Roughing it is all very fine to talk about, but it is best to make your camp as comfortable as possible. The ground is good to sleep upon but not stones and sticks. It's really astonishing how big a stick, no longer than your finger, can grow in one night. Take my word for it and don't try it. It won't pay. A hammock is my preference but a cot is about as good. On a pinch twigs and grass are not to be despised. Moss is apt to be moist but there is no possible objection to clean dry sand.

Be sure not to let your fire get away from you and spread. Besides the damage to trees and fences that it may do it is impossible to tell what suffering it may cause to animal life. So, be very careful.

To prevent forest fires Congress passed the law approved May 5, 1900, which—

When you leave your camp clean up. Fragments of food—not pickles—can be put up somewhere for the birds. At some of our camps we have regular places to feed the birds and they get to know what time to come there. Here in the woods my wrens have established for themselves the hour of sunrise, and it is partly to escape their scolding for neglect that I get up with the sun. Mrs. Jenny scolds furiously but for actual singing she can beat any bird in the woods.

Perhaps you notice that we have said nothing about snakes. Now it is really a very rare thing to see a snake in the woods. You have to look very carefully to find them, for they seem to be about the most timid of all creatures. So far as danger from poisonous snakes is concerned you are in much more danger from the driver of a dray than from a snake. Take our word for it, snakes are much more afraid of you than you are of them. Give them the least little bit of a chance and they will be out of the way before you can see them. A gorged snake—that is one that has just taken a full meal—may be sluggish but in a majority of cases he will crawl away and hide in some secure place till the process of digestion is over. Do not go near a tub if you are afraid of water for you can get drowned in it about as easy as you can get bitten by a snake in the woods and to wind up the subject, not one-tenth of the people who get snake bitten, die from it. A very few do die but most of them die from the bad treatment they receive afterwards. The "deadly auto" will not get out of your way but all snakes will.

Once in a while you may find clinging in a low bush a pretty little green snake. It will readily submit to being handled and is perfectly harmless. We have found these snakes useful in the house to kill flies. The harmless snakes are the brown snake, the common banded moccasin, the black mountain snake, the green snake. The garter and ring-necked snakes wear Eve's wedding-ring as a collar. They cannot hurt and they eat up quantities of insects, but beware of the yellow and brown rattlesnakes, especially after rainy weather, for it is said that after wet weather they cannot make any noise with their rattles and therefore you are not warned of their presence. The most deadly snake, the moccasin, is brownish with a flat head.

The green lizards, too, will almost rid a house of flies if left to wander about at will. The fence lizard, a scaly alligator looking chap, is just as useful but never gets tame.

Try petting a toad some time. He will get to be quite at home in a garden and pay well, for he will eat all kinds of destructive insects. Some gardeners buy toads, paying as high as a quarter apiece, for they know how much good they can do. A toad digs his hole backwards. Watch him and see the fun. In the spring if there is water near he may be induced to sing to you. If you think he is slow and clumsy you have only to see how quick he can catch a fly.

Provisioning a Camp

This should be a matter of mature consideration. Unless there is some place near by where deficiencies can be supplied your camp may be a misery instead of a pleasure. Have lists made out of the things each is to bring, if it is to be a coÖperative affair. It may be best to have a committee, even if it is a committee of one, to do all the buying. But even in this case individual tastes must be consulted. A full list should be made out and strictly adhered to. At one camp where each brought what she thought best there were six cans of soup, four pounds of sugar, and no tea or coffee.

Canned goods are all very well if you do not have to carry them too far. So too are potatoes. For lightness on long trips, dried fruits and meal or grits are a wise selection. Oatmeal is light and easy to cook. Prepared batter-cake flour is a pure joy to the camp cook. Once when camping in the mountains we had unexpected difficulties. We were at such an elevation that water boiled at too low a temperature to cook many things "done," so the frying-pan there reigned supreme. As to that same frying-pan be sure to select the "long handled kind." If not you will have to splice out the handle with a long stick. Never pack up your "unwetables" in paper bags. At any time a shower or even a heavy dew at night may make you run short on salt, sugar, or flour. Covered tin cans are too cheap to make it necessary to run any such risks. Have a lantern and oil of course. Candles blow out too easily to be of much use. For sudden calls for a light the pocket electric affair is very good and cheap. Keep it standing up. The batteries waste quite fast if it is left down on the side.

