There are many Boy Scouts to-day who will in a few years' time become very rich men although they have not much to begin with. That is a certainty, because a good many are determined to make their fortunes, and if a lad begins by being thrifty he generally succeeds in the end.
A fellow who begins making money as a boy will go on making it as a man. Some fellows, of course, want to do it by easy means, and that as a rule does not pay.
Some fellows see a fortune in betting on a horse race or football match; you may win a few shillings now and then but you are absolutely certain to lose half the time, and it is a fool's way of trying to make money, because the bookies who make a living by it trust to there being a sufficient number of fools to keep on betting and supplying them with money.
Such money is not earned, it is only gained by chance and therefore is not worth having—to a fellow with manly ideas.
Any number of poor boys have become rich men, but it was because they meant to from the first. They WORKED for it and put by every penny that they earned in the bank to begin with.
Lots of boys are already at work doing this, and I hope that very many of the Boy Scouts are also at it. Two good rules are given for making your fortune. The first is "Spendlessthan you earn." The second is "Pay ready money, and don't run into debt."
Many of you probably have heard of the Nasmyth steam hammer which is used in all the great iron works?
Well, Nasmyth, as a boy, worked in his father's workshop, and used to spend a great deal of his spare time in a neighbouring iron foundry, and he took to using tools and making all sorts of models of engines, etc., just as you Boy Scouts who are working up for your Engineer's Badge might do.
He made one model steam-engine so large that a man bought it for the purpose of driving a machine tool in his factory, and so he began to make money by selling his own home-made engines. And finally he went to work at a big engineering shop because he felt that he was one of a large family and that his father could not afford to keep them all and he was resolved to make his own living.
He could not afford to have his food cooked for him on the small pay that he got as a boy at the works, but he manufactured his own cooking-stove and found that with its help he was able to live on ten shillings a week.
He worked so well in the shop that the manager raised his wages to fifteen shillings a week. But as he had found that he could live on ten shillings, he put by the extra five shillings each week in the bank, and all the time he kept making tools for himself in his spare hours, and eventually started himself in business on his own account with his own money and his own tools, and finally invented his celebrated steam hammer.
By the time he was forty-eight, he had made a big income and quite a fortune. Many men would not have been content with this, but would have gone on until they became millionaires. But Nasmyth did not, he was content to retire from hard work with sufficient money to buy a happy home, where he went in for making telescopes and studying astronomy and also in doing good turns to people not so well off as himself.
And he gave some good advice to young fellows wanting to make a success of their lives in the following words:
"If I were to try to compress into one sentence the whole of the experience I have had, and offer it to a young man as a certain means of bringing success in whatever position he holds, it would be this:'Duty first, pleasure second,'"
"I am certain from what I have seen that what so many call 'bad luck' comes in nine cases out of ten from putting that maxim the other way round and satisfying your pleasure first and attending to work and duty afterwards."
One poor man, a farm labourer, made himself rich by writing poetry. His name was Stephen Duck, the thresher poet. But unfortunately numbers of other working men, seeing his good fortune, also thought it would be an easier way of making money to write poetry rather than by doing hard work, and Horace Walpole, when writing of Duck, said., "that he succeeded as a poet, but he also succeeded in ruining at least twenty good workmen."
There are very few young men who have not at one time or another in their lives thought themselves splendid poets. I hope this will be a warning to them, and that they will take to hard work as a means of making their way in the world.
* * * * *
Lord Strathcona began life as a poor boy in Scotland and he ended up by being one of the richest men in Britain, and, not only the richest in money, but in having also the admiration and affection of a vast number of his fellow-countrymen.
When he was eighteen, as plain Donald Smith, he went out to Canada and joined the Hudson Bay Trading Company there. This Company used to buy fur skins from the trappers and Indians, and their trading stations were built in far-off, out-of-the-way places in order to be near to the hunting-grounds of these people.
Also, as you never could trust the Red Indians, they were all fortified posts, ready for defence against attack.
Young Smith was sent up to a place called Mingan, right away up in the north-east of Canada, in Labrador, a cold, bleak, dreary country.
After he had been there some time, his eyes began to give him great trouble, and he feared he was going blind. There was no doctor nor anyone else to consult, so he started off to make his way down to Montreal to see a doctor. He took with him as guides two half-breed Indians.
For weeks he toiled through the awful wilderness, among snow and blizzard, but at length he reached Montreal.
Do you think they made a hero of him?
Not a bit of it. His employers rounded on him for quitting his post without leave, and told him to go back at once.
At first he felt—like many of us would have done—so angry that he was on the point of throwing up the whole thing and leaving the service of the Hudson Bay Company.
But on second thoughts he felt that, after all, the managers were right. They had put him there to have charge of valuable stores and important work, and that it was his duty to stick there, and not to come in to civilised parts for his own sake.
So he accepted the wigging, and started back on the long, dreary journey to his gloomy post in Labrador.
He had luckily been able to see a doctor, and had got his eyes put right.
It was an awful journey: so bad that the two guides gave way under their hardships and died. But again Donald Smithstuck to it, and struggled on, and in the end he just managed to get to his post, worn out and exhausted.
But that sticking to it was exactly what was the secret of his success.
For thirteenyearshe stuck to his job in that awful country and then his employers saw that he was so strong on doing his duty that they promoted him to higher and more important work, till in the end he became Chief Factor or Head Manager of the Company.
Then came the idea of making the Canadian Pacific Railway right acrossCanada.
People said it was a mad scheme; that it could never pay to make a railway into that vast wilderness which in those days had not been properly explored.
But Donald Smith looked far ahead, and saw the time when Britain would be overcrowded with people, and corn-growing, cattle-raising land would be needed for colonists.
So he put his savings into the railway and worked hard to make it a success.
Everything seemed to go against it. But hestuck to it, and fought against all difficulties, until in the end hecameout successful. And to-day the Canadian Pacific is one of the greatest railways in the world, and has opened up Canada to be a great country, peopled by thousands of British colonists.
And so he made his fortune, and later on, in return for his splendid work for the Empire, he was made Lord Strathcona.
