selessness. In like manner no city dweller brought up in proximity to
laundries and on the firm belief that washing should be done all at once
and at stated intervals can be convinced that he can keep clean and
happy with but one shirt; or that more than one handkerchief is a
superfluity.

[Sidenote: Elimination]

Yet in time, if he is a woodsman, and really thinks about such affairs
instead of taking them for granted, he will inevitably gravitate toward
the correct view of these things. Some day he will wake up to the fact
that he never wears a coat when working or traveling; that about camp
his sweater is more comfortable; and that in sober fact he uses that
rather bulky garment as little as any article in his outfit. So he
leaves it home, and is by so much disencumbered. In a similar manner he
will realize that with the aid of cold-water soap the shirt he wears may
be washed in one half hour and dried in the next. Meanwhile he dons his
sweater, A handkerchief is laundered complete in a quarter of an hour.
Why carry extras, then, merely from a recollection of full bureau
drawers?

[Sidenote: Essentials]

In this matter it is exceedingly difficult to be honest with oneself.
The best test is that of experience. What I have found to be of no use
to me, may measure the difference between comfort and unhappiness to
another man. Carry only essentials: but the definition of the word is
not so easy. _An essential is that which, by each man's individual
experience, he has found he cannot do without._

[Sidenote: How to Determine Essentials]

How to determine that? I have elsewhere indicated[1] a practical
expedient, which will however, bear repetition here. When you have
reached home after your trip, turn your duffle bag upside down on the
floor. Separate the contents into three piles. Let pile No. 1 include
those articles you have used every day--or nearly that often; let pile
No. 2 comprise those you have used but once; and pile No. 3 those you
have not used at all. Now, no matter how your heart may yearn over the
Patent Dingbat in No. 3, shut your eyes and resolutely discard the two
latter piles.

Naturally, if you are strong-minded, pile No. 1 will be a synonym for
your equipment. As a matter of fact you will probably not be as
strong-minded as that. You will argue to yourself somewhat in this
fashion:

"Yes, that is all very well; but it was only a matter of sheer chance
that the Patent Dingbat is not in pile N