakes thoroughly. You will -find turning your first hot cakes something of an adventure. - -There should also be among our log-cabin recipes some directions for -telling you how to make at least two kinds of _nourishing soup_ without -stock. Soup with stock in camp life is not practicable. Pea or bean -soups are the most satisfying and satisfactory. The peas or beans must -be soaked in cold water over night. Pea or bean soups take a long time -to make, so that it is not always practicable to have them in camp. I -will give you a recipe for _split pea soup_. Take with you, if you are -likely to need it, also, a recipe for black bean soup. After soaking -over night, pour the water off the split peas and add to the cup of peas -three pints of cold water. Do not let the liquid catch on the sides of -the pan in which the peas are simmering. When the peas are soft, rub -them through a strainer and put them on to boil again, adding one -tablespoonful of butter, one of flour, one-half teaspoonful of sugar and -a teaspoonful of salt. You don’t need pepper--better leave pepper at -home and if you get so that you don’t miss it in camp, then you need -never use it again. It is wretched stuff, anyway, doing more to harm the -human stomach than almost any other food poison in use. - -_Baked beans_, too, make a prime dish for camp life, partly, I suppose, -because, like corn meal and pea and bean soups, potatoes and the -heartier kinds of food, they are so satisfying to the camper’s appetite. -It isn’t necessary to cook your beans with pork, substitute some kind -of nut butter, peanut butter or almond butter, or plenty of fresh dairy -butter. The quart of pea beans should be soaked in cold water over -night. In the morning these beans must be put into fresh water and -allowed to cook until they are soft but not broken. Empty them into a -colander and then put them in the bean pot, or if you haven’t a bean -pot, a deep baking dish will do. Put in a quarter of a cup of molasses -and a half cup of butter and pour a little hot water over the beans. -Keep them all day long in an oven that is not too hot. Don’t put any -mustard in your beans; mustard is as great an enemy to the human stomach -as pepper, and that is saying a good deal. - -Against a rainy day when you may wish to amuse yourselves with -additional dishes, or a hungry day when you are cold and ravenous, I -will add a few more recipes. _Corn pone_ is good. This is just corn -bread baked on a heated stone propped up before the fire till the -surface is seared. Then cover with hot ashes and let it bake in them for -twenty minutes. After that dust your cake and eat it. I have told you -how to make _corn meal mush_. With butter and sugar (in case you have no -milk) it is excellent. What do you say to some _buckwheat cakes_ on a -cold, rainy night? If you say “yes,” all you have to do is to mix the -self-raising buckwheat flour with a proper amount of water and drop some -good-sized spoonfuls into a hot, greased frying-pan. The turning of hot -cakes is the next best fun to eating them. Mash your boiled potatoes, -season with butter and salt and milk if you have it. After that, call it -_mashed potato_. It is good to eat and keeps well for paté cakes or a -scallop. When hungry, _fried potatoes_ can be eaten with impunity by the -most zealous dietarian. Fried potatoes are naughty but nice. _Mushrooms_ -are nice, too, but dangerous. If you have a trained botanist or someone -who has _always_ gathered mushrooms for eating, then perhaps it will be -safe to cook this bounty the woods spread before you. If you must have -_bacon_ you cannot get bacon that is _too_ good. _Ferris bacon and hams_ -are the finest and most reliable cured pork in this country. And since -we are speaking of pork and therefore of frying, let me give you one -caution: _Never use the frying-pan when you can avoid doing so._ No -amount of care can make fried foods altogether wholesome. Even an -out-of-door life cannot altogether counteract the bad effects of fried -food. You can make good _broth_ from small diced bits of game or -whatever meat you have, when the meat is tender, add vegetables and -allow the whole to boil for some time. _Chowder_, too, is a standard -dish for camp life. Take out the bones from the fish and cut up fish -into small pieces. “Cover the bottom of the kettle with layers in the -following order: slices of pork, sliced raw potatoes, chopped onions, -fish, hard biscuit soaked (or bread). Repeat this (leaving out pork) -until the pot is nearly full. Season each layer. Cover barely with water -and cook an hour or so over a very slow fire. When thick stir gently. -Any other ingredients that are at hand may be added.” (Seneca’s “Canoe -and Camp Cookery” and Breck’s “Way of the Woods.”) A _white sauce_ for -fish and other purposes will be found useful. Melt tablespoonful of -butter in saucepan; stir in dessert-spoonful of flour; add ½ teaspoonful -salt; mix with a cup of milk. Except for the ginger, _gingerbread_ is -not a bad cake for the woods. One cup of molasses, one cup of sugar, one -teaspoonful of ginger, one teaspoonful of soda, one cup of hot water, -flour enough to form a medium batter, ½ cup melted butter, and a little -cinnamon will make it. You might experiment with _Chinese tea cakes_ -made with ¼ cup butter, one cup brown sugar, ⅛ teaspoonful soda, one -tablespoonful of cold water, and one cup of flour. Shape this mixture -into small balls, and put on buttered sheets and bake in a hot oven. -_Molasses cookies_ are good and substantial, not a bad thing to put in -the duffle bag on a day’s tramp. Use one cup of molasses, one -teaspoonful of ginger, one teaspoonful of soda, two teaspoonfuls of warm -water or milk, ½ cup of butter, enough flour to mix soft. Dissolve the -soda in milk. Roll dough one-third of an inch thick and cut in small -rounds. Two well known candy recipes will add to the pleasures of a -rainy day and a sweet tooth. _Penuche_: Two cups brown sugar, ¾ cup -milk, butter size of a small nut, pinch of salt, one teaspoonful of -vanilla, ½ cup walnut meats. Boil the first four ingredients until soft -ball is formed when dropped in water. Then add vanilla and nuts, and -beat until cool and creamy. _Fudge_: 2 cups sugar, ¾ cup milk, 3 -tablespoonfuls cocoa, a pinch of salt, butter size of small nut, ½ cup -walnut meats if desired. Cook same as penuche. - -Perhaps, in conclusion, I should advise you to learn something about the -_boiling of vegetables_ and tell you not to cut the top off a _beet_ -unless you want to see it bleed, and lose the better part of it. Put -your beet in, top and all. When cooked, it will be time enough to cut it -and pare it. Be sure if you cook _cabbage_ that it is cooked long -enough, and has become thoroughly tender. The same is true with -_parsnips_ and _carrots_. If you are in a hurry slice up your carrots or -parsnips or cabbage or potatoes and they will cook more rapidly. - -Be sure that your camp dietary has plenty of _stewed fruits_ in it. That -will be so much to the good in the camp health. A bottle of _olive oil_ -also will prove a great resource; in fact, a can of olive oil would be -even more practical and the oil is always capital food. Although the -most elaborate recipes are given for making a _mayonnaise dressing_ it -is really very simple to make, and once made can be kept on hand as -“stock.” I have been making mayonnaise since I was a little girl, and, -as I cook something like the proverbial darky, I do not know that I am -able to give you any hard and fast directions for making the dressing. -With me it is an affair of impulse; I use either the white of an egg or -the whole egg, it does not make any difference--the shell you will not -find palatable--beating it up thoroughly, gradually adding the oil, -putting in a little lemon juice from time to time and plenty of salt. -Cayenne pepper is ordinarily used in mayonnaise, but if the dressing is -properly seasoned with salt and lemon it needs neither cayenne nor -mustard. What it does need is thorough and long beating, a cool place, -and a few minutes in which to harden after it is made. - -You will learn one thing in the woods which perhaps will be a surprise. -In that life it is men who are the good cooks. Indeed, it is surprising -how much cleverness men show in domestic ways when they are left to -their own devices and how helpless they become as soon as a woman is -around. If you go astray any woodsman, any guide, almost any “sport” can -help you out in the mysteries of cooking. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE PLACE TO CAMP - - -For most girls the place in which they are to camp will depend very -largely on the locality in which they live. But few people want to, or -feel that they can, travel long distances to secure their ideal camping -ground. Yet there are some things about the place to camp which most of -us can demand and get. When one has learned a little of the art of -camping, it is really surprising how many good camping grounds may be -found in one’s own immediate neighborhood. - -The first question to be decided is the sort of expedition which we -shall undertake. Are we going to rough it for a few days or a couple of -weeks, taking things as they come and not expecting any of the comforts -we ordinarily have? Are we going to sleep in the open, cook and eat in -the open? If we are to “pack” all that we shall have along with us, is -it to be a river trip or a lake trip in a canoe? Is it to be a walking -expedition or with horses? The least expensive item will prove to be the -one that involves taking the fewest number of guides, and which is -carried out on shank’s mare. Every expedition which is continually on -the move through an isolated and rough country should be equipped with -one guide to each two people. If it is a stationary camp, one guide to -three or four people will be the minimum. But that _is_ the minimum. -Registered guides command big pay for their work, usually about three -dollars a day, and their food and lodging provided for them. - -When we cannot make up for our oversight or mistakes or stupidities by -trotting around the corner to procure what we have forgotten, or taking -up a telephone and ordering it sent to us, or sending a message to the -doctor, who must come because we have exhausted ourselves, or got -indigestion from badly planned and badly cooked food, it behooves us to -be careful. Only a word to the wise is necessary. To use a slang phrase -which contains in a nutshell almost all that need be said on the -subject: _don’t bite off more than you can chew_. If you are starting -out on a strenuous walking expedition, be sure that all in the party are -accustomed to hard walking and are properly shod and in fit condition -for the work. With these requirements attended to, your duffle bags full -of the right shelter and food stuff, a capable man or capable men in -charge of the expedition, there is nothing in the world which could be -better for a group of healthy girls than a walking tour. I have walked -scores of miles with my own little pack on my back and been all the -better for the hard work and the hard living. More of us need hard -living as a corrective for our over-civilized lives than we need -luxuries. If it is a canoe trip, it is well for several members of the -party to know how to paddle and even to pole up over the “rips” of -quickwater. Thank fortune that the girl of to-day has sloughed off some -of the inane traits supposed to be excusably feminine, such, for -example, as screaming when frightened. The modern girl doesn’t need to -be told that screaming and jumping when she goes down her first -quickwater in a canoe are distinctly out of order. I remember one -experience in quickwater when I was not sure but that I should have to -jump literally for my life. In some way the Indian with whom I was had -got his setting pole caught in the rocks, and we were swung around -sidewise over a four-foot drop of raging water. If the pole loosened -before we could get the nose of the canoe pointed down stream, the end -was inevitable. No one could have lived in those raging waters. The -canoe would have been rolled over and we pounded to pieces or crushed -upon the rocks. We clawed the racing water madly with the paddles, which -seemed, for all the good they could do, more like toothpicks than -paddles. But slowly, inch by inch, straining every muscle, we managed to -work around. Needless to say, we escaped unharmed, except for a wetting. -In this case as always, a miss is as good as a mile--a little “miss” -which was most cordially received by me. The Indian said nothing, but I -noticed that there was some expression in his face while this adventure -was going on, and that is saying a good deal for an Indian. - -After some of the questions connected with the kind of expedition are -thought out, it is just as well to consider the place in which one -wishes to camp, for that will determine much else. All things being -equal, it is well to get a sharp contrast in locality, because that -means the maximum of change and tonic. In my experience there are only -two kinds of camping grounds to be avoided--no, I will say three. First, -there is swampy, malarial land, infested by mosquitoes and other -unpleasant creatures. Second, there is ground on which no water can be -found. Camp life without access to water is an impossible proposition. -And thirdly--a possibility fortunately which does not occur in many -localities--ground that is infested by venomous snakes is unsafe. Even -in so beautiful and fertile a region as the Connecticut Valley, where I -live when not at my camp in the Moosehead region, and where I frequently -go camping, the question of snakes has to be taken into consideration. I -have encountered both the rattlesnake and the copperhead, two of the -most deadly reptiles known, in the Connecticut Valley. - -If, when you are at home, you live on land that is low, and high land is -accessible for your expedition, I think you cannot do better than camp -on the hills or the mountains. On the other hand, if you are ordinarily -accustomed to living among the hills, a camping ground on low land by -sea or lake will bring you the greatest change. Some girls might prefer -to camp deep in the very heart of the woods. Personally I do not. I -think it is likely to be very damp there, and to be so enclosed on every -side that the life grows dull. I like a camping ground on the shore of a -pond, or on a hill side with a big outlook, or at the mouth of a river. - -One of the most beautiful camping grounds I have ever known is in a -deserted apple orchard miles away from civilization. Once upon a time -there was a farm there, but the buildings were all burned down. Remote, -perfect, sheltered, I often think the original Garden of Eden could not -have been more beautiful. And there is the original apple tree, but in -this case most seductive as apple sauce. You make a mistake if, before -you get up your camp appetite, you assume that apple sauce need not be -taken into account. When your camp appetite is up, you will find that -the original sauce on buttered bread will put you into the original -paradisaic mood. And there are all sorts of extension of the apple that -are as good as they are harmless, apple pie, apple dumpling, apple cake, -and baked apples. - -It may not seem romantic to you, but you will find it practical and, -after all, delightful to camp a mile or so away from a good farmhouse, -as far out on the edge of the wilderness as you can get, for, the farm -within walking distance, it is possible to have a great variety of food: -fresh milk and cream, eggs, an occasional chicken, new potatoes, and -other vegetables in season. With the farm nearby, you can say, as in the -“Merry Wives of Windsor”: “Let the sky rain potatoes!” and you have your -wish fulfilled. It is probable, too, that the farmer in such an -isolated region will be glad to help in pitching the tents, in lugging -whatever needs to be lugged from the nearest village or station, in -making camp generally and, finally, in striking the camp. It is likely -that for a reasonable sum he will be glad to let you have one of his -nice big farm Dobbins and an old buggy for cruising around the country. -In any event, choose ground that affords a good run-off and is dry; -select a sheltered spot where the winds will not beat heavily upon your -tents, and never forget that clean drinking water is one of the first -essentials. Keep away from contaminated wells and all uncertain -supplies. With these injunctions in mind, you can find only a happy, -healthful, invigorating home among the “primitive pines” or under the -original apple tree. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -CAMP FIRES - - “The way to prevent big fires is to put them out while they are - small.”