Most men leave off work when they are between sixty and seventy, but Lord Strathcona did not. He still continued tostick to itfor twenty or thirty years longer than most men. Only a few days before his death he was at work in his office (and he died at the age of ninety-four).
And in his office every day hestuck to it, for he went there about eleven in the morning, but seldom left before seven—often he was there till nine.
When all the neighbouring offices in Victoria Street had turned off their lights and closed their doors for the night, Lord Strathcona's window was to be seen still brilliantly lit up, so much so that the policemen and others about there called it "The Lighthouse."
Now, why should a man go on working overtime like that? He was not making money; he had enough of that and to spare. It was simply because he considered it was his duty, and hestuck to it.
Besides his adventures in Canada, and besides his power of sticking to his duty, Lord Strathcona was also a good scout, because he was kind and helpful to others.
* * * * *
For the South African War he paid the expenses of raising a regiment to fight for the King—and a fine regiment it was, too—of mounted men, which was called after him "Strathcona's Horse."
Also the Boy Scouts owe him a debt of gratitude, because in the early days of the movement, when we were struggling to get along, he gave 500 Pounds to me to help to start our brotherhood.
So Boy Scouts owe much to Lord Strathcona for that, and for setting a real living example of how a man shouldstick to itin doing his duty, and in being kind and helpful to others.
From these stories of poor boys who have made successes of their lives and become rich men I do not want you to think that I look upon money as the aim of your life. You should only wish to gain sufficient money to put you in a position where you can live happily into old age if necessary, and bring up a family without calling on other people to support you.
And I would tell you just one more story of a poor man who yet made a fortune other than that which money produced.
This man was John Pounds, and he kept a little cobbler's shop in Portsmouth, where he worked hard and well, so that people began to bring their boots to him for repair in preference to any other cobbler, because they knew that he did honest work and they got a better return for their money.
Soon he began to gather in much more cash than was necessary for his modest wants. But he did not buy a big house and set himself up in comfort. He did a better thing than that.
When he was at his work, idle boys used to come and hang around his shop watching him busily employed, and while he stitched and cobbled he chatted with the boys and took an interest in them.
Boys are good fellows, and when they found somebody thought about them, although they were dirty, ragged urchins, they took an interest in him, until gradually they came at their own desire to hear him talk, and began to imitate him in doing steady work. Then he made use of his savings in a way that was better than feeding himself on good things, for he fed these boys who badly wanted a good meal.
As time went on, he started a sort of club or school for his ragged friends, and in the end had a sort of Scout troop of boys who learnt handicrafts under him and became strong with their good feeding, became good workmen under his instruction, and saved up money under his example.
Thus he was able to send out into the world a number of good, strong, prosperous workmen who would otherwise have drifted into being wasters.
And from his little effort in Portsmouth sprang up similar ragged schools and boys' clubs in different parts of the Kingdom.
So he did as much by his thrift as many have done by saving their millions.
* * * * *
"How can I ever succeed in becoming great and rich? It is impossible.I am only a poor boy!"
That is what a lad said to me. I was able to restore him to greater hopefulness by saying:
"Nothing is impossible if you make up your mind to do it. Many a great man who is alive to-day began as a poor boy like yourself, with no help besides his own wits and pluck."
Then I told him about Sir William Arrol. At nine years of age he went to work as a "piecer" in a cotton factory. A few years later he became apprenticed to a blacksmith. He worked hard and well, and was very steady, so that at the age of twenty-three he found himself foreman in Messrs. Laidlaw's boiler works in Glasgow. Like a Scout, he was thrifty, and in five years of this employment he saved up 85 Pounds of his wages, and with this sum he started a business of his own.
At first he made boilers and girders, and then, as his business grew bigger, he took up bridge-building.
Steadily he worked at this, being at all times anxious to show good solid work, without any scamping.
To start with he had met with disappointments and failures, but he would not give in to then; when things looked their worst he kept a smiling face andstuck to it.
And in the end he came out successful, as every man does who is patient and sticks it out. He got a name for steady, persevering work, and for giving full value for any money paid to him.
For these reasons he obtained good contracts for building bridges, and soon enlarged his business into a very big one.
Among others, the great Tay bridge and the bridge over the Forth inScotland are his work.
He died a rich and highly respected man, but in the height of his power he never forgot that he began as a poor boy, and he always did what he could to help other poor boys to win their way to success.
He used, however, to say that success depended mainly on the boy himself. If a boy were determined to get on, and knew a handicraft or two, he would probably succeed, but if he merely dabbled in one thing and then another, and wasted his time in amusements, and could not stick it out when luck seemed against, him, that boy would be a failure, and would probably go on being a failure all his life.
* * * * *
So you see if, as a Scout, you pick up and really practise what Scouting teaches you, it gives you every chance of being a success in life, since it teaches you to be active and enduring, to be trustworthy, to be obedient to your duty, to be thrifty, and to learn handicrafts.
In fact, it teaches you to Be Prepared to make a successful career for yourself if you stick to it.
The knights in the old days were ordered by their code of rules to be thrifty, that is, to save money as much as possible in order to keep themselves and not to be a burden to others, and that they might have more to give away in charity.
If they were poor, they were not to beg for money, but had to make it by their own work.
Thus, Thrift is part of manliness because it means hard work and self-denial, and boys are never too young to work for pay, which they should put in the Post Office Savings Bank or some other Government security.
Law 10. A SCOUT IS CLEAN IN THOUGHT, WORD AND DEED.
Decent Scouts look down upon silly youths who talk dirt, and they do not let themselves give way to temptation, either to talk it or to do anything dirty. A Scout is pure, and clean-minded, and manly.
When boys are getting big, they generally want to show off and to impress other boys with their "manliness"—or at least what they think is manliness.
It generally begins with smoking. They think it fine to smoke, so they suck and puff at cigarettes, partly because these are cheap, and partly because a pipe would make them sick.
The reason why half of them do it is because they are arrant cowards, and are afraid of being laughed at by the other boys if they don't do it. They think themselves tremendous heroes, while in reality they are little asses. Then they like to use swear words because they think this makes them appear tremendously ferocious and big. Also they think it the height of manliness to tell smutty stories and to talk dirt.
