application it becomes thoroughness and smartness. A great many
people object while camping to keeping things in trim, to getting up in
the morning, to moving with expedition and precision. "Oh, what's the
use in being so particular!" they grumble, "this is supposed to be a
pleasure trip."
[Sidenote: Discipline]
Outside the fact that a certain amount of discipline brings efficiency,
there is no doubt that a slack camp means trouble sooner or later. Where
things are not picked up, something important will sooner or later be
lost or left behind. Where the beginning of the day's journey hangs
fire, sooner or later night will catch you in a very bad place indeed.
Where men get in the habit of slouching, physically and mentally, they
become in emergencies unable to summon presence of mind, and incapable
of swift, effective movements. The _morale_ is low; and exclusive of the
fact that such things are an annoyance to the spirit, they may in some
exceptional occasion give rise to serious trouble. Algernon is ten
minutes slow in packing his horse; and Algernon gets well cursed. He is
hurt as to the soul, and demands of himself aggrievedly how ten minutes
can be valued so high. It is not the ten minutes as a space of time, but
as a measure of incompetence. This pack train is ten minutes short of
what a pack train should be; and if the leader's mind is properly
constructed, he is proportionately annoyed.
Although not strictly germane to a discussion of equipments, I am
tempted to hold up a horrible example.
[Sidenote: A Horrible Example]
One evening we were all sitting around a big after-dinner fire at the
Forest Supervisor's summer camp in the mountains, when an outfit drifted
in and made camp a few hundred yards down stream. After an interval the
leader of the party came over and introduced himself.
[Sidenote: A Horrible Example]
He proved to be a youngish man, with curly hair, regular features, a
good physique, and eyes handsome, but set too close together. A blue
flannel shirt whose top button was unfastened, rolled back to show his
neck; a handkerchief was knotted below that; in all his external
appearance he leaned toward the foppish-picturesque. This was in itself
harmless enough. Shortly he began to tell us things. He confided that
his chief ambition was to rope a bear; he related adventures in the more
southern mountains; he stated that he intended to travel up through the
Minarets and over Agnew's Pass, a
|