--CHIEF FORESTER GRAVES. - - -Lightly do we go into the woods, bent upon a holiday. There we kindle a -fire over which we are to cook our camp supper. How good it all smells, -the wood smoke, the odor of the frying bacon and fish and potatoes; how -good in the crisp evening air the warmth of the camp fire feels; and -above all, how beautiful everything is, the deep plumy branches on whose -lower sides shadows from the firelight dance, the depth of darkness -beyond the reach of the illuminating flame, the rich strange hue of the -soft grass and moss on which we are sitting! It is all beautiful with -not a suggestion of evil or terror about it, and yet, unchecked, there -is a demon of destruction in that jolly little camp fire before which we -sit. Now the supper! Nothing ever tasted better, nothing can ever taste -so good again, the fish and bacon done to a turn, the potatoes lying an -inviting brown in the frying pan, and the hot cocoa, made with condensed -milk, steaming up into the cool evening air. - -After supper we lie about the fire and sing or dream. Perhaps some one -tells a story. The hours go so rapidly that we do not know where they -have gone. And when the evening is over? The fire is still glowing, a -bed of bright coral coals and gray ash. The fire will just go out if we -leave it. Besides, we haven’t time to fetch water to put it out with. -No, nine chances out of ten, if we leave the fire it will not go out, -but smoulder on, and a breeze coming up in the night or at dawn, the -fire springs into flame again, catching on the surrounding dry grass -and pine needles. Soon, incredibly soon, it begins to leap up the -trunks of trees. Before we know it, it is springing from tree to tree, -faster than a man can leap or run. - -[Illustration: NESSMUK RANGE.] - -[Illustration: SMALL COOK FIRE.] - -In dry weather you and I could go out into the woods anywhere, and with -a match not much bigger than a good-sized darning needle, set a blaze -that would sweep over a whole county, or from county to county, or from -state to state. Millions of dollars’ worth of damage would be done, and -the chances are that the careless, wanton act would be the means of -having us put into prison--which is precisely where, given such -circumstances, we should be. - -Have we ever stopped to think for a moment, we who camp so joyfully, -what loss and injury such carelessness on our part may mean to a whole -community? To begin with, there are the forests themselves, and all they -represent in actual timber, in promise for future growth, and in -security for rain supply. Then in fighting the fire thousands of -dollars’ worth of wages will have to be paid and hundreds of men’s lives -will be in danger. The sweep and fury of such forest fires, unless one -has lived in the neighborhood of one as I have, is beyond the -comprehension or the imagination. Burning brands are blown sixty feet -and more over the tops of the highest trees and the heads of the men who -are fighting the fire. Before they can check the blaze of the fire -nearest them, one beyond them has already been started. - -Also there are the life aspects, big and small, of such a fire. Not only -are the lives of the men who fight the blaze endangered, but all the -homes, camps, farmhouses, villages, and their inmates are in imminent -risk. What it has taken others years to gather together, to construct, -may be swept away in a few hours. Helpless old people, equally helpless -little children--all may be burned. - -Beyond this question of human life, which every one will admit is a very -great one, is still another which, I am sorry to say, will not seem so -important to some girls. Maybe it is not, but if you have ever heard the -screams of an animal, terrified by fire, being burned to death, as I -have; if you have ever heard the blind frenzied terror of the stampede -which takes place, the beating of hoofs and the screams of creatures -that are trying to escape, but do not know how, as I have heard -them--then you will have a new sense of the tragedy which a forest fire -means to the creatures of the forest. Of a forest fire it may be said, -as of an evil, that there is absolutely no good in it: it is all bad, -all devastating, all injurious. - -In a forest fire scores, hundreds, thousands of wild creatures are -killed, those little creatures which, given the chance, are so friendly -with their human brothers. Think, the little chickadees, tame, gay, -resourceful, filling even the winter woods with their song, the tiny -wrens, the beautiful thrushes, the squirrels and chipmunks, who need -only half an invitation and something on the table to accept your offer -of a nut cutlet, the rabbit who lets you come within a few feet of him -while he still nibbles grass, and looks trustingly at you out of his -round prominent eyes, the bear that thrusts his head out of the edge of -the woods, full of curiosity to see what you are doing, the deer, even -the little fawn, who will become your playmate and take sugar from your -hand--all these trusting, interested, friendly creatures are killed by -the hundreds of thousands in a forest fire. The smoke stifles them, the -loud reports of the wood gases escaping from the burning trees terrify -them, and the light and heat confuse them. It is difficult to find a -single good thing to say for a forest fire. It spells devastation, loss, -untold suffering, and in its path there is only desolation. The -merciful fire-weed springs up after it, trying with its summer flame to -cover the black ravage, the gutted ground, where the demon has burned -deep into the peaty subsoil. Everywhere one sees what an awful fight for -life has taken place: thousands of little birds, suffocated by the -smoke, have dropped into the flames, thousands of creatures, tortured by -the heat, have rushed into the fire instead of away from it. Worse than -the flood is fire, because the suffering is so much the greater. Somehow -there is something utterly, irredeemably tragic to any one who has gone -over these great fire-swept stretches of land in our country; the thick -stagnant water that is left, the charred bones, and the look of waste -which shall never meet in the space of a human life with repair. - -No time to put out the camp fire? That little fire will just go out of -itself, will it? Yes, probably, when it has accomplished what I have -described for you, when it has killed happy life, razed the beautiful -trees, gutted out the earth, and devoured, careless of agony, all that -it will have. Fire is the dragon of our modern wilderness, and it will -be glutted and gorged, and not satisfied until it is. That jolly little -camp fire is worth keeping an eye on, it is worth the trouble, even if -we have to go half a mile to fetch it, to get a pail of water and ring -the embers around with the wet so that the fire cannot spread. Never -leave a camp fire burning; no registered guide would do such a thing, -and no sportsman. It is only those who don’t know or who are criminally -careless who would. If the public will not take responsibility in this -matter, the fire wardens are helpless. Some enemies these men must -inevitably fight: the lightning which strikes a dead, punky stump in the -midst of dry woods, which, smouldering a long while, finally bursts into -flame; the spark from an engine; even spontaneous combustion due to -imprisoned gases acted upon by sun-heat. But there is one enemy which -the fire wardens should not need to meet, and that is man: the boy or -girl camping, the man who drops a cigar stump or match carelessly onto -dry leaves, the hunter who uses combustible wadding in his shotgun. Let -us help the fire wardens, those men who live on lonely mountain summits -or in the midst of the wilderness with eyes ever vigilant to detect the -starting of a fire--let us help, I say, these fire wardens to get rid of -one nuisance at least, and let us keep our great, cool, wonderful -American forests as beautiful as they have ever been and should always -be for those who are in a holiday humor. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -OTHER SMOKE - - -There will not be much opportunity to dwell on all the wealth of -information that comes to the real camper. The life of the woods is not -only a lively one, but one teeming with intelligences and the kind of -information which one can get no place else. My years of camping have -stored my mind full of pictures and full of memories about which I could -write indefinitely. In the practical activities of camp life we mustn’t -forget that the silent wonderful life of the wilderness is ours to study -if we but bring keen eyes to it, quick hearing and receptive minds. - -Let me tell you of one experience which I had some four years ago on the -edge of a solitary little pond in the forest wilderness. Our way lay -over a narrow trail, now through birches full of light, then through -maples, past spruce and other trees, down, down, down toward the little -pond which lay like a jewel at the bottom of a hollow. It was a favorite -spot for beavers and we were going to watch them work. Their rising time -is sundown, so we should be there before they were up. It was growing -quieter and quieter in the ever-quiet woods, and when we hid ourselves -behind some bushes near the edge of the pond on the opposite side from -the beaver houses, there was scarcely a sound, and the drip of the water -from a heron’s wings as the bird mounted in flight, seemed astonishingly -loud. - -Soon the beavers, unaware of us, came out of their houses and began to -work, steadily and silently. We knew them for what they were, builders -of dams, of bridges, of houses, mighty in battle so that a single stroke -from their broad flat tails kills a dog instantly, wood cutters, -carriers of mud and stone--animals endowed with almost human -intelligence and with an industry greater than human. And I never saw -work done more quietly, efficiently and silently than I did that night -by the edge of Beaver Pond. - -As we sat there peering through the bushes I thought instinctively of -the silent work which we do within ourselves or which is done for us. -Deep down within us so much is going on of which “we,” as we speak of -the conscious outer self, are not aware. Take, for example, the frequent -and common experience of forgetting a word or a name. Despite the -greatest effort we cannot recall it, and finding ourselves helpless we -dismiss the matter from our minds and go on to other things. Suddenly, -without any seeming effort on our part the word has come to us. Now this -reveals a great truth about a great silent power: _all we have to do is -to set the right forces to work and frequently the work is done for us_. -With this serviceable power within us, why not make use of it -habitually? It renews itself constantly and waits for us to call upon it -for protection, for comfort, for correction and strength. It insists -only that we think as nearly rightly as we can. Beavers of silence are -busy within us. - -Much of the work of this silent power is done in our sleep-time. It is -important, therefore, that our last thoughts at night and our first in -the morning should be the best of which we are capable. Prayer is a -profound acknowledgment of this power within us. We have all heard the -expression, “the night brings counsel.” And probably most of us have -said, “Oh, well, we’ll just sleep on that!” Why “sleep on it”? Because -we have confidence in this silent power whose processes, whether we -sleep or wake, are constantly at work within us, even as night and day, -a natural power, directs the growth of tree and flower. Again we have -counted upon the work of industrious beavers of silence--the silent -workers within each one of us. - -The woods are full of lessons never to be learned any place else. -Insensibly are we, in this vast big intelligent life of the forest, led -on to meditate about the things we see. I often wish not only that I -could place myself at certain times in those solitary places by edge of -pond, deep in forest, on the hillside, following the trail, but also -that I might send a friend or two to the healing which can be found in -the wilderness. For example, the girls who find nothing but troubles and -vexations in life, who groan if the conversation languishes, are likely -to have some of their troubles slip away from them and their talk become -more cheerful. Who can be in the woods, who can live in the great out of -doors and not feel optimistic, at least hopeful and interested? To -every girl inclined to be moody, often to suffer from the conviction -that living is difficult and perhaps not worth while, I commend camp -life. Activity, distraction are its powerful and wholesome remedies for -melancholy. In that life one is obliged to work mind and body much as -the beavers work, one’s attention is held to something every minute. The -whole current of our thoughts has been changed and for the time being we -are distracted from the old bruised ways of thinking. The very -alteration that comes with wood life gives us a chance to think rightly. -Who can be troubled or bored or bad tempered and follow the trail? Who -can be indifferent and be conscious of the energy and intelligence of -beaver and squirrel, of rabbit and bird, of deer and moose? Soon the -whole misery-breeding brood of cares, of doubts, of perplexities that -existed before we left our home drop away from us. We can use the -influence of this vast sane life of the wilderness for ourselves and by -its strength make good. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -FITTING UP THE CAMP FOR USE - - -Any girl who has crossed the ocean knows how impossible, the first time -she entered her little white cabin, that bit of space looked as a place -in which to sleep and to spend part of her time. There seemed to be no -room in it for anything; it was difficult to turn around in, there were -so few hooks on which to hang things, and the berth--dear me, that -berth! So her thoughts ran. Yet gradually, as she learned the ropes, she -was able to make it homelike. With experience she learned that the more -bags she had in which to put things, the easier it was to keep this -little stateroom in order. The next time she took with her every -conceivable sort of bag for every conceivable sort of object. Also she -had learned that the more she could do without unnecessary things in her -cabin and steamer trunk, the more comfort was hers to enjoy. By the time -she had crossed the ocean often, she had learned the art of having -little but all that she needed with her--the art of making herself -comfortable in a stateroom. - -Even so is there an art in learning how to camp, a happy art of which -there is always something left to learn. The oldest campers never get -beyond the point where they can make a slight improvement in their kit -or their methods. In the end you will work out your own salvation for -the kind of camping you wish to do. It is my intention to point out to -you only what might be called the ground plan of fitting up a camp for -use. Those little individual adaptations which every one of us makes, -increasing familiarity with camp life will help you to make for -yourselves. - -First, last, and always, when making out your camp lists, revise them -carefully with the idea of cutting out everything unnecessary. All -besides what you actually need will be clutter. The best way to do is to -make out your lists, putting down everything that comes to you. Then go -over them by yourselves and a second time with some one else. Your check -lists for camp are important and should always be conscientiously made -out, with nothing left to chance, nothing done hit or miss. - -If you are to furnish a camp, remember that your packing boxes can do -great work in helping to set you up in your new home. In rough camping -such boxes do well for dressers, washstands and, with a little -carpentry, also for clothes presses. A piece of enameled cloth on the -top of the one to be used as a washstand, and a towel or white curtain -strung on a string in front of it, behind which you can put dirty -clothes, make a thoroughly satisfactory article of furniture. In camp -there is no need to think about elegance. Fitness and usefulness are all -the girl need ever consider. It is astonishing how much beauty your -homely cabin and white tent will acquire--a beauty all their own. - -For tent camping the usual camp cot bed is probably most satisfactory, -for it is light and readily carried. If you are on the march and -carrying at the most a tent fly for protection, you will, of course, -sleep on bough beds or browse beds. Small, cut saplings, well trimmed, -make good springs for beds. Any guide can help you to make the beds, and -you would better be about it early, for it takes a good three-quarters -of an hour to make a comfortable bough bed. Perhaps a few suggestions -will not come amiss. You will, of course, have both good hunting knives, -worn in a leather sheath on a leather belt, and belt-sheath hatchets. -With the hatchet cut down a stout little balsam tree. From this break -the tips from the big branches, having them about one foot in length. -These foot-length stems make good bed springs and are the only bed -springs you will have on a balsam couch unless you provide the spring -yourself because of some green worm who is industriously measuring off -the length of your nose, no doubt in amazement that there should be -anything so extraordinarily long in the world. However, he is a harmless -little chap, and the balsam tree having treated him very kindly, he