But these things don't say much for the boy who does them. He generally curls up and hides them directly a man is present. He only produces them for swanking in the presence of other boys, This shows that he is not really very proud of his accomplishments, and the boy who has a sense of honour in him knows at once that such things are against his conscience-law and he will have nothing to do with them.
This often puts him in a difficult position when among boys who are showing off, as they will be ready to jeer at him; but if he has honour and pluck—in a word, if he is a true Scout—he will brave it out and, as a result, he will come out the only real man of the party.
The probability will be that though they do not show it at the moment, some of the others will see that he is right and that they are wrong, and will pluck up courage themselves and follow his example in being clean and straight.
If, by his conduct, a Scout can in this way save one fellow, he will at any rate have done something in the world.
You may think there is no harm in a little joking of a risky kind, or in the occasional secret smoking of a cigarette, although you allow it may be silly; but if you look into it, and especially when you have, later on, seen results such as I have seen that come of it, you will at once understand there is great harm—great danger in it. It is the beginning; and the beginning of anything is very often the important point.
If you talk or listen to what is wrong, you get to think about what is wrong and very soon you get to doing what is wrong.
By doing things which you would not care to do before your father or mother, you are becoming a bit of a sneak. You do these things secretly, you are not straight.
A fellow who is not straight at starting is pretty sure to go on being crooked for the rest of his career. He knows all the time in his inmost heart that he is a sneak, and he can therefore never take a pride in himself and others are bound to find it out sooner or later, so he never gets a real friend nor a good employer.
Then these things are likely to do him bodily harm.
Smoking is poison to a growing lad. It may not do you much harm if you take to it when you are grown up; but while you are still forming your muscles as a lad it is almost certain to do damage to your heart, your wind, your digestion, and very likely your eyesight and teeth.
I take it that most boys want to be good healthy runners and able to play at all the games, and I am certain that every Scout wants to Be Prepared to be a good healthy man for his Country.
Well, you can't do it if you begin by smoking as a boy.
Drinking begins, like everything else, in a small way; but it very soon grows on a fellow unless he is on the look out to stop it. More than half the crime in Great Britain is due to drink, and so is most of the poverty, and three-quarters of the insanity. And it is much the same with thoughts about women; they soon grow into wrong action, and if these are kept up they grow into habits which lead in an awful number of cases to misery, disease, and madness.
Brace up!
Be a man! Keep off these dangers.
If fellows around you are swanking in dirt, leave them and go elsewhere.
Don't let yourself BEGIN loafing about, taking drinks, talking smut, or doing what you know is wrong; give yourself bettor things to do—games, handicrafts, good turns, work, and you will grow up a clean, straight, and happy fellow, and, what is more—aman.
* * * * *
Not long ago there was a lot of argument about certain music-halls in London. Many people were disgusted at the low and dirty talk or hints made by some of the performers. Most of these rotten ideas of half-dressed women, dancing about trying to look pretty, come from abroad, and do not really please the ordinary British man.
Harry Lauder is delightfully funny, but he is funny without being dirty, and so is Chevalier, the coster singer. Dan Leno made you laugh, but he was never dirty—and that was why he and these other singers have been so popular.
I saw a performance not long ago, where a half-dressed woman came and danced about on the stage, but, though she was tremendously advertised as the great attraction of the place, she got very little applause. Soon after her there came a bright-looking girl in ordinary clothes, who merely sang an English ballad, but she was cheered and applauded till she had to come on again and sing a second, and even a third time.
I believe that the proper, manly Britisher likes a good clean show on the stage; he likes to have a good hearty laugh, or to hear good music, but I believe it is only a very few (and those nearly all slackers and wasters) who care to go and see the nasty, half-indecent shows which come sometimes from other countries.
* * * * *
In the old days when being made Knights, members of the Order of the Bath used to go and take a bath as part of the ceremony. I was very glad to see in Hull during a visit there that at the Boys' Club every boy on coming into the club has a bath.
In the first room he comes into on entering the club he takes off all his clothes and puts them in a rack made for the purpose. Then he goes into a big warm plunge bath, from which he goes into a drying-room, and beyond this is a dressing-room, where he gets a club shirt and pair of shorts to wear for the evening, till it is time to get into his own clothes to go home again.
[Illustration: BRITISH SOLDIERS SURPRISED THE FRENCH NATIVES BY THEIREAGERNESS TO HAVE A WASH, EVEN ON ICY COLD MORNINGS.]
This daily bath is an excellent thing for keeping a fellow healthy and strong—and the most important part of it is the rubbing with the towel.
Well, it is often difficult for a Scout to get a bath. Sometimes in his home there are no means for doing it, and often out on the veldt or desert there is very little water, but if he has a towel, especially a damp one, he can always give himself a good rub down with it—he should scrub himself well all over! and that is what I should like every Scout to do every morning when he gets up. It will not only keep him clean, but will make him grow far more healthy and happy and strong, because it cleans the skin and wakes up the blood so that it rushes through his veins and brings him health.
So get yourself a towel, every Scout; and carry out your rubbing every day when you get up.
In the same way see that you clean your teeth regularly night and morning—not because it will help you to pass the time away, but because it will prevent your teeth from getting rotten, thus saving you from toothache.
* * * * *
"Gentlemendonot spit; menmustnot spit" is a notice which may be seen in an American city; also there is a similar one which says: "If youexpect to rateas a gentleman, don'texpectorate."
On the steamships to South America the English passengers were often disgusted by the amount of spitting about the decks done by some of the foreigners on board.
One of the captains thought of a good idea; he ordered a sailor, carrying a mop, to follow each of these foreigners where-ever he went; whenever the foreigner spat, the sailor used the mop, and in a short timeallthe foreigners learnt that if they behaved like other gentlemen and did not spit, they were spared having an attendant with a mop, so they soon gave up the dirty habit.
When I was in charge of a public building in Malta, which was guarded at night by Maltese watchmen, I soon found that I need not be always going round to see that they were alert, because their habit of constantly spitting showed me next morning whether they had been awake and where they had stood or walked during the night.
