How to Camp Out | Page 2

as you get your things ready, mark your name on them: mark every thing. You can easily cut a stencil-plate out of an old postal card, and mark with a common shoe-blacking brush such articles as tents, poles, boxes, firkins, barrels, coverings, and bags.
Some railroads will not check barrels, bags, or bundles, nor take them on passenger trains. Inquire beforehand, and send your baggage ahead if the road will not take it on your train.
Estimate the expenses of your trip, and take more money than your estimate. Carry also an abundance of small change.
Do not be in a hurry to spend money on new inventions. Every year there is put upon the market some patent knapsack, folding stove, cooking-utensil, or camp trunk and cot combined; and there are always for sale patent knives, forks, and spoons all in one, drinking-cups, folding portfolios, and marvels of tools. Let them all alone: carry your pocket-knife, and if you can take more let it be a sheath or butcher knife and a common case-knife.
Take iron or cheap metal spoons.
Do not attempt to carry crockery or glassware upon a march.
A common tin cup is as good as any thing you can take to drink from; and you will find it best to carry it so that it can be used easily.[1]
Take nothing nice into camp, expecting to keep it so: it is almost impossible to keep things out of the dirt, dew, rain, dust, or sweat, and from being broken or bruised.
Many young men, before starting on their summer vacation, think that the barber must give their hair a "fighting-cut;" but it is not best to shave the head so closely, as it is then too much exposed to the sun, flies, and mosquitoes. A moderately short cut to the hair, however, is advisable for comfort and cleanliness.
If you are going to travel where you have never been before, begin early to study your map. It is of great importance, you will find, to learn all you can of the neighborhood where you are going, and to fix it in your mind.
So many things must be done at the last moment, that it is best to do what you can beforehand; but try to do nothing that may have to be undone.
Wear what you please if it be comfortable and durable: do not mind what people say. When you are camping you have a right to be independent.
If you are going on a walking-party, one of the best things you can do is to "train" a week or more before starting, by taking long walks in the open air.
Finally, leave your business in such shape that it will not call you back; and do not carry off keys, &c., which others must have; nor neglect to see the dentist about the tooth that usually aches when you most want it to keep quiet.
For convenience the following list is inserted here. It is condensed from a number of notes made for trips of all sorts, except boating and horseback-riding. It is by no means exhaustive, yet there are very many more things named than you can possibly use to advantage upon any one tour. Be careful not to be led astray by it into overloading yourself, or filling your camp with useless luggage. Be sure to remember this.
Ammon'd opodeldoc. Axe (in cover). Axle-grease. Bacon. Barometer (pocket). Bean-pot. Beans (in bag). Beef (dried). Beeswax. Bible. Blacking and brush. Blankets. Boxes. Bread for lunch. Brogans (oiled). Broom. Butter-dish and cover. Canned goods. Chalk. Cheese. Clothes-brush. Cod-line. Coffee and pot. Comb. Compass. Condensed milk. Cups. Currycomb. Dates. Dippers. Dishes. Dish-towels. Drawers. Dried fruits. Dutch oven. Envelopes. Figs. Firkin (see p. 48). Fishing-tackle. Flour (prepared). Frying-pan. Guide-book. Half-barrel. Halter. Hammer. Hard-bread. Harness (examine!). Hatchet. Haversack. Ink (portable bottle). Knives (sheath, table, pocket and butcher.) Lemons. Liniment. Lunch for day or two. Maps. Matches and safe. Marline. Meal (in bag). Meal-bag (see p. 32). Medicines. Milk-can. Molasses. Money ("change"). Monkey-wrench. Mosquito-bar. Mustard and pot. Nails. Neat's-foot oil. Night-shirt. Oatmeal. Oil-can. Opera-glass. Overcoat. Padlock and key. Pails. Paper. " collars. Pens. Pepper. Pickles. Pins. Portfolio. Postage stamps. Postal cards. Rope. Rubber blanket. " coat. " boots. Sail-needle. Salt. " fish. " pork. Salve. Saw. Shingles (for plates). Shirts. Shoes and strings. Slippers. Soap. Song-book. Spade. Spoons. Stove (utensils in bags). Sugar. Tea. Tents. " poles. " pins. Tooth-brush. Towels. Twine. Vinegar. Watch and key.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] If your haversack-flap has a strap which buckles down upon the front, you can run the strap through the cup-handle before buckling; or you can buy a rein-hitch at the saddlery-hardware shop, and fasten it wherever most convenient to carry the cup.
CHAPTER II.
SMALL PARTIES TRAVELLING AFOOT AND CAMPING.
We will consider separately the many ways in which a party can spend a summer vacation; and first we will