will -be greatly surprised at any other kind of entertainment which he may -receive from you. Now, having got your “feathers,” select a smooth piece -of ground with a slight slope toward the foot. Press the stems of the -feathers into the earth, laying them tier after tier as you have seen a -roof shingled, until your bed is wide enough, long enough, and soft -enough to give you a good and sweet-scented night of sleep upon it. -Lay a fair-sized log along each side and across the foot. This balsam -bough bed can be made up as often as you wish with fresh feathers. Place -one blanket on top and it is ready for your use. If you have got pitch -on your hands in doing this, rub them with a little butter or lard and -it will come off. - -[Illustration: DR. CARRINGTON’S SLEEPING BAG.] - -[Illustration: “KENWOOD” SLEEPING BAG.] - -[Illustration: RUSTIC CAMP COT.] - -There is still an easier bed to make. A bag of stout bed ticking, filled -with leaves and grass, forms an excellent mattress and has the virtue of -being portable, for the bag can always be emptied, folded up, packed, -and refilled at the next camp ground. A thin rubber blanket or poncho -laid over this makes it an absolutely dry bed at all times. If you are -to camp in a log cabin, probably the most comfortable bed for you to -plan is a spring, bought at the nearest village, and nailed onto log -posts a foot and a half high. With your ticking mattress filled with -straw, your day lived in the great out of doors, no one will need to -wish you pleasant slumber. - -It is well to have a good supply of tarlatan on hand. This is finer than -mosquito netting and therefore more impervious to stinging insects. If -you camp in June, or the first week or so in July, you are likely in -many parts of the country to find black flies, mosquitoes, and midges to -battle against. There should be enough tarlatan to use over the camp bed -and also enough to cover completely a hat with a brim and to fall down -about the neck, where it can be tied under the collar. A more expensive -head-net of black silk Brussels net can be made. This costs a good deal -more, but the great advantage of it is, that the black does not alter -the colors of the world out upon which one looks. Don’t make any mistake -about the importance of some kind of netting and fly dope, or “bug -juice,” as the antidotes for insect bites are sometimes called. There -are various kinds of fly dope, any one of which is likely to prove -useful. There is an excellent recipe for the making of your own fly dope -in Breck’s “Way of the Woods,” which I give here.[6] A tiny vial of -ammonia will also prove useful. One drop on a bite will often stop -further poisoning from an insect sting. Inquiries should always be made -beforehand whether one is likely to encounter black flies and midges. -Those who have met them once are not likely to wish to have a second -unprotected meeting. They are the pests of the woods and the wilderness. - - [6] “Breck’s Dope: - Pine tar 3 oz. - Olive oil 2 “ - Oil pennyroyal 1 “ - Citronella 1 “ - Creosote 1 “ - Camphor (pulverized) 1 “ - Large tube carbolated vaseline. - -Heat the tar and oil and add the other ingredients; simmer over slow -fire until well mixed. The tar may be omitted if disliked.” - -I will give, just as they occur to me, a few other articles which will -be useful in the camp life: a small cake of camphor to break over things -in the knapsack and keep off crawlers; a small emergency box containing -surgeon’s plaster and the usual things; vaseline, witch hazel; jack -knife; tool kit; a map of the region in which you are camping and a -diary in which to take notes. To these might be added sewing articles, a -sleeping bag if you care to use one, and a folding brown duck waterpail. -The catalog from any sporting goods place will suggest a thousand other -articles which you may care to have. - -With a few planks to saw up into lengths, and a few white birch -saplings, a most attractive camp dinner table can be made. Over this a -piece of white oilcloth should be laid and kept clean by the use of a -little sapolio. It is best not to buy an expensive stove for the cabin. -A second-hand kitchen range, which can be purchased for a few dollars, -will do quite well for the cooking cabin or shack, and an open Franklin -stove for the living cabin. If one is going to camp in tents and wants a -stove in one of them, it will be necessary to buy a regular tent stove. -Anything else would not be safe. - -As far as actual furniture is concerned, except for camp stools or -benches and camp chairs, if you wish to be very elegant, the camp is now -furnished. But there are still to be considered the necessary utensils -for cooking and other purposes. I will enumerate them again just as they -occur to me, and not necessarily in the order of their importance: -kerosene oil can, molasses jug, pails, a tin baker, a teapot, tin and -earthen dishes, tin and earthen cups, basins for washing, pans for -baking and for milk, dishpans, dishmop, double boiler, broiler, knives, -forks, teaspoons, tablespoons, mixing spoons, pepper box, salt shaker, -nutmeg grater, flour sifter, can opener, frying pans--one with a long -handle for use in cooking over open fires--butcher knife, bread knife, -lantern, bucket, egg beater, potato masher, rolling pin, axe, hatchet, -nails, hammer, toilet paper, woolen blankets, rubber blankets, crash for -dish towels, yellow soap, some wire, twine, tacks, and a small fireless -cooker if you know how to use one. A good fireless cooker can be built -on the premises. - -Possessed of these articles, any one who knows anything about the woods -can be most comfortable. They can, of course, be added to indefinitely. -One may make camp life as expensive and complicated as one pleases. But -to do that seems a pity, for it is against the very good and spirit of -the wilderness life. The wood life and all its new and invigorating -experience should take us back to nature. It is for that we go into the -wilderness and not to bring with us the luxuries of civilization. Part -of the wholesomeness of camp life lies in learning to do without, in the -fine simplicity which we are obliged to practice there. Common sense is -the law of the wilderness life, and let us be sure that we follow that -law. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE POCKETBOOK - - -One of the objects of some girls on their camping expeditions is to keep -the trip from becoming too expensive. The maximum of value must be got -from the minimum of pence. And I think that is as it should be, for, -with economy, the life is kept nearer a simple ideal, is made more -active and more wholesome. All sorts and conditions of camping have been -my lot, the five-dollar-a-day camping in a log cabin (?) equipped with -running water and a porcelain tub, and the kind of camping one does -under a fly with the rain and sunshine and wind driving in at their -pleasure. Although I do not advise the latter as far as health results -are concerned, given that the party is in fair condition they will be -none the worse for the experiment. - -Camping for a party of four or five should usually cost something -between eight dollars and eighteen dollars apiece per week. This rate -includes a guide and a good deal of service, a rowboat, a canoe, and no -care about food. But the longer I camp the more I am of the opinion that -the simpler and more independent the life is, the greater health and -pleasure it will bring. It has been said about camping, “Much for -little: much health, much good fellowship and good temper, much -enjoyment of beauty--and all for little money and, rightly judged, for -no trouble at all.” - -[Illustration: “TANALITE” WATERPROOF WALL TENT.] - -[Illustration: TOILET TENT.] - -[Illustration: KHAKI STANDARD ARMY DUCK WALL TENT.] - -[Illustration: TENT STOVE-PIPE HOLE.] - -[Illustration: FRAZER CANOE TENT.] - -[Illustration: WATERPROOF DINING FLYS FOR WALL TENT.] - -The girl who is the right sort gets more fun out of camp life when she -does at least part of the work herself. Let her economize and use her -own ingenuity and do the work. Any group of three or four girls can -provide all the necessary “grub” for themselves at $3 a week per -capita. This sum does not include rental or purchase of tent. A good -tent, 7 × 7, big enough for two at a pinch, can be bought complete (this -does not include fly) for about $7. You can get tents second-hand often -for a song, or as a loan, or you can rent your tent for 10 cents a day. -Get at least a few numbers of one or several of the following sporting -magazines: _Outing_, _Country Life in America_, _Forest and Stream_, -_Field and Stream_, _Recreation_, _Rod and Gun in Canada_. Look in the -advertisement pages of these magazines for the names of sporting goods -houses and send for catalogs. Then choose your style of tent. The -different kinds of tents are legion. The Kenyon Take-Down House, too, is -a capital camp home. It is “skeet”-proof and fly-proof. Send to Michigan -for a catalog, and then go like the classic turtle with your shell on -your back. In groups of four or more, the $10 laid by for a vacation -should bring two holiday weeks--possibly a day or so over; $15, three -weeks and a bit over, and $20 a whole glorious month. Expensive camping -may be the “style” in certain localities, but it is not necessarily the -“fun.” - -For eight weeks this past summer my family of two members camped with -two servants. In addition we had the occasional services of a man who -did all the heavy work. There was not enough for the servants to do in -the cottage and log cabin of our establishment. They were discontented, -faultfinding, and wholly out of the spirit of camp life. All of the day -that their tone of voice reached was helplessly ruined. The only way to -keep the camp joy and pleasure was to keep out of their way. On our camp -table we had silver, embroidered linen cloths, the same food, in almost -the same variety, that we had it at home, and the same amount of -service. All I can say is that it was a perfect nuisance--as perfectly -planned and executed a nuisance as one could well conceive. Everywhere -these servants looked they found things which did not suit them. What I -think they wished was a modest twenty-thousand-dollar cottage in that -great and wonderful wilderness. - -[Illustration: FRAME FOR BOUGH LEAN-TO.] - -[Illustration: BOUGH LEAN-TO.] - -In the autumn I camped alone for two weeks in a log cabin. I say alone. -I was not alone, for I had three friends with me--a collie puppy, a -blind fawn, and a year-old cat. They were the best of companions--for -better I could not have asked. I never heard a word of faultfinding, and -I was witness to a great deal of joy. It is a curious fact about camp -life that if a girl has weak places in her character, if she is selfish -or peevish or faultfinding or untidy, these weaknesses will all come -out. But my four-footed friends were good nature itself, young, growing, -happy, contented. And they had excellent appetites. I tell you this -because I want you to see how much of an item their food was in the -expenses I shall enumerate. This might be called a little intimate -history of at least one camp pocketbook. The fawn had a quart of milk a -day and much lettuce, together with the kind of food which deer live -upon: leaves, grass, clover, ferns. I had to pay for her bedding of hay. -The puppy and the cat shared another quart of milk between them. The cat -hunted by night, but the puppy was fed entirely by hand on bread, milk, -an occasional egg, cereals, and vegetables. My own fare consisted of all -the bread and butter I wished, cocoa, condensed milk, bananas, apples, -eggs, potatoes, beans, nuts, raisins, cauliflower, chocolate, and a few -other articles. And there was, too, the denatured alcohol to be paid -for--a heavy item, for I used only a chafing dish and a small spirit -lamp. The milk was eight cents a quart on account of the carriage, the -butter was thirty-eight cents a pound, the eggs twenty-five cents a -dozen. Except for cutting up and splitting the wood for my open Franklin -stove, the wood cost me nothing. But I paid a man a dollar for half a -day’s work. We weren’t seven, but we were four in that camp community. -How much do you think the food for all averaged per week in those two -weeks? Three dollars a week, and we had all that we wanted and more, -too. - -When girls plan carefully and intelligently, when they exercise good -sense in the cooking and care of food, there is no reason why, with a -party of four or five girls, from three dollars to four dollars apiece -per week should not cover all living, exclusive, of course, of the -traveling expenses. And the camping can be done for less. I commend -these expense items to all Vacation Bureaus and to Camp Fire Girls. - -In the two weeks I camped alone I was very busy with my writing. To this -I was obliged to give most of the daylight. Besides this, I had much -business correspondence to attend to. It takes time to care properly for -animals, and my pets had not only to be fed, but also to be brushed and -generally cared for. I planned to spend some time every day with the -blind fawn so that I might amuse her. I did all these things, took care -of my little cabin, had time for a walk every afternoon, and went to bed -when the birds did, to get up the next morning at five o’clock. Had I -been able to give my thought entirely to the food question, I am certain -that the expense of these items might have been made even less. - -Some girls will think this is getting back to the simple life with a -vengeance. So it was but I can assure you that those two weeks were most -happy and profitable in every way--far better than the over-served, -over-fed months which had preceded them. For any girl who needs to -forget how superficial to the real needs of life the luxuries are; for -any girl who is lazy in household ways; for any girl who needs character -building; for any girl who is in need of deep breathing and the pines; -for any girl who wants more active life than she gets in her own home; -for any girl who is of an experimental or adventurous turn of mind; for -any girl who needs to be drawn away from her books; for any girl who -wants to form new friendships in a big, sane, and beautiful world where -the greetings are all friendly; for any girl--for every girl--who wants -much for little; the log cabin, the tent, the shack in the wilderness, -by pond or lake, upon the hillsides or in the valleys, will prove a “joy -forever.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE CAMP DOG - - -When I began to go into the wilderness to camp, I was much more -credulous than I am now. Everywhere I went in the woods I saw an -implement which looked like a cross between a pickaxe with a long handle -and the largest pair of tweezers ever seen. This was always lying up -against something as if just ready for use, much as one sees an axe -resting against a cabin wall or on a chopping block. I couldn’t make out -what this could be used for. Finally, curiosity getting the better of me -and no opportunity for seeing it used offering itself, I asked. - -“Oh, that,” answered the guide with a twinkle in his eye, “that is the -camp dog.” - -“How nice!” I thought. “Why is it called camp dog?” - -“Well, you see it does most of the work for us and being so faithful and -handy we’ve just got naturally into the way of calling it a camp dog.” - -I was still more impressed when he gave me then and there several -illustrations of its usefulness. But the end of the tale of the camp dog -is not yet,--in fact it was a very long tale for me, the end of which -you shall have in good season. - -Generally speaking it may be said that it is the guide and not this -implement which is the camp dog. It is he who is faithful, always handy, -always willing. And it is he who is more imposed upon than any other -member of the camp community. The guide is a responsible person,--_the_ -responsible person. He is usually registered and his pay is always good. -He needs every dollar he gets and every bit of authority, too, for he -works hard and often for groups of people who are thorough in only one -respect and that is in their irresponsibility. The guide has to be sure -that fires are kindled in the right places and that they are really out -when they should be; he must keep his party from foolhardy acts of any -kind; he must be sure that they have a good time and certain that they -are not overtaxed; if it comes off cold or is cold, he must keep them -warm; he must see, despite every vicissitude, that they are enjoying -themselves; he must do the cooking--and he must be a good cook,--boil -the coffee, wash the dishes, pitch and strike the tents; he must pilot -the members of the party to the best places for fishing, often bait -their hooks or teach them how to bait, dig their worms; and give their -first lessons in casting a fly; must instruct them in all necessary wood -craft and keep them from shooting wildly; he must see that the game laws -of the state are observed, also the fire laws; if anything should -happen to a member of his party, he will, in all likelihood, be held -responsible for it; and finally, always and all the time, no matter how -he himself feels, he must be agreeable, obliging, useful. - -Now if the man who has all these burdens to bear is not a camp dog, I -should like to know what he is? To those of us who have been into the -woods year after year, it is a sort of boundless irritation to see some -members of the camping party sitting about idle while the guide does the -work. Part of the value of camp life is its activity, its activities. -Another part of its good is the skill which comes from learning to be -useful in the woods. The life out-of-doors should be a constant training -in manual work,--call it wood work if you wish. I am reminded of a story -told in “Vanity Fair” about a lazy, indifferent student who was in the -class of a famous physicist. The freshman sprawled in the rear seat and -was sleeping or was about to go to sleep. - -“Mr. Fraser,” said the physicist sharply, “you may recite.” - -Fraser opened his eyes but he did not change his somnolent pose. - -“Mr. Fraser, what is work?” - -“Everything is work.” - -“What, everything is work?