One day I found the pavement of one man's beat quite clean and dry, so I had him up and accused him of having been absent without leave. He did not know how I found it out, so confessed that he had been away to see a friend, thinking there was no harm in it, since the place was all locked up and secure.
Englishmen are fortunately not so dirty in their habits as to be always spitting, but, still; there is a little of it going on in our streets; and even a little is a bad thing.
It is not only a habit that is nasty to other people, but it is dangerous as well, for the following reason;
So many men are suffering from consumption or disease of the lungs even without knowing it. When they spit they throw out a number of tiny "germs," which, although too small to be seen, get into the air and are very easily breathed in again by other passers-by; and these germs contain the seeds of the disease, which are thus sown in healthy people, and make them "consumptives" also.
Unhappily people are rather fond of spitting in railway carriages. A man doing this was fined ten shillings and two guineas costs not long since.
His excuse was that he had a bad cough.
Any Scout could have told him, apart from the dirty, disgusting part of the habit, how very dangerous to other passengers it is for a person with a bad cough to indulge in this habit.
Little living seeds of disease are in this way let loose to get into other people's throats and lungs, and possibly to bring them illness and death.
* * * * *
Sixty thousand people die every year of consumption in Great Britain.
One death in every eight is from consumption.
Two hundred and fifty thousand people, or one in every two hundred, have the disease in them.
Consumption is caught through carelessness or ignorance, by breathing the germs, or in drinking them in milk.
The following are a few simple rules which, if followed, should help to prevent you from getting it:
1. Live much in the open air. 2. Sleep with the window open. 3. Breathe through the nose. 4. If you drink milk, be sure that it is pure. 5. Keep your blood healthy with exercise, good and plain food. 6. Keep your home clean and well ventilated. 7. Never neglect a cold.
Here are some pictures showing how people get the germs of consumption into them unless they are very careful.
A large number of cows have the germs or seeds of consumption in them, and they give out these germs in their milk. So milk ought to be "sterilised," that is to say, it should be made so hot that the germs are killed before it is drunk.
[Illustration: DO NOT DRINK MILK STRAIGHT FROM THE COW, AS A GREATNUMBER OF THESE ANIMALS HAVE THE GERMS OF CONSUMPTION IN THEM.]
Then a large number of people have the consumption germs in them, although they may not yet be ill with it. They will get ill sooner or later, and they give out germs whenever they cough or spit.
[Illustration: HOW CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD.
A man spits and the germs rise. They try a boy who breathes through the nose, but get thrown out again. Then they try another boy who breathes through his open mouth, and so they get into his lungs.]
These germs get blown about in the air with the dust, and get into other people's mouths, and so into their lungs—that is, if the other people go about with their mouths partly open. If they breathe through their nose only, as I hope all Scouts do, there is less chance of the germs getting into the lungs, as they get caught in the sticky liquid in the nostrils, and get driven out again when you blow your nose.
It is the same with other diseases besides consumption.
The Missioner Scout can safely go about among people who are ill with colds, measles, and other sicknesses, if he breathes only through his nose. All illnesses that are "catching" are spread by germs flying from one person to another.
The consumptive germs get into you and go for your lungs, which are big sponges inside you, through which your blood gets the air, which is necessary to keep it healthy. Consumption germs "consume" your lungs.
The nasty little germ of disease thrives in dirt, and dark and muggyair, and so he grips even the healthiest people in rooms that are dark and dirty, and where the windows are not kept open.
Fresh air, sunlight, and cleanliness kill the germs.
Now that you know what consumption is, you will be doing a good turn to get other people to understand it.
IwanteveryScout who reads this to show the pictures to at least five other people, AND EXPLAIN them. He may thus save lives.
After a delightful little voyage in one of the smart Wilson Line steamers, I arrived one morning early in Christiania, the capital of Norway.
The town is an ordinary Continental town, but stands on the shores of an arm of the sea which is so shut in by wooded hills for some twenty miles that it is more like an inland lake than a gulf of the ocean.
What a place for Sea Scouts!
One of the first Norwegian boys to attract my attention was a Boy Scout—so like an English Scout that he may have been one for all I know, but I was not able to speak to him, I was catching a train, and he was going off in a hurry in another direction, evidently in trouble, as he was whistling and smiling! And it is difficult to tell a Norwegian boy from an English boy by his appearance, for they are very much alike.
And so are the girls and young women very like their British sisters. But then, as we all came of the same blood in bygone times, it is not altogether surprising.
Then their Royal Family is related to ours, for Queen Maud, the wife of King Haakon, is sister of our own King.
So Norwegians have much in common with the English, and since my visit Scouts of the two countries have become good friends and camped with each other.
There could be no better country than this for camping out. As you come through it in the train, you keep passing among wooded hills and then alongside rivers and lakes; a great deal of wild country with occasional cultivated parts where there are neat little wooden farmsteads and villages.
The houses are painted bright colours, and are roofed with tiles or shingles, that is, wooden slates, as in Canada. In fact, with its forests, lakes, and rivers, and their floating timber, and the sawmills, the country generally is not unlike Canada.
As wood is so abundant here, farm Scouts will be interested to see from the picture how they make their fences in place of hedges or ordinary post-and-rails. It is a kind of fence that you can make easily with almost any kind of slats or with brushwood or branches.
[Illustration: A NORWEGIAN FENCE.]
A way which the Norwegian woodmen have of piling their small timber in the woods in order to dry it is one which might also be useful to Scouts when making a bivouac-hut, where there are plenty of saplings. You pile them as shown in the picture, all with their butts or thick ends together to windward, and thin ends splayed outwards.
When you have got this frame together you can cover it with a waterproof sheet, or straw mat, or brushwood, to keep out the weather, and light your fire opposite the opening.
In my camp I had one friend, George.
[Illustration: AN EASILY-MADE BIVOUAC HUT]
We found a good site on the bank of a rushing roaring river between high hills covered with forest. We were thirty-five miles from the nearest railway station, and about four miles from a farm, where we got our butter and our milk. The river supplied our fish, and we shot our own game.
We carried just enough kit to make a load for a pack-pony—a bundle of about 50lb. weight on each side of him. There were no roads, and a pack-pony is the only means of carrying heavy luggage, such as tents, etc.
