ted, and where it will not injure men or dogs."

_The Axe_

"Do not let the axe lie outdoors on a very cold night; the frost would
make it brittle, so that the steel might shiver on the first knot you
struck the next morning...."

The axe is a most dangerous tool, and a glancing blow may cripple one
for life.

1. Do not put your foot on a stick you are chopping.

2. Always have in mind where a glancing blow may throw the axe, and keep
your foot away from that danger.

3. In splitting short sticks for kindling hold them by one end flat on
the chopping block and strike the blade into the other end.

4. Do not hold the stick on end in one hand while splitting it.

5. Cut or split small wood on a chopping block or log. Never let the axe
strike into the ground, as a hidden stone may ruin the edge.

The Camp Fire

"The forest floor is always littered with old leaves, dead sticks and
fallen trees. During a drought this rubbish is so tinder-dry that a
spark falling in it may start a conflagration; but through a great part
of the year the leaves and sticks that lie flat on the ground are too
moist at least on their under side, to ignite readily. If we rake
together a pile of leaves, cover it higgledy-piggledy with dead twigs
and branches picked up at random, and set a match to it, the odds are
that it will result in nothing but a quick blaze that soon dies down to
a smudge. Yet that is the way most of us tried to make our first outdoor
fires.

"One glance at a camper's fire tells what kind of a woodsman he is. It
is quite impossible to prepare a good meal over a heap of smoking
chunks, a fierce blaze, or a great bed of coals that will warp iron and
melt everything else.

[Illustration: LUNCHEON FIRE]

"If one would have good meals cooked out of doors, and would save much
time and vexation; in other words, if he wants to be comfortable in the
woods, he must learn how to produce at will either (1) a quick, hot
little fire that will boil water in a jiffy, and will soon burn down to
embers that are not too ardent for frying; or (2) a solid bed of
long-lived coals that will keep up a steady, glowing, smokeless heat for
baking, roasting or slow boiling; or (3) a big log fire that will throw
its heat forward on the ground, and into a tent or lean-to, and will
last several hours without replenishing.

"_Luncheon Fire_--For a noonday lunch, or any other quick meal, when you
have only to boil coffee and fry something,