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“Then I take it you would like the class to believe that this desk is -work?” - -“Yes, sir,” wearily, “wood work.” - -From the moment that school of the woods is entered every girl has her -wood work cut out for her, if she is taking camping in the right spirit. -It is all team play in the wilderness, or if it is not, it is a rather -poor game. Helpfulness is one of the first rules and every camper should -be willing to help the guide. Usually the guides are a fine set of self -respecting, dignified, resourceful men. And I think it might be said -with considerable truthfulness that when they are not what they ought to -be, it is nine times out of ten due to the undesirable influence of the -parties they have worked for. Your guide is your equal in most respects -and your superior in others. He should be met on a footing of equality. -I use this word advisedly and I do _not_ mean familiarity. Well-bred -girls do not meet anyone, whether in the wilderness or in civilization, -on this footing immediately. The party should be willing and glad to -help the guide in every possible way. That does not signify doing his -work for him but it does indicate helping him. - -A routine of some sort should be adopted and is one of the best ways to -assist him. One girl should be on duty at one time and another at -another and all in regular rotation. No camp life can go on -successfully without some law and order of this sort. For it is just as -necessary for the smooth running of household wheels in the log cabin as -it is in the city home. Whoever occupies the guide’s position, that is -the one who is chiefly responsible for everything, should be ably helped -by the whole party but not by the whole party at the same time. Evolve a -system for the particular conditions of the camp life in which you find -yourself and stick to it. Let one girl or one set of girls help one day -and another the next. Let the girl be detailed to do one kind of work -one day and another another. This system, with proper rotation, means -that nobody gets tired of her work. A girl cannot be too self-reliant if -she is ever to be wise in the way of the woods. There is no need for -discouragement if everything is not learned at once, for camping is like -skating and is an art to be learned only through many tumbles and -mistakes. Be prepared to take it and yourself lightly--in short, to -laugh readily over the mistakes made in the art of living in the woods. - -Now we have come to the very tip of the tail of the camp dog. You will -be interested to know how an old timer was obliged to laugh at herself. -I am ashamed to tell you how recently this occurred. I was in the -northernmost wilderness of the state of Maine, and near a big lumber -camp, when I saw a “camp dog” lying on the ground, its long axe handle -shining from use, its pickaxe blade a bright steel color, and the tooth -at the back looking as if it had been often used. I was delighted. - -“Oh,” I said to my guide, “look at that camp dog lying there!” - -He was particularly attentive to my pronunciation, for he said I -pronounced some words, such as “girl,” as he had never heard them -pronounced before. I saw a curious expression pass across his face. - -“What did you say that was?” he asked. - -“Why, that camp dog lying there.” - -“Camp dog!” - -Then he began to laugh and he kept right on until the woods echoed with -his roars. - -“Well,” he said finally, wiping away the tears, “if that doesn’t beat -everything! That isn’t a camp dog, that’s a cant dog,--you know what you -cant logs and heavy things over with, roll ’em over and pry ’em up with -when you couldn’t do it any other way. My grief, to think of your -calling that a camp dog all these years!” - -And he went off into another guffaw. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE OUTDOOR TRAINING SCHOOL - - -Many girls think of outdoor life as of something to be enjoyed if they -have plenty of time. As a matter of course they take their daily bath. -But the outdoor exercise comes as an accessory. It is still -unfortunately true that boys more than girls take camp life for granted. -Yet girls, and students particularly, should realize that it is economy -of time to be out of doors. This they need both for their work and for -their health. Outdoor exercise, with its bath of fresh air and the -natural bath of freshly circulating blood it brings with it, its -training school for the whole girl, is as essential as the tub or sponge -bath. But how many of us think of it in that way? - -To be outdoors is to have the nerves keyed to the proper pitch. If fresh -air is not a tonic to the nerves, then why is it that moodiness and -depression fall away as we walk or row or lie under the trees, and we -become saner and more serene? When one is depressed the best thing to do -is to go out of doors. Altogether aside from any formal wisdom of book -or student or teacher, there is wisdom with nature. _If the head is -tired, go out of doors! If the body is fagged, go out of doors! If the -heart is troubled, go out of doors!_ The life out there, as no life -indoors can, will make for health, for charity, for bigness. Petty -things fall away, and with nature equanimity and poise are found again. -It isn’t necessary to bother someone about woes real or imaginary. All -that is necessary is to get out among the trees and flowers, the sky and -clouds, the joyous birds and little creatures of field and wood, and -hear what they have to say. There will be no complaining among them, -even about very real difficulties. - -A great deal is heard concerning hygiene in these days, the study of it, -the practice of it. The biggest university of hygiene in the world is -not within houses but outside, up that hillside where the trees are -blowing, in the doorway of our tent, on the lawn in front of the house, -out on the lake, even on a city house-top, and, last resort if -necessary, by an open window. One reason why many people are concerned -about this question of hygiene is because they know that not only are -human beings happier when they are well and strong, but also because a -healthy person is, nine times out of ten, more moral than one who is -sick or sickly. Ill health means offense of some kind, often one’s own, -against the laws of nature or society. We have, too, to pay for one -another’s faults. But life lived on sound physical principles, with -plenty of sunshine, cold water, exercise, wind, rain, simple food and -sensible clothing, is not likely to be sickly, useless or burdensome. - -[Illustration: BITTERN] - -[Illustration: LOON] - -[Illustration: PARTRIDGE] - -[Illustration: RED-BREASTED MERGANSER] - -[Illustration: WOODCOCK] - -[Illustration: MALLARD] - -The body is not a mechanism to be disregarded, but an exquisitely made -machine to be exquisitely cared for. Nobody would trust an engineer to -run an engine he knows nothing about. Yet most of us are running our -engines without any knowledge of the machinery. Why should we excuse -ourselves for lack of knowledge and care when, for the same reasons a -chauffeur, for example, would be immediately dismissed? How many of us -know that the nerves are more or less dependent upon the muscles for -their tone? How many of us realize how important it is to keep in -perfect muscular condition? We sit hour after hour in our chairs, all -our muscles relaxed, bending over books, and begrudge one hour--it ought -to be three or four!--out of doors. The person who can run furthest -and swiftest is the one with the strongest heart. The person who can -work longest and to the greatest advantage is the one who has kept his -bodily health.... _It may be laid down as an absolute rule that any -individual can do more and better work when he is well than when he is -not in good physical condition._ Ceaseless activity is the law of nature -and the body that is resolutely active does not grow old as rapidly as -the one that is physically indolent. - -Much out-of-door life, much camping, keep one young in heart, too. It -isn’t possible to grow old or sophisticated among such a wealth of -joyous, wholesome friendships as may be found in nature, where no -unclean word is ever heard and where no unfriendliness, no false pride, -no jealousy can exist. A great English poet, William Wordsworth, has -told us more of the shaping power of nature, its quickening spirit, its -power of restoration, than any other poet. It would be well for every -girl to take that wonderful poem “Tintern Abbey” out of doors and read -it there. Wordsworth, still a very young man when he wrote it, tells how -he loved the Welsh landscape and the tranquil restoration it had brought -him - - “’mid the din - Of towns and cities.” - -A higher gift he acknowledges, too, when through the harmony and joy of -nature he had been led to see deeply “into the life of things.” - -There is something the matter with a girl who hasn’t an appetite, as -sharp as hunger, to escape from her books and camp out of doors. If -outdoor life cannot engross her wholly at times, banishing all thoughts -of work, then she should make an effort to forget books and everything -connected with them for a while. A young girl ought to be skillful in -all sorts of outdoor accomplishments, rowing, swimming, riding and -driving if possible, canoeing, skating, sailing a boat, fishing, -hunting, mountain climbing. - -Fortunately there is more of the play-spirit connected with outdoor life -than there used to be. Both school and college have fostered this -wholesome attitude. If a girl doesn’t like active sports she should -cultivate a love for them. You can always trust a person who is -accomplished in physical ways, for anyone who has led an intelligent -out-of-door life is more self-reliant. Her faculty for doing things, her -inventiveness, her poise, her “nerve” are all strengthened. I recall an -instance of this “faculty” and inventiveness. We were on a wild Maine -lake when an accident happened to the canoe, a necessity to our return, -for we were far away from all sources of help. Apparently there was -nothing with which to mend it. But our Indian guide found there -everything he needed ready for his use. He scraped gum off a tree, he -cut a piece of bark, and then he rummaged about until he discovered an -old wire. With these things he securely mended a big hole. Oftentimes it -seems as if the very appliances with which city children are provided -tend to make them incapable. - -[Illustration: YELLOWBIRD] - -[Illustration: FIELD SPARROW] - -[Illustration: SONG SPARROW] - -[Illustration: GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH] - -[Illustration: CHIPPING SPARROW] - -[Illustration: WOOD THRUSH] - -[Illustration: HERMIT THRUSH] - -[Illustration: SWAINSON’S THRUSH] - -[Illustration: WILSON’S THRUSH] - -[Illustration: PHŒBE BIRD] - -[Illustration: SCARLET TANAGER] - -[Illustration: MARYLAND YELLOWTHROAT] - -[Illustration: BLUEBIRD] - -[Illustration: WREN] - -[Illustration: BLUE JAY] - -[Illustration: CHICKADEE] - -[Illustration: RUBYTHROAT] - -[Illustration: WHIP-POOR-WILL] - -[Illustration: NIGHT HAWK] - -[Illustration: SCREECH OWL] - -The girl who lives out of doors acquires unlimited resourcefulness. -Outdoor life quickens and sharpens the perception. And for the girl to -have her power of observation sharpened is worth a great deal. The -capacity for accurate and quick observation education from books does -not always develop. One must go back to nature for that, one must live -out in the woods and fields all one can, one must be able to tell the -scent of honeysuckle from the scent of the rose, and know the fragrance -of milkweed even before that homely weed is seen, and know spruce, -balsam and white pine even as one knows a friend. Eyes must be able to -detect the differences not only in colors and shapes of birds, but in -their flight, and ears know every song of wood and field. Then the -services of beauty, its music, its color, its form, will be always about -us and nature’s health and strength and beauty become our own, not only -her gaiety and “vital feelings of delight,” but also her restraint upon -weakness, and her kindling to the highest life--the life that is -spiritual. - -[Illustration: BLACK SPRUCE] - -[Illustration: BALSAM FIR] - -[Illustration: WHITE PINE] - -[Illustration: BLACK OAK] - -[Illustration: BEECH] - -[Illustration: LARCH] - -[Illustration: BIRCHES] - -[Illustration: CHESTNUT] - -[Illustration: HORSE CHESTNUT] - -[Illustration: MOUNTAIN MAPLE] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE CAMP HABIT - - -If there were no such thing as habit, life would be nothing but a -perpetual beginning and recommencing over and over again. All that we do -or think marks us with its imprint, leaving behind it a tendency--a -tendency towards repetition is the beginning of habit, and because of it -we can get the camp habit just as we can get any other habit. The -instinct to repeat our camping out of doors gradually grows stronger. At -last, scarcely conscious of the existence of the demand, we have come to -feel that we cannot pass our holiday in any other way. The first camping -experience stands out in bold relief because it is new. As we live into -it, its first impressions are lost. And it is at this moment, if we are -made of the right stuff and have in us the right longings and needs, -that we begin to have the camp habit. - -Just as with people, maybe we scarcely realize how much it means to us. -But let us stop to think about it, let us give this good camp habit a -full opportunity if we can in our lives. Already the camp habit has -become a need, almost an imperious demand. We feel that once in so often -it must be satisfied and in the splendid grip of this good habit we make -way for it. Never let us become dull to any of its values. Never let us -forget, however shot with black and white it may be, even gray at times, -the difficulties of camping may make life seem--never let us forget the -treasures that it pours in upon us and the ways in which the camp habit -serves us. - -It is a sad and a great truth which perhaps women and girls have not yet -fully realized, that the whole manner of our body, of our souls is -controlled by the goodness, or the badness of our habits, our moral -character, our physical temperament. There is a sort of natural -medicine, raising what is not good inevitably up to what is better. That -is what the camp habit does for us, raising what is not healthy, not -strong, not sane, not joyous, not self-reliant up to what is strong, -healthy, joyous and full of self-control. Is not this alone sufficient -reason for giving the camp habit once in so often full sway in our -lives? What better could we do than, in order to re-establish ourselves, -to claim again the wise big relationships of out-of-doors and a thousand -and one little and big friends whom we can find there? - -Bad habits are thieves, for they take away our energies, our abilities, -our joys. And the indoor habit is a thief. It shortens life, it takes -away from health, it saps energies, it dilutes joys, it makes foggy -heads and punky morals. The sane girl will get out of doors every -opportunity instead of spending her time in a hot room, playing cards, -or eating stuff that is not fit to put into the human stomach or -flirting with boys, who if they are the right sort of boys, would much -prefer, too, to be out of doors. Good habits, like this camp habit are -benefactors, great philanthropists; they strengthen us and they give us -more energy. They increase our ability, they multiply our joys compound -interest-wise. Good habits are careful accountants and every day or -every year as it may be, they put the interest of strength, of -intelligence, of joy, in our hands to be used as we think best. The camp -habit wisely used, obliges us to open our eyes and see life more truly. -It obliges us to lift our own weight, take our part in things, that part -may be washing dishes or it may be turning griddle cakes,--it forces us -to know ourselves better and it gives us more power to control -ourselves. The camp habit--get it