We each had our bivouac tent, bedding, change of clothes, cooking pots, and fishing rods, etc.
Of course, we did our own cooking, woodcutting, and cleaning up. And cleaning up is a very important part of camp work.
Our camp was small and never likely to be seen by anybody besides ourselves, but it was always kept very neat and tidy, and we could shift camp at any moment, and leave scarcely a sign that we had been there. That is how Scouts should always have their camp—everything in its place, so that you can find anything you want at a moment's notice in the event of a sudden turn out in the dark, or for shutting up for a sudden rain squall.
All scraps of food should be burnt or buried, and not thrown about round the camp. On service these scraps would be good "sign" to an enemy's scouts as to who had occupied the camp, and how long ago, and how well off they were for provisions, and so on.
Another reason against letting your camp ground get dirty is that it quickly becomes the camping place also of thousands of flies. If you have flies in camp it is a sign that the camp is not kept clean.
* * * * *
I have made a sketch of my tent, which, as you will see, is a kind of hammock with a roof to it, slung between two trees. This form of tent keeps you dry in wet weather or on swampy ground; you never have to lie on the ground, you can get snakes and other nice visitors crawling into your bed. The cot is long enough to hold your kit as well as yourself.
It is kept stretched out by two side poles and a ridge pole. These can be cut in the wood where you camp, and the cot itself, with bedding and kit inside, can be rolled up in the waterproof, and this forms a neat roll for half of the pack-pony's load.
The cot is springy and most comfortable to sleep in.
When you are ill or wounded it makes a very good stretcher, the side poles forming the carrying handles. In the same way, when you are dead it makes an excellent coffin, as the sides and ends fold in, and can be laced over the body. I have not tried it myself in that way.
Another advantage which I have twice found the cot-tent to have was, when a tornado visited camp, and all the tents were blown down into the mud, my little cot was swaying quietly in the wind—it cannot blow down.
In the drawing you see also, besides my bedroom (in the cot), my dressing-room, my drawing-room, and my bathroom—in fact, my whole residence.
The dressing-room was where my fishing waders are hanging up to dry, together with my shaving-glass, hat, and holdalls.
Over the cot are hanging my overcoat and moccasins and towel. My drawing-room was the rug on which I sit, my writing-case lying there ready for use.
[Illustration: MY CAMP RESIDENCE IN NORWAY. My cot-tent will be seen in the centre of the picture.]
My bath was down below, through the trees, in the river!
My whole house was carpeted with a beautiful soft springy moss, so dry that a match dropped on to it would soon set the whole forest in a blaze.
So we had to be very careful about our camp fire.
* * * * *
We made our kitchen near the river, where this dry moss did not grow.
A camp fire for cooking is not a bonfire. A tenderfoot never remembers this; but an old campaigner can be recognised by the smallness of his fire; he does not waste fuel. In the woods there may be plenty of timber, but he is not going to waste time, energy, and axes in cutting down piles of firewood when he can make a few handfuls do equally well; and if he is out on the plains where firewood is almost unknown, he has to do with a few roots of grass, or bits of cow-dung, etc.
Then a big roaring fire, though it looks very cheery, sends off sparks, and in dry camping weather these are very dangerous, whether in the woods, or on the heather, or among the grass.
[Illustration: MY CAMP KITCHEN.]
We began our fire by, first of all, collecting a heap of firewood, chiefly dead branches from trees; then by laying a few shreds of birch-bark between two good flat stones of equal height (about six inches), and on these we laid a few bits and splinters of dry wood taken from the inside of a dead tree, and on that just two or three small dry sticks, and then set it alight. As it burnt we gradually added more small sticks till it was a good strong little fire, then we added more and more sticks, the object being to get the space between the stones gradually full of glowing red-hot bits of wood to give heat to the cooking pots, which we then stood on the two stones so as to bridge over the fire.
The great art is to begin with a verysmallfire and averydry one. You can then add to its size as you please later on, and when it is going strong you can add damper wood if dry wood is scarce. Birch-bark cannot be found everywhere, but it is the best of lighting tinder when you have it.
The channel between the stones is much better if laid so as to face the breeze. The fire can then be kept going at the mouth of it, and the heat will blow through; a bigger kind of log can be put in from the other end to catch fire and add to the heat in the channel.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways of making fires, which you can read about inScouting for Boys, but this is the particular kind of cooking fire that we used in my Norwegian camp.
At night, when we had cooked our supper and the night was getting chilly, of course, we put on big logs laid across each other, and so got a big, star-shaped fire to make a blaze to warm us,
But we kept a good watch on any sparks to see that they didn't touch the moss or heather, and when we turned in, we trod out the fire and poured water over the whole of the ashes, so as to prevent any chance of embers blowing out into flame again during the night and setting light to the grass.
Scouts cannot be too careful in this matter, especially in England, where landowners are very good at lending their ground to troops for camping, but are naturally very nervous all the time lest by some carelessness a grass fire may get started, and thousands of pounds' worth of timber or property get burnt.
Early in the morning we were to leave our rest-house near the railway in order to drive (and partly to walk) to the place where we were going to make our headquarters. This was forty-nine kilometres distant. How many miles is that?
As kilometres are generally used abroad for telling distances, a Scout ought to know how to compare the two and here is a simple way of doing it: Multiply your number of kilometres by five and divide the result by eight, and you will have the number of miles. Thus:
We want to know how many miles our forty-nine kilometres are.
495—-8)245—-30 5/8 or about 30 1/2 miles.
As I have said, we were to leave early, but we found that theNorwegian idea of early is not so very early as with us in England.They thought eight o'clock breakfast very early, and the cart, whichwas supposed to start at nine, did not get away till 10:30.
It was a little ramshackle sort of dogcart with a very high seat, which just gave standing room for us among our baggage, while the boy in charge of the pony hung on as best he could behind.
The pony was fine and strong and fat, but awfully sedate; in fact, it was only after a lot of persuasion that we got him to move at a trot, and then it was a marvellously slow trot.