The quantity of provisions to be taken depends on the length of stay. Consult any good military or naval ration list and a very good guess can be made. They all seem to lay stress on beans which certainly are very good if you have the "Boston" appetite.

Keep your camp clean. Keep it in order. Let your motto be, "Tidy as you go." It is as bad to have to hunt for a thing you want in camp as it is at home and particularly exasperating if, when you have found it, you must wash it before using. "A place for everything and that place anywhere" is a bad camp rule, though it does sound as if it was a real easy way of disposing of the matter. Dig a hole to throw slops in and do not let them "fly" on the ground. You may want to sit down right there. Whatever the birds will eat should be put aside for them. All other scraps and things that may become offensive must be buried. Don't start to breed flies or fever. When near the water some part of this rule may be dispensed with in favor of the fish and crabs. They may be judiciously baited up, but if you are going to fish for them see that they are not overfed.

There are times and seasons when wild fruits and berries are a most welcome addition to the camp fare, but unless you are perfectly sure of the supply do not reckon on them too much in making up your provision list. Better let them be a sort of joyful surprise. So too of fish and game. "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched." Fresh smilax shoots can scarcely be told from asparagus. Palmetto cabbage well cooked is fine; poorly prepared it is vile. Let some one that knows about these things "do" them for you.

The "gipsy kettle" is picturesque and only picturesque. Drive a stout crotched stake on each side of the fire and put a stout stick across them. Use strong wire hooks—S-shaped on which to hang pots over the fire. If hung through the handle on the stick they are apt to boil over and put out the fire before you know it. They may be quickly lifted from the wire hooks as soon as they begin to look dangerous. Even the coffee-pot may be rigged with a wire handle by which to be hung. Wire and string are our special hobbies in camp. Fan a fire instead of blowing it. Your breath has lost most of its combustible gas. A tin or wooden plate makes a good fan. Put away dry kindling every night. You don't know what sort of weather it will be tomorrow.

Use all precaution against your fire spreading. This is particularly necessary where there are tents. A dry tent will almost "whisk" up in smoke if the fire catches it. Rake dry leaves well away from about the fire. It may be best sometimes to make "a burn" round the camp. Do this a little at a time beating out all traces of the fire in the part burnt over. Be in no hurry about this but be thorough. Leave no smouldering embers or chunks of rotten wood smoking behind you. Burn clean as you go.

Camp Oven

The camp kitchen or camp oven is made with two lines of soda bricks, stones, or thick logs flattened at the top, about six feet long, slightly splayed from each other, being four inches apart at one end and eight inches at the other. The big end should be towards the wind, so that a sort of tunnel is formed in the big end at windward. Start your fire and the draught will carry the heat along the tunnel.

Daily Routine in Camp

Have a set of general orders posted every morning. There should be one officer of the day and one orderly. These will be appointed in turn. The general order should be read before breakfast and include all duties and so far as possible the excursions and games for the day. In appointing cooks and details for the various duties be sure not to work the "willing horse" too hard but let all share as much alike as possible. Some will always want to volunteer too often and some will try to avoid certain duties distasteful to themselves or "swap" with others. This should not be allowed but helping must never be barred completely. Inspect camp personally at least once a day and call attention to shortcomings kindly without chiding. You can help your girls to help themselves. A "driver" in camp is sure to breed hard feelings and cause discontent. The camp is a hard school for the instructor. One of the necessary laws in a camp is that after lights are out at night, no one must speak. Silence should reign.

In some places mosquitoes are very troublesome. Oil of citronella will drive them away for a time but a "smudge" may be necessary. They won't stay in smoke or wind, so hunt the breeze. There are some other flies just as bad to which the same treatment may be applied. "Black-flies" of the northern woods are about the worst insect pest in America, though the mosquitoes in some parts of the South, are nearly as bad. In some of the coast regions, too, there is a species of "sand-fly" or midge that is exceedingly annoying, but all of these are readily controlled by the "smudge." This is a steady smoke not necessarily of an ill-smelling nature. One of the very best materials for a "smudge" is green cedar branches. They need some pretty hot coals to keep them smouldering but are very effective.

Very few accidents need happen in camp. But still it may be a wise precaution to go over with each patrol, before the camping trip, some simple exercise in bandaging and other "First Aid" exercises. In a book of the scope of this one it is not possible to give a full course of instruction in such matters, so it seems best to make only casual mention and leave details to the judgment of the patrol leaders and captains.