quickly if you haven’t it -already--assures us of good health and success where, for example, the -indoor habit has brought us nothing but ill health and failure. It is a -habit worth while getting, isn’t it? - -A good many of us know ourselves, such as we are, pretty well and we -feel that we do not want to know ourselves any better. Things are bad -enough as they are. Yet if we can’t have a more intimate knowledge of -ourselves, if we don’t arrange our lives better, if we don’t plan for -the future more carefully, what are our lives likely to be like when the -curtain goes down? How are we ever going to take the proverbial ounce of -prevention if we are not certain to a fraction what it is we must -prevent? Camp is a splendid opportunity to think a little about those -things of which we have been afraid to think. It is a good opportunity -to meditate, a friendly world to which to go to know ourselves better. -It is an old saying that the first step towards the recovery of health -is to know yourself ill. In that great out-of-door world which our -American camp life represents it is easier to find ourselves morally -than it is indoors, we get more help for one thing. It is almost an -instinct in great trouble or bewilderment or difficulty to escape into -the out-of-door world, to get back to earth and to ask from the great -mother those counsels we hear dimly or indifferently indoors. - -Wisdom will not be found in one camp holiday or in fifty or in a -lifetime even. But it is rather strange, isn’t it, that the person whom -we know least is so frequently ourselves? We know very well that the -most learned man or woman is not the one whose head is stuffed with -information, is not necessarily the conspicuous or famous man or woman, -but is, rather, the human being who knows himself. And this human being -may be not our teacher, but our janitor or a nurse who takes care of -the baby or that fellow who seems so simple, the guide who has our -camping trip in charge. Indeed, there is scarcely a class of men who -seem in better control of themselves and who have a better working -knowledge of themselves and others than the highest type of guide. All -the associations of that great out-of-door life, its demands, its -privations, its sudden needs, its great silence, its dumb creatures, its -wonderful beauty, have taught the man of the woods a wisdom no school, -no university, can offer merely through its curriculum. We can’t realize -too early how well worth while that wisdom is for every girl to have. -Not a thing of book learning, but a power that makes one truthful with -oneself, eager to acknowledge what is bad and to change it. Frank, -courageous, tried in commonplace wisdom, and with a knowledge of other -human beings. - -There is one kind of idea--and it is worth while meditating in the woods -on the leverage power of even one very little idea--that can always be -found out of doors. I mean a healthful idea, the kind of thought that -makes us stand straighter, that strengthens the muscles of our backbone, -that makes us act as if we were what we wish to be. There is no other -force in the world that can so readily straighten out a crooked boy or a -crooked girl as this same Dr. Dame Nature. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -OTHER CLEANLINESS - - -Clean? Of course, we all know what cleanliness means. It is not possible -to drive, to ride in a trolley, to go on a train without being impressed -with at least the advertising energy that is put into trying to get or -keep the world clean. Dear me, there are the ever-present, cheerful Gold -Dust Twins, well up with the times, you may believe, and nowadays taking -to aviation. Their aeroplanes may not be very large, but they are clean -as gold dust can make them, and the twins, without any of the friction -that comes from dirt, are flying at last. What’s more, intrepid as some -old Forty-Niner, they are penetrating the camper’s wilderness. Most of -us do not want to be twins, and we certainly do not want to be gold -dusters or any other kind of dusters, yet we should miss these jolly -little youngsters. And there are Sapolio and Sunny Monday advertisements -and Pears’ soap--have you used it?--and a dozen other kinds and goodness -knows what not besides. - -Yes, we Americans, and especially American women in the household, know -what it is to make an effort in the midst of heated, dusty or uncared -for streets to keep our houses and everything in them clean. In -Pennsylvania you see the people scrubbing off white marble steps. In New -England they turn the hose on the outside of their white farm houses. In -the West they flood the side-walks to keep the dust and heat down. And -our houses? Well, all houses are being built with bath tubs nowadays, -even our camps, which is more than can be said for very good houses -indeed in other countries than America. Some people think that camping -is an excuse to be dirty. Often they are very nice people, too, but they -keep a dirty camp. They don’t keep even themselves clean. - -But there is another kind of cleanliness, not superficial, not that of -the skin, or of the clothes or of the cabin, about which we are coming -to think more and more deeply. It is what might be called vital -cleanliness, the cleanness of stomachs, of the intestines, of all the -vital organs. We begin to realize the truth of what those most helpful -of missionaries, the health culturists, are saying: One may be clean -superficially, that is one may scrub enough and yet vitally be very far -from clean. We know, although it is of the greatest assistance to keep -the skin free and vigorous so that it is able to do its part of the -house-cleaning work for our systems, that vital cleanliness, clean, -strong, internal organs performing their work with the vigor of -well-constructed engines, uninjured by foolish clothing, unharmed by -impure food, keen for opportunity to grow and be vigorous--we know, I -say that that cleanliness is more important than skin cleanliness. -Indeed, without such deep-seated cleanliness it is impossible for the -skin to be really clean. - -But clean how? I wonder whether we are clean in the way I mean. Yes, we -are clean in our houses, perhaps in our camps, clean on the outsides of -our bodies, clean probably, on the inside. Yet no one of these kinds of -cleanliness is what I have in mind. Can any girl by the camp fire guess -what it is? I will not say it is more important than household -cleanliness, although it is so,--vastly more so. I will not say that it -is more important than bodily cleanliness, external and internal, yet it -is so,--vastly more so. I could almost say that it is more important -than anything else in the world of human experience. Do you know what -it is now? _It is cleanness of the mind, cleanness of the soul_, and of -that kind of purity the great outdoor world is one indivisible whole. - -On this cleanliness of mind and soul all the vital activities of the day -depend, all the growth, the gain, the development. It might be well said -that the way we take up the sun into our bodies--and we could not live -any length of time without some sun--depends upon the cleanness or -uncleanness of this mind and soul of ours. What we shall eat, what we -shall hear, what we shall see, what we shall look forward to, what we -shall care for--all these things will be according to laws as inevitable -as those governing the sun and moon and stars, valuable or worthless, -vicious or sacred, as we feel them and we make them. We dip our fingers -in pitch and pick up a book. What is the result? Any child could tell us -that we ruin the book with our pitch-covered fingers. We dip our minds -into filth, a nasty story, a perverted way of looking at things which in -themselves are good and of God’s plan, or we actually commit some ugly -act ourselves and then we go out into the presence of those things which -are clean, the sunshine, the hills, the lakes, the woods, the white -lives of others, the ideals which, it may be, have been ours. Do you -suppose we feel or see that sunshine, or that we are aware any longer of -the white lives of others, that our past ideals are evident to us when -our hearts and minds are no longer clean? Do you suppose that there is -anything in nature which comes home to us in quite the beautiful way it -once did, the flowers, the birds, the song of the wind, the little -creatures of the wood? Can they ever be entirely the same? No, by an -inevitable law of compensations some of the fullness of our joy in these -things is gone. If we want to be really happy it does not pay to think -evil, to touch evil or to commit it. - -When our hands are dirty we know it, and if we have been careless about -them we are ashamed. If people’s bodies or camps are not clean it is -painfully easy to know that, too. But a dirty mind, who could ever tell -anyway that we had one? Who could ever tell? I will tell you: _Every one -knows it_, or perhaps, better, every one feels it. If we are not good, -if our minds are not clean, our presence in some mysterious way -proclaims that fact. If we have injured some one, if we have been -foul-tongued, others will know it with no need for any one to tell them. -Even the little rabbit we meet in the woods will not greet us in so -friendly a way. _We need not think that because we are concealing a bad -thought that it is therefore hidden._ No, indeed, it is screaming away -like some ugly black crow on a spruce tip, and there is no one within -hearing distance who, whether he wishes to or not, does not hear what -it says. - -The mind has its plague spots even as the body, and one has to -work--because of one’s environment or some inheritance which has made us -not quite wholesome by nature, or because of friends whose feelings one -would not injure, and yet who are not what they ought to be,--one has -often to work to keep the mind clean. But as you would flee from the -plague, run from a dirty story. Don’t let the camp life be spoiled by -anything to be regretted! Do not let any one touch you with it, even -with a word of it. Keep a thousand miles away if you can from folk who -have an impure way of looking at life, and camp is a good place to get -away from such people. Shut your minds against them. One is never called -upon on the score of duty to have an unclean mind because others have -it. And if through some misfortune, something that is unlovely, -unclean, has been impressed upon you, fight valiantly not to think of -it, to put it away from you. And never forget that to rule our spirits, -to be in command of our minds, to have them wholesome and sweet and -clean as a freshly swept log cabin, is greater than to win such -victories as have come down in the records of history. - -I remember that when I was a child, I thought my heart was white and -that every time I said or thought anything naughty, I got a black spot -on its surface. I dare say that in the first place some dear old negro -woman put this fable into my mind. And, dear me, some days it seemed to -me that heart of mine was more spotted than any tiger lily that ever -grew in any neglected garden. Perhaps it was foolish to think such a -thing. I do not know, I only know that there were times when I was -mighty careful of that white heart of mine,--wrapping it up in a pocket -handkerchief would not have satisfied my eagerness to keep it clean. -And what better could one wish than to go on one’s holiday, and on -forever, with the white shining heart of a child? - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -WOOD CULTURE AND CAMP HEALTH - - -It is far better for the girl to be out in a wilderness world which -demands all the attention of both heart and mind, than to be leading an -idle or sedentary life at home. If there is one word which above all -others expresses the life of the woods, it is the word WHOLESOME. It is -a normal, active, “hard-pan” life which takes the softness not only out -of the muscles, but also out of the thoughts and the feelings. It -tightens up the tendons of our bodies and the even more wonderful -tendons of the mind. - -Often, to paraphrase Guts Muths, a girl is weak because it does not -occur to her that she can be strong. She fails to lay the foundations of -health and strength which should be laid; she fails to make the most of -the energy that she has; she fails to think of the future and how -important in every way it is that she should be robust and full of an -abounding vitality. It is a matter of the greatest importance to the -world spiritually, morally, physically, that its girls should be strong. -To be out of doors insures abundant well-being as nothing else can. -The wilderness instinct, the instinct for camping and all its -out-of-door life and sports, is the healthiest, sanest, and most -compound-interest-paying investment a girl can make. - -But by an intelligent approach to this life, more can be put into it and -therefore more can be taken out, than by some blindfolded dive into its -mysteries. To know how to do a thing worth doing and to do it well, is -both wise and economical. Some of the physical aspects of our life will -give all the more value because of the payment of an added attention. A -few simple rules for the physical side of camp life will do quite as -much for the body as an orderly routine can do for the camp -housekeeping. - -Simply because you are in camp, never do anything by eating or drinking -or over-strain or folly of any sort, that is against the law of health. -To break the laws of health is as much a sin in camp as out of it. - -Eat an abundance of simple, wholesome foods, using as much cereals, -fruits, and vegetables as you can get. Don’t neglect the care of your -teeth merely because you are in camp. - -Do not drink tea or coffee. Stimulants are unnatural and unwholesome; no -girl and no woman should ever touch them. If you have begun to drink tea -and coffee, camp is the place to give them up once and for all time. The -sooner the better. - -If you can get a cool bath in stream or pond and a rub down with a rough -towel, so much the better. Exercise both before and after the bath, and -be sure, by rub down and exercise, to get into a good glow. The rub down -is of especial importance, for it stimulates all the tiny surface veins, -is gymnastics to the skin, and frees the pores of any poisonous -accumulations which they may be holding. Drink a glass or two of pure -water when you get up and the same between meals. - -Never wear anything tight in camp or elsewhere. Within the circle of the -waist line are vital organs which need every deep breath you can take, -every ounce of freely flowing blood you can bring to them, every -particle of room to grow you can give them. The Chinese woman who cramps -her feet sins less than we who cramp our waists. - -Sleep ten or eleven hours every night. - -Study to make your body well, strong, and useful. - -If you do all these things, you need not worry about beauty; you will -possess what is of infinitely more value than a pretty face and abundant -hair, in having a sound, wholesome body, self-controlled, instinct with -joy, with clean, glowing skin, a pleasure to yourself and to everybody -else. Clear vital thoughts and a keener spiritual life will both be -yours. Because of the days in the woods it will be easier to be good, -easier to be happy, easier to do the brain work of school and college. - -Part of the title of this chapter is Wood Culture. I have something in -mind that is more than physical culture: The wilderness cure, the lesson -of the woods, a high spiritual as well as physical truth. For the girl -who keeps her eyes open, here are forces at work, mysterious, inspiring, -wonderful, that awake in her all the dormant worship and vision of her -nature. Yet of physical culture in these weeks and days in the woods too -much cannot be said, for, as the world is beginning to realize, on -one’s physical health, cleanness, sanity, rests much of that -close-builded wonderful palace of mind and soul. Every squad of girl -campers should have its physical culture drill, its definite exercises, -taken at a definite time, for ten or fifteen minutes. Ten or fifteen -minutes are probably all that are necessary when practically the -remainder of the day is spent in camp sports, canoeing, fishing, -climbing, hunting and so on. The object of these physical exercises -should be all-around development; the drill should be sharp and light -with especial attention paid to breathing and to the standing position. -A steady unflagging effort should be made to correct round shoulders, -flat chests, drooping necks, and bad positions generally. Many and -varied are the exercises taught in school and college,--exercises to -which all girls have access. I make no apologies for suggesting a few of -the simplest by means of which any squad of girl campers can make a -beginning in physical culture. - -(1) From attention (hands on hips), place the palms of the hands flat on -the ground, keeping knees straight. Then bring arms up above head. Do -this eight times. - -(2) With hands on the hips and the hips as a socket, rotate the whole -trunk first five times in one direction, then five times in the -opposite, being sure