However, I found that if one showed him the spare end of the rope reins, and offered to strike him with it, he mended his pace considerably. He kept his eye on me all the time—
The Norwegians seem to be very kind to their animals. They don't use whips or blinkers or bearing-reins on their horses and before we had gone very far the boy in charge considered it time to unharness and feed his horse for a few minutes. We walked on while he did so, and as it wasn't for an hour and a half that he overtook us again, we guessed he had given the horse a very fine feed indeed.
[Illustration: THE HORSE KEPT HIS EYE ON ME ALL THE WAY.]
We didn't do ourselves badly, either, because all along the road, which ran through beautiful woods along the hillside, we found lots of excellent raspberries growing wild.
We changed ponies half-way: but when we had got nearly to our journey's end, the boy said he must stop and feed the horse. We said: "No; it is only four or five miles more, and the pony will be home." But the boy began to cry at our cruelty, so we had to stop and let the horse graze. It was very pleasing to see that they are so kind to their animals.
I have said that I was not one day in Norway before I saw a Boy Scout. Well, I was not two days in the country before I saw a Girl Guide. Correctly dressed in the same kits those in England, with her patrol ribbons on, she was taking lunch at the rest-house where we stopped for ours. Unfortunately, she could not talk English, so we could not have a chat, as I should have liked.
It is a grand thing for Scouts who care to travel that Boy Scouts are now to be found in most foreign countries, because you have only to make the secret sign a few times in any town, and you will get an answer, and find a brother Scout ready to help you.
In Norway, especially, they seem likely to be very useful to British Scouts, because they are very like British boys, except that they have much more practice in woodcraft.
A large proportion of them live in wildish country, among the forests and lakes, and so they know how to look after themselves; they are nice, cheery fellows. They are very clean, and they speak the truth. Well, that means a great deal, because you can trust a fellow who speaks the truth, and, what is more, you can trust him to behave well in danger or trouble.
I find that men who tell lies in peace time are not among the bravest in war; and telling a lie is, after all, a bit of cowardice—the fellow who tells it is afraid to speak the truth, or he hopes to get something in return for what he says, if he can only get the other fellow to see the question as he wants him to.
Well, that's a sneaking way of doing it. A manly fellow will speak out, and always say exactly what he wants or what is the real state of the case; he will be believed and will generally get his way. In any case, show me a liar, and I can show you a "funk-stick."
* * * * *
You may be interested in a picture of our camp on the Allalaer River in Norway. The shelter was rigged up with a waterproof sheet and a few poles cut in the forest.
Inside this shelter you see our store-cupboard; in other words, a box turned on end, with a bit of the lid made into a shelf. In this we stored our bread, coffee, sugar, and such things.
Then down on the left of the sketch is a small log bridge over a stream. Under this bridge we kept our milk, butter, and fish; it made an excellent ice-cold larder.
Next we come to the chopping block, an old log on which we chopped firewood into the right size. If you chop wood on the ground you will very soon blunt your axe, so always use a chopping-block.
And when you have finished chopping, leave your axe sticking in the block; this preserves its edge from getting rusty or knocked by stones, etc. It also preserves your toes from getting cut by stumbling over an axe in the dark.
[Illustration: MY CAMP ON THE ALLALAER RIVER IN NORWAY.]
Next we come to the important part of the camp—the fire. You see we made the fire between two big flat stones. These were useful for standing the frying-pan on, and cooking billies, etc. The fire is made at the windward end of the channel, between the stones, so that the heat blows into the channel, while the fire forms a pile of red-hot embers outside, at which toast can be made.
Notice our automatic toast-makers, made of a forked stick and a small supporting fork.
[Illustration: MY TOASTING-FORK.]
Then over the fire we had a crossbar of green wood (if you use old wood it will catch fire and drop your pot into the fire just as the stew is ready); it was supported on two stout, firmly-driven forked stakes, not the wobbly, rickety things which tenderfoots like to put up.
On the crossbar our kettle was hung by a pot-hook—just a hooked stick with a good notch cut in it to take the handle of the kettle.
Also on the crossbar in the sketch you see our tongs. These are most useful things for a camp-fire for lifting hot embers into the spot where you want them for giving extra heat.
[Illustration: MY AUTOMATIC KETTLE-HOLDER.]
The tongs are made from a green stick of hazel, or alder, or birch. The stick should be about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. At the middle you cut away a good bit of the wood from one side for about 4 inches. Then cut a number of small notches across the grain of the wood to make it still more bendable at the centre. Here's the side view of the centre part of your stick.
[Illustration: THE TONGS BEFORE AND AFTER BEING BENT.]
Then flatten the inner sides of your stick towards both ends, so that they get a better hold on things; bend the two ends together and there you have your tongs:
Next to the tongs, in the sketch, you see a small branch of dwarf fir. This makes a hearth-brush, which is very useful for keeping the fire neat and clean.
The ordinary-looking stick leaning against the crossbar is an ordinary sort of stick, but a very useful one. He is the poker and pot-lifter. He should be a stout green stick not easily burnt. Poplar is a difficult wood to burn, but then many old hands won't use it, because it is said to bring bad luck on the camp-fire where it is used; but that is an old wife's story, and I always use it when I get the chance.
If the soup gets upset, I look on it as my fault, not the fault of the poplar poker. In fact, whatever wood the poker is made of, one always seems to get a kind of affection for him. He is only an ordinary ugly, old half-burnt stick, but he is jolly useful and helpful.
On this side of the fire you see the pile of wood that has been collected for fuel. It is generally the right thing when in camp for each camper, when coming in, whether from bathing, or fishing, or anywhere else, to bring with him some contribution to the wood-pile.
Different kinds of wood are needed for it.
First you want "punk" and "kindling"—that is, strips of birch-bark (which are better than paper for starting a fire), dry fibre from the inside of old dead trees, dry lichen or moss, anything that will start a fire. And also small, dry splinters, chips, and twigs to give the flame for lighting the bigger wood.
Secondly, you want lots of sticks, about 1/2 to 1 inch in thickness, for making your cooking-fire of hot embers, or you can get bigger logs, from which you can afterwards knock off, with our friend the poker, red-hot embers for the cooking.
Remember, you don't want a great blazing fire for cooking, but one that is all made of red-hot lumps.
For warming you up and giving a cheerful appearance to the camp at night you can have any amount of big, dry branches and logs—the drier the better for a good blaze.
Beyond the fire, in the sketch, you see our dining-table and seat. This is a plank set across a hole in the ground, and the table is another plank beyond it. That is one way of making a dining-table.
Another way to make seats and tables in camp, especially in a country like this, where the forest is full of fallen timber, is to go and look out for a suitable pine tree with branches so placed that by a little lopping with an axe you can make a trestle like this:
[Illustration: HOME-MADE SEAT.]
Two such trestles can be made to support a few split saplings, or a number of stout straight rods, which can then be nailed, spiked, or lashed down with cross-battens to form a table; and more such trestles can form the seats.
On the right of the sketch you see three forked uprights. These formed our rack for holding fishing-rods and landing-nets.
The little tufts hanging on this rack are bunches of heather.
Did you ever hear the yarn of the Boy Scout who, at his school examination in natural history, was asked, "What is heather?" He replied, "Well, sir, it is what we clean the cooking-pots with in camp."
He was quite right, though perhaps the examiner did not think so.
A few bunches of heather are most useful as dishcloths for cleaning dishes and pots. The reason why they are hanging on the rod rack is that they are handy for use in the scullery, which is that part of the river close by the rack.
In using a river you always have certain spots told off to the different uses. First and highest up-stream you get your drinking water. Next is your handwashing place (not bathing place) and scullery for washing plates and cooking-pots.
Below that is the refuse place, where you throw away scraps off the plates and from cooking-pots, and gut your fish. This should be where the stream will carry away the scraps and not slack water, where they will collect.
Of course, this throwing of refuse into the river only does in a wild country or where the river is big. In most English camps, all refuse should be buried in a pit or burnt.
I think that describes the whole of our camp.
Oh, no, there is still one article—and one of great importance Alongside the tent you see our camp besom or broom. It is made of a few birch twigs bound together. (The long thin roots of the fir-tree make very good cord.) This we used for sweeping the camp-ground every morning when we tidied up.
When we left our camp, the last thing we did after everything was packed ready for moving was to go round and tidy up the whole ground, and burn all the scraps, chips, and twigs that were left on the ground. So when we left it would have been difficult for a stranger to say that anybody had been camped there except for the place where the fire had been. But we left the cross-bars, pot-hooks, and wood-pile there, so that anyone coming after us would find them ready for his use.
[Illustration: A FISH CARRIER]
But I expect they will all have rotted away before any one else comes that way to camp, for it is in an out-of-the-way corner where very few travellers come.
Another hook I might, mention is one used for carrying your fish when you have caught them. It is merely a twig cut from the nearest bush.
* * * * *
I had heard of a wonderful gorge in the mountains to the west of us, through which no man had ever passed, and George wanted to go "reeper" shooting on the mountain slopes in that direction. (A "reeper" is a Norwegian grouse.) So one fine morning found us starting in a boat to row down the great lake, which would bring us to the foot of the mountains.
This lake is about eight miles long, and one mile wide. Steep, forest-clad hillsides run down to the lake on both sides, and there are not half a dozen farms in sight of it, so we felt that we were getting into wilder parts as soon as we had started on our voyage.
The boats here are only made for one pair of sculls to be used at a time, so it came heavy on each of us in turn to have to row our well-loaded ship with its cargo of two men, two dogs (Bruce and Gordon), and all our luggage, guns, and ammunition.
[Illustration: "I Rigged up my oilskin coat as a sail, with George to act as mast and rigging."]
Luckily for me, before it came to my turn to row, a good breeze sprang up from behind us, so in a very short time I had rigged up my oilskin coat as a sail, with George to act as mast and rigging, and I took an oar to steer with.
In a very short time we found ourselves running along at double the pace that we could have got by rowing.
On these lakes, though there are plenty of boats, you never see one fitted with mast and sails for sailing. It is too dangerous; sudden squalls come down from the hills and catch the sails the wrong way or too violently, and so capsize the boat before the crew can do anything to save her.
Even on ordinary water, no one but a tenderfoot would sail a small boat with the "sheets" made fast; the men sailing the boat hold these in their hands ready to ease them up at any moment should a squall strike them. But the danger is much greater on a lake among mountains.
So you see a Scout needs to know something about sea scouting if he wants to get about successfully in a country where he has to make use of boats or canoes.
By using an oar as a rudder—which is also understood by Sea Scouts—we found we could sail to some extent across the wind as well as before it, and so we were able to get round headlands which came in our way without having to lower sail and take to rowing.
Another thing to look out for on these mountain lakes is that a bit of wind very quickly makes quite fair-sized waves, which, with a heavily loaded boat, may lop in over the side, if your helmsman is not very careful, and swamp the boat. So it is foolishness for any Scout to go on this sort of expedition unless he can swim.
In fact, every Scout ought to be able to swim; he is no use till he can, and he will always find it useful to know something of sea scouting.
The oars of Norwegian boats are worked not in rowlocks, or crutches, or between thole pins, as at home, but on a single thole pin, to which they are attached by a "strop" or loop.
This is a useful dodge to know of in case one of your thole pins breaks, as sometimes happens.
[Illustration: How the oars in Norwegian boats are worked.]
In Norway, the strop is made of a stick of birchwood (hazel does equally well), which is first twisted and twisted round to such an extent that it is as flexible and as strong as a length of rope, and is tied by twisting its ends round itself, as shown inScouting for Boys.
A Scout should be able at any time to twist a stick into rope, but to do it successfully he must know which kind of wood to pick out for it. That is one reason for knowing the different kinds of trees by sight.
While we sailed along we trailed a line astern of us with some tempting-looking flies on it in the hope that we might get a trout for dinner.
Suddenly, just when we were in the middle of a busy time over a squall of wind, there came a tug, tug, and a pull at our line. All was at once excitement.
"Down mast and sail!" "Reel in the line!" "Hold the boat with the oars!" "Don't let him break away!"
Steadily he is hauled, kicking and rolling over in the water, and at last he is safely lifted into the boat—a fine, silvery, speckled trout.