that the head follows the line of the rotating -trunk. The difficulty of this exercise can be increased by placing hands -clasped behind the head, and then later over the head. But the exercise -should be undertaken first with the hands on the hips. - -(3) In between each exercise take deep breathing for a few seconds, -rising on the toes as you inhale and lowering as you exhale. - -(4) Stand with the feet apart and arms horizontal. Without bending the -knee place the right fist on the ground next to the instep of your left -foot. Then raise the body and reverse, placing the left fist on the -ground next to the right instep. - -(5) After this some free exercises with the arms, taken with the head -well up, chest out, and shoulders back, make a good, sharp light finale. - -These exercises repeated several times make an excellent beginning for -any day, either in or out of camp. You may unfortunately be going -through a state of mind, when clean skin, good lungs and digestion, seem -to you negligible factors in life. How tragically important these -factors are, be sure you do not realize _too_ late, when both body and -soul, health and morals, have been undermined. - -Most girls need to look upon camp life as an incomparably rich -opportunity to gain in an all-round physical development. The life -itself, aside from its possible physical culture exercises and its -sports of rowing, paddling, swimming, climbing and walking, is the big -architect of a splendid substructure for health. By taking thought, -refusing to eat greasy, unwholesome food, getting plenty of sleep, -avoiding over-strain, taking corrective exercises, cool baths and rub -downs, there is no better health builder than the wilderness life. A -wise Danish man said that “He who does not take care of his body, -neglects it, and thereby sins against nature; she knows no forgiveness -of sin, but revenges herself with mathematical certainty.” In the woods -nature keeps reminding you of this fact, and you are never allowed to -forget it for any length of time. - -It is only sensible to care for one’s health. It is not necessarily old -maidish or silly to take precautions that the camp health should be at -its zenith all the time. No one would think of criticising a man for -being particularly careful of his horses under new conditions. This is -precisely what we should be for ourselves. Your thorough-paced sportsman -is always regardful of his physical condition. I have spoken about the -drinking of pure water, the care of food, the folly of taking great -risks, and of other details. There are more factors, as well, which will -be at work in obtaining and maintaining good health conditions. - -The right sort of underclothing--and women seldom wear suitable -underwear--should be worn. It should be high necked, with shoulder caps -and knee caps, and should be of linen mesh. Every girl who is in fit -condition should see that each day has a brief period at least of hard, -warm, strenuous work in it. A sweat once a day, with a proper rub down -afterwards, is one of the best health makers on record. In “By the sweat -of thy brow shalt thou labor” was enunciated one of the greatest of -natural laws. If it were possible for each one of us to sweat once a -day, we should scarcely ever know what sickness is. But our over-refined -civilization makes even the use of the word an offence to certain middle -class people who care more for the so-called propriety (they are the -folk who say “soiled” handkerchief instead of dirty, and “stomach” when -they mean belly, and yet are ready to use such a detestably vulgar word, -straight out of the mouths of the lowest classes of immigrants, as -“spiel”) of what is said than for its truth and strength. Lay it down, -then, that one of the first of the camp health rules is a sweating every -day. Third among the camp rules is to keep the bowels open. Do you know -what one of Abraham Lincoln’s mottoes for life was? “Fear God and keep -your bowels open,” and in this saying there is no irreverence -whatsoever, nor any sacrilege, but only a profound common sense that is -a credit both to the Maker and the great man who spoke the words. -Cascara is the best and safest laxative for a girl to use in camp. It -should be bought in the purest tablets or liquid form on the market, and -all patent cascara nostrums should be avoided.[7] - - [7] If there is a privy in the camp great care should be taken that, - for every reason, it is placed at a sufficient distance from cabins - and tents. It should _not_ be placed on a slope that could possibly - drain off into any water supply. An abundance of ashes should always - be kept within the privy and no water of any kind be poured into the - box. A few cans of chloride of lime should, if possible, be kept on - hand; and one can opened and in use in the closet. Chambers and slop - pails should not be emptied in the immediate vicinity of the cabins - but at some distance and in different localities. There is no greater - abomination on the face of the earth than a dirty camp, and no place - which so thoroughly tests one’s love of order, decency and - cleanliness. If you are following the trail and go into “stocked” - camps for the night, shake and air the blankets thoroughly, and, out - of courtesy to those who will follow you in their use, shake and air - the blankets when you get out of them in the morning. - -If a girl is delicate or under the weather in any way, she must take -more than the ordinary care of herself or she may have a head-on -collision with out-and-out illness. The new mode of living, the various -kinds of exposure--especially to wet weather--, the larger quantities of -food eaten because of an appetite stimulated by the vigorous outdoor -life, the temptation to overdoing--all these possibilities should be -kept in mind and avoided as dangers. Don’t be silly about overdoing. -Harden yourself slowly for the life; avoid competition. It is far better -to have lived your camp life successfully and to have come out of it -fresh and vigorous, than it is to have done a few “stunts” and have come -out of it fagged, overstrained and ill. It is well the first days of -camp life to try to eat less than you want; by this act of self-control -you will avoid the plague of constipation which follows so many campers. -Moderate eating will mean more sleep, too. Abundant water drinking and a -few grains of cascara should be able to remedy all the ills to which -camp flesh is heir. - -As a girl takes thought about this care and culture of the body, making -herself clean within and without, higher lessons and perfections, both -of the mind and of the soul will come to her as inevitably as the earth -answers to the touch of rain and sun. Do you want to be happy? Very well -then, learn in the woods to be well, consider the laws of health, and -remember first, last, and always that good health, not money or position -or fame or any shallow beauty of feature, is the greatest and soundest -security for happiness. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -WILDERNESS SILENCE - - -Most friendships among girls, and older people, too, suggest that if -there is one thing which is hated, it is silence. If silence does happen -to get in among us in camp, how uneasy we are! After an awkward pause we -all begin to talk at once,--any, every topic will serve to break the -hush which has fallen upon us. And if we don’t succeed in getting rid of -this silence--something apparently to be regarded as unfriendly and -ominous--we make excuse to do something and do it. - -But of silence Maurice Maeterlinck, the great Belgian author of “The -Bluebird” and of many other plays, too, says that we talk only in the -hours in which we do not live or do not wish to know our friends or feel -ourselves at a great distance from reality. But where do we live more -truly than in our camp life? Then he goes on to say what I think is -equally true: That we are very jealous of silence, for even the most -imprudent among us will not be silent with the first comer, some -instinct telling us that it is dangerous to be silent with one whom we -do not wish to know or for whom we do not care or do not trust. - -Let us admit at the very beginning that one does well to be on one’s -guard with the people with whom one does not care to be silent,--but one -does not go camping with those people,--or, as the case may be, if we, -ourselves, have a guilty conscience or an empty head much talking serves -its ends. And there is another situation in which it seems almost -impossible to be silent. There is someone for whom we have cared very -much. Things have changed, there has been a misunderstanding, we have -altered or someone else has made trouble between us. And the first -thing we notice is that we no longer dare to be silent together. Speech -must be made to cover up our common lack of sympathy. We talk, how we -talk,--anything, everything! Even when we are happy we run to places -where there is no silence, but now, if only we can be as noisy as -children and avoid the truth of the sad thing which has happened to us! - -Again, let us admit at once that there are different kinds of silence: -There is a bitter silence which is the silence of hate, and another -which is that of evil thoughts, and a hostile silence, and a silence -which may mean the beginning of a storm or a fierce warfare. But the -only silence worth having is friendly and it is of that we need to -think, and it is that we can have by the camp fire in our wilderness -life. - -Isn’t it true after all that the question which most of us ought to ask -ourselves seriously is not how many times we have talked but how many -times we have been silent. Sometimes one wonders whether we are ever -still and whether if we are to be silent, it is not a lesson which must -be learned all over again. How many times have we talked in a single -day? We can’t tell, for the number of times is so great that we can’t -count them. And the times we have been silent? And I don’t mean how many -times we have said nothing. To say nothing is not necessarily to be -silent. Well, we can’t count the times we have been silent either, but -that is because we haven’t been still at all. Yet there is a big life in -which there is no speech and no need of it. Are we never to give -ourselves a chance to live that? - -Do you remember your first great silence? Was it going away from someone -you loved? Perhaps it was a joyous visit to your grandmother or to an -aunt or to see a friend, but it meant leaving your mother and you had -never left her before. Or maybe it was your first year at boarding -school or your freshman year at college. Do you remember the silence -that came over you then and all that filled it? And do you remember how -it wore away but gradually--that grip the stillness had within you and -upon you? You know now that that first silence will never be forgotten. -Or was it a return to those you loved and you realized as never before -how incomparably dear these people were to you and that only silence -could express that dearness? Or was it the silence of a crowd--awe -inspiring silence which foretells the acclaim of some great event of -happiness or a cry of woe? Or the silence of the wilderness as you -looked down from a mountain side into some great valley of lakes? Or was -it the death of someone you loved, and the silence that overcame you -forced you not only to suffer as never before but also to think as you -have never done about the meaning of life? - -In that first great silence how many things that are precious revealed -themselves to us. There was love; we did not realize how it was woven -into every fibre of our lives; there was companionship; we did not -realize how bitterly hard it would be to forego it; there was new -experience; till it came we could not have known how much a part of our -lives the old experience was. How many things in us that had been asleep -were suddenly awakened! How much was that great silence worth to us then -and now? Perhaps an unhappy or stricken silence we called it then; but -even if it meant death or separation was it after all completely -unhappy? Have we taken into account the wealth of conviction, of -deepened experience, of increased love it brought us? Could anything so -rich be in any true sense unhappy? - -“Silence, the Great Empire of Silence,” cried Carlyle, “higher than the -stars, deeper than the Kingdom of Death.” The world needs silent men but -even more, I think, does it need silent women. Carlyle--and you should -get what you can of his books and read them--calls silent men the salt -of the earth. Might not silent women or silent girls be called double -salt? He says that the world without such men is like a tree without -roots. To such a tree there will be no leaves and no shade; to such a -tree there will be no growth; a tree without roots cannot hold the -moisture that is in the earth and it will soon fade, soon dry up and let -everything else around it dry up, too. - -Have you not heard women and girls with an incessant silly giggle or a -titter or a laugh that meant just nothing at all and yet which was -heard, like the dry rattle of the locust, morning, noon and night? -Nervousness partially; empty-headedness maybe, or a mistaken idea of -what is attractive. Silliness of that kind has no place in camp. Nothing -is more wearying, more lacking in self-control than such a manner, -nothing so exhausts other people. Such giggling or laughing or silly -talking is to the mind what St. Vitus’s dance is to the body--an -affliction to be endured perhaps but certainly not an attraction and not -to be cultivated. - -Is it not silence that opens the door to our best work? How about that -work you enjoyed so much and did so well? How did you prepare for that? -Yes, I know all about the work you bluffed through and even managed to -get a high record in, but that work you really enjoyed, how was that -done? Is it not silence, too, that opens the door to our dearest and -deepest companionships, our profoundest sorrows, our greatest joys? -Anyway this wilderness silence is all worth while thinking about, is it -not? - -Why should this great silence, this friendly wilderness power be -considered anti-social? Really, is it not most social? Does it not bring -us all nearer together, sometimes even when we are afraid to be nearer -to one another? Does it not make us all equal, making us aware of those -profound things in life which we all have in common? Silence can say, -can teach, what speech can never, to the end of the world, learn to -express. It is safe to say that as soon as most lips are silent, then -and then only do the thoughts and the soul begin to live, to grow, to -become something of what they are destined to be, for as Maeterlinck -says, silence ripens the fruits of the soul. Never think that it is -unsociable people or people who don’t know how to talk who set such a -value on silence. No, it is those who are able to talk best and most -deeply, think best and most deeply, who, following the long trail, -recognize the fact that words can never after all express those truths -which are among us--no, neither love, nor death, nor any great joy, nor -destiny can ever be expressed by word of mouth, by speech. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -HOMEMADE CAMPING - - -It was our second day in camp,--a camp on the edge of the Maine -wilderness. Around us were many lakes--ponds as the natives call -them--Moosehead, Upper Wilson, Lower Wilson, Little Wilson, Trout Pond, -Horse-shoe Pond, and a dozen others. About us on all sides were the -forest-covered mountains, and burning fiercely, twenty miles distant, a -large forest fire which filled the horizon with dense, yellow smoke. - -From our camp, consisting of a red shanty, a log cabin in which I am now -sitting, my dog beside me, thinking what I shall say to you about a -remarkable family I saw, and, looking up at the cabin ceiling, its log -ridge-pole and supports between which are birch bark cuts of trout and -salmon caught in the lakes, of which I have spoken--from our camp we -look out and down on a wonderful view. Immediately in front of the log -cabin is a meadow, the last on the edge of this wilderness, then the -serrated line of pointed firs, which marks the edge of the woods at the -foot of the meadow. Beyond this line miles of tree-tops, pines, birches, -maples, beeches, after that the shining lakes, and beyond them the -mountains. There is not a house in sight. For that matter there _is_ no -house to be seen, not even a log cabin. - -As was said, there is a meadow in front of the cabin, and over to the -right beyond our view are two other meadows. In Maine--as far north as -this, anyway--the farmers have only one crop of hay, and, when there is -so much forest, and the winter is long, and cattle are to be fed, every -meadow has to be counted upon for all it will bear of hay. It was a -foregone conclusion that somebody would need and use the crop from the -meadow down upon which my cabin looked. - -And, sure enough, the second day we were in camp, along the road bumping -and thumping over the big stones came a large hay wagon: behind it, -rattling and jarring, a mowing machine and hay rake. But that hay wagon, -what didn’t it hold? In the first place, there was the driver, then a -big packing box, a tent rolled up, sacks of feed for the horses, a -baby’s perambulator, three children, a woman, a hammock, a long bench, -some chairs, including a rocking chair, and several small boxes, packed -to overflowing with articles of various kinds. For an instant it looked -as if they were house-moving, and then, recollecting that there was no -house to which to move, I came to the conclusion that they were merely -haying. - -I watched them spread the big tent-fly and make it fast. I saw them take -out the large packing box, converting that into a table, on which some -of the children put flowers in an old bottle; I watched them set out the -bench and chairs, swing the hammock, lay the improvised table with the -enamel dishes which they took from the little boxes, and, in general, -make themselves comfortable. - -The children had pails for berries, and they began to pick berries in a -business-like fashion. The woman sat in the hammock and took care of the -baby--oh, I forgot to mention the baby. The farmer and his lad hitched -and unhitched the horses, starting within a few minutes to work with the -mowing machine, and leaving two of the horses tethered to a tree. -Evidently this was work and a picnic combined--to me a new way of -getting in your hay crop. But the more I watched it and thought about it -the more I liked it. And their dinner with the berries as dessert--well, -I knew just how good, there in the sunshine, with appetites sharpened by -work, it must taste to them all. - -Inside the cottage shanty of our camp, one member of the household, at -least, had been doing her work in quite a different spirit. It seemed to -me that there was nothing which this cook, a large, robust woman, with -an arm with the strength of five, had not found fault with and made the -worst of. Her first groan was heard in the morning at six o’clock--in -getting up myself to go to my writing table I had cruelly awakened -her--and, of course, as she went to bed only half after seven the night -before, she had been robbed of her necessary sleep. As I say, I heard -her first groan--the sun was shining gloriously, and I had already had a -sun bath and a cold sponge and my morning exercises--while she continued -to lie in bed and to make every subsequent groan until after seven -o’clock fully audible. - -She began that beautiful day and its work in resisting everything. She -had never been in such a place before, and a very nice convenient camp -we, ourselves, thought it. She groaned while she pumped water--I do not -know whether she or the pump made the more noise. She complained loudly -because of the mice. Oh, no, she could not set a mouse trap: she had -never done such a thing before! And then, when we got a cat, she -complained because of the noise the cat made in catching the mice. I do -not know precisely what kind of a cat she expected, possibly a -noiseless, rubber-tired cat, that would catch noiseless, rubber-tired -mice. She would not carry water--even a two-quart pail full--her back -was not strong enough. She had never seen such dishes as these we were -using, nice, clean enamel ware dishes, with blue borders. She had never -heard of such a thing as hanging milk and butter in a well to keep them -cool. Dear me, she never even thought of going to such a place where -they did not have ice that would automatically cool everything, and -which the ice-man kindly handed to her in pieces just the size which -she preferred. She said the spring--a beautiful spring whose waters are -renowned for their purity and healthfulness much as the waters of Poland -Spring are--she said that the spring had pollywogs in it and frogs. She -could not string a clothes-line, but stood in tears near the big trunk -of a balsam fir, holding the line helplessly in her hands and looking up -to the branch not more than two inches above her head. While one of us -flung the end of the clothes-line over the branch and made it fast to -another she remarked with contempt, sniffing up her tears, that it was -not a clothes-line, anyway, which was perfectly true, for it was only a -boat cord, but it did quite as well. When she walked down from the -meadow, that glorious golden meadow, where the happy family was -picnicking and hay-making at the same time, and through which wound a -little path down to the spring’s edge, she lifted her skirts as if she -were afraid they might be contaminated by the touch of that clean, -sweet-smelling, long grass. Still groaning she would fetch about a quart -of water. And groaning, still groaning, she went to bed at night -“half-dead,” as she expressed it, as the result of about five hours of -work, in which she was all the time helped by somebody else. - -Of course she was “half-dead.” It is a wonder to me now, as I think of -it, that she did not die altogether. Instead of taking things as they -were in the sun-filled day, with its keen, crisp air, its wonderful -view, instead of feeling something of the beauty and health and sun and -wind-swept cleanness of it all, she had resisted every detail of the -day, every part of her work, she had, in short, found fault with -everything. This day, that would have seemed so joyous to some people, -had not meant to her an opportunity to make the best of things and to -be grateful for the long sleep, the sunshine, the invigorating air, the -beauty, the light work, but merely a chance to make the worst of things, -to throw herself against every demand made upon her. - -Out in front of the cabin the farmer swept round and round with his -mowing machine, his big, glossy horses glistening in the sunshine, the -sharp teeth of the machine laying the grass in a wide swath behind him. -He seemed peaceful and contented, although it was warm out in the direct -sunlight, and the brakes were heavy and the horses needed constant -guiding. Down below, nearer the spring, his wife swung in the hammock, -and the children picked berries, fetched water, and were gleefully busy. -It was a scene of simple contentment with life. - -When the father came back for his dinner, which was eaten under the -spread of a tent-fly and from the top of a packing box, decorated in the -center with flowers and around the edges by contented faces, I said to -him: “You seem to be having a jolly time.” - -“Why, yes, so we are,” was his reply. “I offered the folks who own this -meadow such a small sum of money for the hay crop I didn’t think I’d get -it. I thought some one else was sure to offer them more, but I guess -they didn’t, for I got it. You see, it’s pretty far away from my farm to -come out here haying.” - -“And so you make a picnic of it?” - -“Yes, we are making a picnic of it. The children like it. It’s great fun -for them, and it gives my wife, who isn’t very strong, a chance to rest -and be out of doors. I enjoy it, too. I like to see them have a good -time.” - -“Well,” I said, before I realized I was taking him into my confidence, -“I wish you could make our camp cook see your point of view.” - -“Why, don’t she like it?” he asked innocently. - -“Like it? I am afraid she doesn’t. The other day it rained and leaked in -through the kitchen roof onto her ironing board, and when we found her -she had her head on the board and was crying.” - -“Well, that’s too bad,” he said. “Why didn’t she take that board out of -the way of the leak? We don’t mind a little thing like a leak around -here, especially when folks are camping. Having her feel that way must -make a difference in your pleasure. Well, there is ways of taking work. -Now, probably, she’s throwing herself against her work, and making it -harder all the time.” - -“That’s exactly what she is doing,” I commented dryly. - -“It’s a pity.” There was sympathy in his voice. “For it’s such a lot -easier to make a picnic out of what you are doing--homemade camping, we -call this. My folks always feel that way about it. Even the hardest -work is easier for taking it the right end to. My children are growing -up to think, what it doesn’t hurt any man to think, that work is the -best fun, after all. It’s the only thing you never get tired of, for -there is always something more to do.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -THE CANOE AND FISHING - - -It was my somewhat tempered good fortune, several years ago, to spend -two or three weeks in an exceedingly bleak place on a far northern -coast. The only genial element about this barren spot was its sea -captains, and whence they drew their geniality heaven only knows. They -made me think of nothing so much as of the warm lichen which sometimes -flourishes upon cold rocks. There strayed into this neighborhood a -couple of canoes. “Waal,” exclaimed one of the old salts, viewing this -water craft skeptically, “it’s the nearest next to nothing of anything I -have ever heard tell on.” - -And that is precisely what the canoe is: the nearest next to nothing in -water craft which you can imagine. It is in precisely this nothingness -that its charm lies, its lightness, its grace, its friskiness, its -strength, its motion, its adaptability to circumstances. There are times -when it acts like a demon, and there are other times when its -intelligence is almost uncanny. The canoe is always high spirited, and, -with high-spirited things, whether they be horseflesh or canoe, it does -not do to trifle. The girl who expects to take liberties with the canoe -has some dreadful, if not fatal, experiences ahead of her. Several years -ago I was out in a motor boat with some friends. Two of them had been, -or were, connected with the United States Navy; another was my sister, -and a fourth was a college friend. My friend happened to see a pistol -lying on a seat near her. She had never had anything to do with pistols, -and, on some insane impulse of the moment, she picked it up and leveled -it at me. I was stunned, but not so the men on the boat. Such a shout -of rage and indignation, such a leap to seize the pistol, and such a -rebuke, I have never been witness to before. These men were navy men, -and they knew how criminally foolish it is to fool with what may bring -disaster. It is those who know the canoe best and are best able to -handle it, who are most cautious in its use. Those of you who expect to -treat it as you might the family horse would do well to look out. - -The canvas-covered cedar canoe is the best. If you are going to take a -lot of duffle with you, the canoes will have to be longer than you need -otherwise have them: about eighteen feet, and only two people to a -canoe. The canoe will cost you from twenty-five dollars up, and this -item does not include the paddle. The paddle should be bought exactly -your own height; it will then be an ideal length for paddling. Its cost -will be a little more or a little less than a dollar and a half. You -should have a large sponge, tied to a string, on one of the thwarts. -This you will use for bailing when necessary. - -If you have had any experience with a canoe, you will not abuse it, and -will not need to be told not to abuse it. If it is a light one, and you -are a strong girl, you should learn to carry it Micmac fashion on the -paddle blades, a sweater over your shoulders to serve as cushion. Watch -a woodsman and see the way he handles a canoe. One of the very first -things you will observe is that he never drags it about, but lifts it -clean off the ground by the thwarts, holding the concave side toward -him. Also, you should observe his soft-footed movements when he is -stepping into a canoe. If a canoe is not in use it should be turned -upside down. Never neglect your canoe, for a small puncture in it is -like the proverbial small hole in a dike. If you let it go, you will -have a heavy, water-soaked craft or a swamped one. Water soaking turns -a seemingly intelligent, high-spirited canoe, capable of answering to -your least wish or touch, into the most lunk-headed thing imaginable, a -thing so stupid and so dead and so obstinate, that life with it becomes -a burden. Remember that the wounds in your canoe need quite as much -attention as your own would. - -The balance of a canoe is a ticklish thing. To the novice, the day when -she can paddle through stiff water while she trolls with a rod under her -knee and lands a two- or three-pound salmon unaided, seems far off. I am -by no means a past-master in the art of canoeing, yet I have often done -this, and am no longer troubled by the question of balance in a canoe. -So much for encouragement! Most of an art lies, granting the initial -gift for it, in custom or habit. Make yourself familiar with the traits -of your canoe, work hard to learn everything you should know about it, -and your lesson will soon be learned. - -When you are going to get into it, have your canoe securely beside a -landing, and then step carefully into the center and middle. Bring the -second foot after the first only when you are sure that you have your -balance. The next thing is to sit down. Be certain that it is not in the -water. The only satisfactory recipe for this delicate act is to do it. -No girl should step into a canoe for the first time without some one at -the bow to steady it. Very quickly you will learn clever ways of using -your paddle to help in keeping the balance. Until you do, you can’t be -too careful, or too careful that others should be careful. Take no -chances in a canoe. If any are taken for you, hang on to your paddle. It -is well to have an inflatable life-preserver, but, best of all, is it to -know how to swim. Never move around in a canoe, or turn quickly to look -over your shoulder. A canoe is a long-suffering thing, but once -“riled” and its mind made up to capsize, heaven and earth cannot prevent -that consummation and your ducking or even drowning. - -[Illustration: BROOK TROUT] - -[Illustration: RAINBOW TROUT] - -[Illustration: SMALL-MOUTH BASS] - -[Illustration: BROWN TROUT] - -[Illustration: ROCK-BASS] - -[Illustration: WHITE BASS] - -[Illustration: SHEEPSHEAD] - -[Illustration: YELLOW PERCH] - -[Illustration: PIKE] - -[Illustration: PIKE PERCH] - -[Illustration: PICKEREL] - -[Illustration: CATFISH] - -Become skillful in the use of the paddle, and the best way to learn is -through some one who knows how. Paddling is an art and a very delightful -one, requiring much skill of touch and strength. Although as a girl I -cared most for rowing, I have in the last ten years become so devoted to -the paddle stroke, to its motion and touch and efficiency, that rowing -only bores me. Get some one, a brother, a father, a friend, a guide, to -teach you the rudiments of paddling. These once learned, canoeing is as -safe as bicycling and not more difficult. It is all in learning how. - -[Illustration: ROD.] - -[Illustration: HOOKS.] - -[Illustration: SIMPLE WINCH REEL.] - -[Illustration: TROUT FLY.] - -[Illustration: TROLLING SPOONS.] - -The writer is an old-fashioned fisherwoman and goes light with tackle. -However, I have noticed that the simplicity of fishing tackle does not -in the least interfere with luck. If you are going to fish with worm, -hook, and sinker, you will need no advice. Perch, pickerel, black bass, -cat-fish, and others to be caught in still fishing, will be your quarry. -As a rule you will troll for pickerel and pike, and there is no sport -more pleasant in the world than that which is to be had at the end of a -trolling spoon: the motion of the boat, the vibration of the line, the -spinning of the spoon, and then the sudden strike, with all its -possibilities for taking in big fish. I defy anyone to have a more -exciting time than netting a salmon from a trolling line and landing it -successfully in a canoe. But this is not a thing to be attempted by the -novice. Much better let the salmon go and save yourself a ducking. - -The finest art of all fishing is fly-fishing. One either does or does -not take to it naturally, after one has been taught something of the art -by brother, father, or guide. Alas, that the fish greediness of campers -is making good fly-fishing, even in the wilderness, more and more -difficult to get! Personally, if I am after trout or salmon, “plugging” -or “bating,” as it is called, seems to me an unpardonably coarse and -stupid sport. Yet our lakes have been so abused by this process that -fly-fishing is frequently impossible. To sit or stand in a canoe, -casting your line, the canoe taking every flex of your wrist; to see the -bright flies, Parmachenee Belle or Silver Doctor--or whatever fly suits -that part of the country in which you are camping--alight on the surface -as if gifted with veritable life, and then to be conscious of the rush, -the strike, and to see a rainbow trout whirling off with your silken -line, is to experience an incomparable pleasure. To have a strike while -the twilight is coming on, a big fellow, with the line spinning off your -reel as if it would never stop, to see your salmon leap into the air and -strike the water, to reel him in, then plunge! and down, down he goes; -to feel the twilight deepening as you try to get him in closer to the -canoe again; to know suddenly that it is dark and that the hours are -going by; to feel your wrist aching, your body tense with excitement; to -think that you are just tiring him out, that you have almost got -him--almost, then a rush, a plunge, the line slackens in your hand, and -he is gone. That is fisherman’s luck, and great luck it is, even when -the fish is lost. - -[Illustration: ROD CASE.] - -[Illustration: FELT-LINED LEADER BOX.] - -[Illustration: CASE FOR TACKLE.] - -[Illustration: LANDING NET.] - -[Illustration: CREEL.] - -Only a few words about fishing tackle. Have a good rod or two, but don’t -begin your experience at fishing with expensive tackle. The cheaper rod -will do quite as well until you learn what you want. For trolling the -best rod is a short steel one. For fly-fishing you will always use split -bamboo or some similar wood. You will have accidents, so have reserve -tackle to fall back upon. In any event do not buy a heavy rod, and -never buy anything with a steel core in it. If you can afford it, get a -first-class reel, one that works easily and is of simple mechanism. A -simple winch reel is the best. Avoid patented contraptions. While you -are using them hang your rods up by the tips. In any event keep them dry -and in as good condition as possible. Enameled silk line you must have -for all trout fishing. For other kinds of fishing it does not so much -matter what you do use, provided the line is strong and durable. Be sure -to have extra lines to fall back on. - -[Illustration: ANGLING KNOTS.] - -Leaders, the details about flies to be used, their color, angling knots -made in fastening leaders or line or fly, methods for keeping your flies -in good order and condition, the use of the landing net, necessary -repairs to be made, the skill of the wrist in casting, the best sort of -trolling, the care of fish, all these things will come to you through -experience, and all suggest how much, how delightfully much, there is -to be learned in the best of all sports. - -Go to some first-rate sporting goods’ house for your flies; they will -tell you what kinds you need, as well as answer other questions. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -THE TRAIL - - -A girl who has learned to camp will not only have her own pleasures -greatly increased, but she will also add to those of her friends, -becoming a better companion for her chums, her father, her brother; for -camping, if it is anything, is a social art. It is far better for a girl -to be out in the world which demands all of one’s attention, one’s eyes -and ears and nose and feet and hands and every muscle of the entire -body, than to be leading a sedentary life at home, or analyzing emotions -or sentimentalizing about things not worth while. The big moose which -unexpectedly plunges by provides enough emotions to last a long time; -the land-locked salmon that threatens to snap the silken line, enough -excitement. - -You can’t learn all that there is to be learned in the school of the -woods through one camping expedition. It would be rather poor sport if -you could. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about what you don’t know. -Keep on asking them until you are wood-cultivated. The wilderness is -your opportunity to make up for those vitally interesting facts about -life which are not taught in schools. Above all, have a map of the -country in which you are, and study it. Keep that map by you as if it -were Fidus Achates himself, and refer to it whenever there is need. The -girl or woman in camp who never knows where she is is a bore, sponging -upon the good-nature and intelligence of others who have taken the -trouble to familiarize themselves with the lie of the land. Such a girl -never makes any plans, never takes the initiative, never gives anyone a -sense of rest from responsibility. There are girls and older women who -think it rather clever to be unable to tell east from west, north from -south. I may say here that in camp they belong to the same class of -foolish incompetents who in college boast that they cannot -spell--presumably because they are devoting themselves to a much higher -call upon their intelligence than anything so superficial as spelling! -If camping means anything in the world, it means coöperation, and this -coöperation should be all along the line. - -[Illustration: THE DIPPER.] - -If you have an innate sense of direction, train it. If you have none, do -not venture out into the wilderness except with someone who has. Always -tell people where you are going. If you are not familiar with the use of -a rifle you would better have a shrill whistle or a tin horn to use in -case you want to summon anyone. Sun and wind should be part of your -compass; the trees, too. You will, of course, learn how to blaze a -trail, and the sooner you do this the better, for it is good training in -following out a point of the compass. The wilderness is full of signs -of direction for your use, some of which are certain to be serviceable -at different times, and some of which will not prove dependable. The sun -rises in the east and sets in the west. At high noon of a September day, -if you turn your back squarely to the sun, you will be looking directly -north. The wind is a helper, too. When the sun rises, notice the -direction of the wind, and, while it does not shift, it will prove a -good compass or guide. If it is very light, wet the finger and hold it -up. By doing this the wind will serve you as a compass. Remember, also, -that the two lowest stars of the Big Dipper point toward the North Star, -which is always a guide to be used in charting a wilderness way. Also on -the north sides of trees there is greater thickness to the bark and more -moss. This is, I suppose, because the trees, being unexposed to the -sunlight on the north side, retain the moisture longer there. Some -say, too, that the very topmost finger of an evergreen points toward the -north. Even in civilization they usually do. To become familiar with a -compass is a very simple matter. Every boy learns this lesson, and there -is no reason why girls should not do the same. Never buy a cheap -compass; it is not to be relied upon. To the amateur in the woods a good -one is not a friend at which to scoff. A few expeditions out behind the -cabin will teach you all you need to know about its use. If by some -miscalculation a girl should get lost, let her realize then that the -great demand is that she shall keep her head on her shoulders, where it -has been placed, and where she will need to make use of it. Let her sit -down and think, reviewing all that has happened, and trying to solve the -problem of what she is to do. A panic is the last and worst thing in -which she can afford to indulge. To most people at some time or other -comes the conviction that they are lost--a conviction happily -dispelled in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand. In -this, as in everything, a miss is as good as a mile, and one does well -to make light of unavoidable mistakes. - -[Illustration: FAWN] - -[Illustration: DOE] - -[Illustration: BUCK] - -[Illustration: CARIBOU] - -[Illustration: MOOSE] - -If, by any chance, you should be lost, don’t run around. If you have no -compass or if darkness is coming on, settle down where you are. Devote -your energies to occasional periods of shouting and to building a camp -fire, keep your body warm and dry and your head cool. _You will be -found._ And remember that there are no wild creatures to be feared in -our camping wilderness. You have nothing of which to be afraid except -your own lack of common sense. Here is a chance for your “nerve” to show -itself. - -[Illustration: RED SQUIRREL] - -[Illustration: FLYING SQUIRREL] - -[Illustration: GRAY SQUIRREL] - -[Illustration: RABBIT] - -[Illustration: AMERICAN SABLE] - -[Illustration: CHIPMUNK] - -[Illustration: WEASEL] - -[Illustration: MINK] - -[Illustration: RACCOON] - -[Illustration: BLACK BEAR] - -[Illustration: PORCUPINE] - -[Illustration: SKUNK] - -[Illustration: WOODCHUCK] - -[Illustration: RED FOX] - -As you go through the woods, cross the ponds and lakes, climb mountains, -your luncheon in your pocket, compass and knife and cup and match-box -all ready and friendly to your hand; as you feel the wilderness -becoming more and more your empire, be sure that you do not abuse the -privileges which are revealed to you. The more gentle and considerate -you are in this life which has opened itself up to you, the more it will -tell you its secrets. That you should leave disfiguration and -destruction and bloodshed behind you does not prove that you are in any -sense a true sport. The camera is one of the best guns for the -wilderness. It is better to be film-thirsty than bloodthirsty. A girl -who is in earnest about camera shooting can test her “nerves” quite -sufficiently for all practical purposes. How about facing, or chasing, a -six- or seven-hundred-pound moose, plunging down through a cut or a -trail, and having the nerve to press the bulb at just the right moment? -Or a big buck? Or a little bear? Or a porcupine? A good kodak and some -rolls of film are all that is needed to begin the work of photography. A -fine way to do, if you intend to go into the matter seriously, is to -get some book on nature photography and make a thorough study of it. -Other books, too, there are, which will be full of profit for you as you -come to know the wilderness life. Begin with Thoreau, John Burroughs, -John Muir, Stewart White, Ernest Seton Thompson, and these will lead you -on and out through a host of nature books and finally into a more -technical literature on hunting, camping, and the wilderness life in -general. - -I believe that in the end an intelligent study of the woods made with -eyes and ears, heart and mind, notebook and book, will bring down more -game than any shotgun or rifle ever manufactured. I have seen -guide-books of northern wildernesses whose collective illustration -suggested only the interior of some local slaughter house. No tenderfoot -myself, for, when the first shotgun was placed against my shoulder, I -was so little that its kick knocked me over, I do not write this way -because I am unfamiliar with the pleasures of well-earned or necessary -game, but because I have tried both ways and I prefer a friendly life in -the wilderness. To kill what you see, just because you do see it, to set -big fires, to be wasteful, to take risks in your adventures, are no -signs that you know the woods--and they are most certainly no guarantee -of your love. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -CAMP DON’TS - - -Don’t forget your check list. - -Do make your plans early for the camping expedition. - -Don’t be dowdy in the woods. Dress appropriately. - -Do keep a clean camp. Otherwise you will go in for hedgehogs, skunks, -flies, and other disease-breeding pests. - -If in doubt about drinking water, don’t drink it--at least, not till it -is thoroughly boiled. - -Do be independent. Camp is no place for necklaces, however beautiful. - -Don’t start out camping with a new pair of shoes on your feet. - -Do keep from adding to the things you want to take with you, or you -won’t be able to reach the “jumping off” place. - -Don’t forget your fly “dope.” - -If your appetite is good, be polite to the cook. - -Don’t forget the box of matches. - -Don’t be foolhardy. It might take too long to find you. If you feel that -way, have somebody attach a tump line to you. - -If you have an open stove, when you go off for the day, be sure to close -it. - -Don’t be afraid to ask questions--everybody does. - -Do help others with the work. - -Don’t cut your foot with the axe. It will not add to the pleasures of -camp life. - -Dish-washing is not pleasant work. Do your share just the same. - -Don’t step on the gunwale of the canoe, and upset it, or trip over a -thwart. The canoe is a ticklish craft. - -Do conform to the camp routine. Don’t keep the dinner waiting, delay -the fishing expedition, or call out a search party. - -Don’t be ignorant of the topography of the region in which you camp. By -not studying the map for yourself, you will give others a lot of -trouble. - -Listen to what your guide says. - -Remember, I shall be glad to answer brief, pointed questions, addressed -to me at - - CAMP RUNWAY, - Moosehead Lake, Greenville, Maine. - - -THE END - - - - -INDEX - - - Beavers, 88-89 - Beds: - bough beds, 97-100 - browse bed, 100, 101 - sleeping bags, 103 - Birch bark, 9, 40 - Black flies, 10-11 - Blankets, 21 - Bloomers, 4, 18-19. _See_ Clothing - Blouse, 4, 19, 22. _See_ Clothing - Books, 20-21, 219 - Breck’s fly “dope,” 102 - Breck’s “Way of the Woods,” 7, 26, 45, 63 - - Camera film, 20, 218-219 - Camp Fire Girls, 11, 115 - Camp habit, 139-146 - Camping grounds, 68-76 - sites to be avoided for, 73 - sites to be chosen for, 73-76, 181-192 - Can opener, 8. _See_ Cooking utensils - Canoes, 193-208 - care in handling, 193-200 - cost of, 196 - length of paddle, 195 - paddling, 200 - Cascara sagrada, 5 - Check lists, 1, 96 - Cleanliness, 147-156, 168 - Clothing, 1-5, 13-20, 21-23, 165-166 - gloves, 5 - hunting suit, cost of, 18 - jacket, 18 - Cold cream, 5 - Combination suits, 3-4, 17, 165-166 - Cook, 37-45 - Cooking utensils, 8, 34-35, 62, 104-105 - Cooler, 8, 32-34 - - Dishes, 8, 35 - Duffle bag, 2, 14 - - Economy, 5, 107-117 - Equipment, 2, 8-9 - cost of, 8 - poncho, 100 - tents, 110-111 - tools, 9, 35 - Expenses, 107-117 - for food, 114 - for party of four or five, 108-111 - for tents, 110 - - Feet, care of, 19 - Fires, 11, 77-86 - Fishing, 193-208 - fly, 202-204 - Fishing tackle, 200, 204-208 - Fly “dope,” 9, 35, 101-102 - Food, 1, 6-8, 24-36 - bacon, 28 - butter, 29 - cleanliness of, 30-31 - dried vegetables, 26-27 - flour, 27 - meat, 28-30 - milk, 32, 37, 114-116 - portage of, 24 - Footgear, 2, 3, 14-16 - Fry pans, 8, 62. _See_ Cooking utensils - Fuel, 9-10, 40-42 - Furnishings, 11, 94-106 - - Gloves, 5. _See_ Clothing - Guides, 69, 85, 118-126 - assistance to, 123-125, 145 - character of, 122-123 - duties of, 119-121 - - Hat, 4, 19 - Head net, 101 - Health: - clean-working digestion and, 166-168 - eating and, 169 - hygiene and, 127-138 - physical culture drill and, 161-165 - rules for, 159-161 - water and, 10, 42-44, 76, 157-170 - Hunting suit, 18. _See_ Clothing - Hygiene, 127-138. _See_ Health - - Jacket, 18. _See_ Clothing - - Knives, 8. _See_ Cooking utensils - - Matches, 40 - Moccasins, 2, 16. _See_ Footgear - Mosquitoes, 10-11 - headnet and, 101. _See_ Hat - netting for, 35 - tarlatan for, 101 - - Neat’s-foot oil. _See_ Waterproofing - Nesting pails, 8, 34 - - Pockets, 4. _See_ Clothing - Poncho, 100 - Privy, care of, 168. _See_ Sanitation - - Recipes, 45 - apples, 49 - bacon, 62 - baked beans, 59-60 - baking powder biscuits, 55-56 - boiling vegetables, 65-66 - bread-making, 51 - broth, 62 - buckwheat cakes, 61 - Chinese tea-cakes, 63 - chowder, 62-63 - corn bread, 56-57 - corn meal, 48 - corn pone, 60-61 - eggs, 54-55 - fish, 52-53 - fudge, 64-65 - gingerbread, 63 - macaroni, 48 - mashed potatoes, 61-62 - mayonnaise dressing, 66 - molasses cookies, 64 - mushrooms, 61-62 - olive oil, 65 - pancakes, 57-58 - partridge, 53-54 - penuche, 64 - rice, 48 - soups, 58, 59 - stewed fruits, 65 - stock, 46 - vegetable stew, 49 - white sauce, 63 - Reflector baker, 8, 39. _See_ Cooking utensils - - Safety pins, 5. _See_ Clothing - Sanitation, camp health and, 157-170 - water and, 10, 30-31, 42-44, 76 - Skirt, 4, 17-19 - extra. _See_ Clothing - khaki, 17 - tweed, 17, 22 - Soap, 5, 20 - Sporting catalogs, 103 - Sporting magazines, _Outing_, _Country Life in America_, _Forest and - Stream_, _Field and Stream_, _Recreation_, _Rod and Gun in Canada_, - 110 - Stockings, 3. _See_ Clothing - holeproof, 16, 17, 19 - woolen, 16 - Sweater, 18. _See_ Clothing - - Tents, 110-111. _See_ Equipment and also Expenses - Tin can camping, 26 - Tools, 9, 35. _See_ Equipment - Tooth brush, 5 - Tooth paste, 5 - Trail, 209-220 - following the, 211-214 - independence on, 209-211 - lost on, 214-216 - walking, 70 - - Vacation Bureaus, 115 - Viscol. _See_ Waterproofing - - Water, 10, 42-44, 76. _See_ Health and also Sanitation - Waterproofing, 3, 14, 16. _See_ Footgear - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - - Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, not all - elements may display as intended. - - Inconsistent and unusual spelling and hyphenation have been retained; - spelling and hyphenation differences between the body text and the - index have not been standardised. - - Page 203: bating: as printed, possibly an error for baiting. - - - Changes made: - - Footnotes and illustrations have been moved out of text paragraphs. - - Some missing punctuation has been added, some unnecessary punctuation - has been deleted silently. - - Page 163: Item (2) has been moved to a new line. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vacation Camping for Girls, by -Jeannette Augustus Marks - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VACATION CAMPING FOR GIRLS *** - -***** This file should be named 55110-0.txt or 55110-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/1/1/55110/ - -Produced by readbueno, Mary Svela, Harry Lamé and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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