"What a dinner he will make!"
"How would you like him, grilled, fried, or boiled?"
Alas! we thought a good deal about what sort of dinner he would make.And he did make a dinner, too—but not for us!
We presently heard Bruce crunching and munching something. He had not waited for the fish to be fried, or grilled, or boiled. He just ate him as he was. We only had bread and butter and coffee for dinner that day—without any trout. We didn't even mention trout during the meal. We didn't seem to want any, or we pretended we didn't.
Still, we had a very jolly dinner at a beautiful spot where we landed on the shore of the lake. Then after a further bit of sailing and rowing we reached the end of the lake.
Here we hauled up our boat high and dry, leaving all her gear in her, for nobody steals things in Norway. We "humped our packs" on to our backs, and, with rod and gun in hand and the dogs trotting alongside, we started up the hills through the forest, bogs, and rocks, to get to the farm three miles away, where we were to spend the night at the foot of the mountains.
* * * * *
That means the name of the farm where we stopped, and we made it our headquarters for several days.
"Saeter" means "summer farm." The Norwegian farmers are mostly dairy and cattle farmers, and in the summer they take their herds up on to the high ground for the grazing, and bring them back into the lower and warmer valleys in winter.
Our farmer at Jasjvold was named Slackman; and he was a slack man to look at—very wild and unkempt, with a tousled head of hair, and a rough beard; clothed in a blue jumper, and breeches and rough stockings, and carrying a big knife in his belt, he looked as if he could and would willingly slit your throat while you were asleep; but on Sundays he was a very different character.
[Illustration: THE JASJVOLD SAETER.]
Even away up here in the mountains, far away from any neighbours, he did not forget to keep the Sabbath, and he appeared very clean and smart, neatly dressed, with white collar and tie, hair and beard trimmed, and altogether so different that at first glance I did not recognise him on Sunday morning.
But, in spite of his wild week-day appearance, he was a most cheery, kind-hearted man, always anxious to do good turns for us, and to help us in every way. In the evenings he would come and sit with us, eager to teach us Norwegian, and equally anxious himself to learn English. So we got along splendidly together.
The saeter is a group of farm buildings; each one is a separate single-storied log house. There is the farmer's house, the house for guests (in which we lived), the men's house, the dairy, the bakehouse, and the "staboor," which is a kind of hayloft, stable, and manure shed all in one. Being built on the side of a hill, it has three storeys on one side, and only one or two on the uphill side.
The hay is put into the top storey, and can be dropped down through a trapdoor into the stable, which is on the second floor. Then the stable is cleaned out through trapdoors, which let all the dirt fall into the lower storey, from which it can be carted away to manure the fields.
A curious thing about most of the Norwegian farms is that there are no muddy cart tracks to be seen, the grass is green right up to the doors. Then there are no chickens about the place, as a rule; nor are there beehives, nor any garden. The carts are very small and low, sometimes on wheels, sometimes on runners, as sledges. The harness is very light, and yet strong; the driver walks behind the cart and drives the horse with a long pair of rope reins.
[Illustration: THE CARTS ARE SMALL AND LOW.]
Our house in the saeter was, like all the others, a single-storied log house, with a roof of planks covered with birchbark, over which is spread a thick layer of earth, which soon becomes grass-grown, so that it looks as if the roof were made of turf.
There were three or four rooms in the house, nice, clean rooms, with comfortable beds, and a great big open fire hearth in the corner, in which you light up your log fire whenever you like to have it—and we liked it pretty nearly always, for at this height, nearly 4000 feet, close to snow-clad mountains, the evenings and early mornings were very cold.
On our door was a big lock, and a lock in this country is not boxed up inside iron casing but is left open to view, so that you can see how it works, and get your fingers pinched in it if you like to be careless.
The farmer's wife, a kind, cheery, clean, motherly woman, was always cooking up good things for us, and feeding us to such an extent that if we had stopped there much longer we should have grown too fat to carry out our expedition.
She didn't understand a word of English, but she used to stop her work every now and then to come and hear us having our Norwegian lessons, and she used simply to howl with laughing at our attempts to pronounce the words the right way.
The food she used to give us is much the same as you get everywhere in Norway. For breakfast, which is generally about nine or ten o'clock (we persuaded her to give it to us much earlier), you have a cup of coffee and two or three glasses of milk, home-made bread, and a kind of thin oatmeal cake, butter, and goats'-milk cheese.
[Illustration: THE LOCK ON OUR DOOR.]
Dinner is usually about three in the afternoon, but we never had any, as we were out all day, and took bread and coffee with us. Supper, at nine o'clock, was much the same as breakfast, with the addition of trout, or soup, and stewed fruit and cream, again with milk to drink.
There was one girl, who waited on us and did all the work of the house. I never saw any servant do half as much as she did, and yet she was always neat and clean and smiling.
She chopped our firewood, made our beds, greased our boots, waited at table, scrubbed the floors, tables, and chairs every day. You never saw a place so clean, If I were sitting at a table writing when she was on the scrub, I was politely requested to lift my feet up while she did the floor beneath them!
Then there was a boy at the saeter, who, though he could not speak a word of English, was a very nice English-looking lad.
He was in charge of the pony and cart, and his two ponies were the cheekiest, tamest things I have seen. They would follow you about like dogs, and seemed to understand what you said to them. That was all due to kind treatment by their young master.
This boy used to be sent off on long journeys over very rough country in charge of the cart. Then sometimes he would milk the cows and goats. Whenever he had any spare time he would take down his great 18-foot rod, and go fishing for trout, and generally he brought back some good ones, too. Then he was a handy carpenter, and understood mending a boat and sharpening tools on a grindstone. All these are things which a Scout should be able to do, but I wonder how many of them an ordinary boy in England can do.
Then, sharpening your tools is a very useful thing to practise for putting an edge on to your axe or knife.
There is a saying among Sikh soldiers in India, when speaking of any bad act, that it is "as disgraceful as having a blunt sword." A Sikh always keeps his as sharp as a razor. It is a disgrace to him if it is blunt.
So, too, a woodman would never be seen with a blunt axe or knife in camp. He would never get through his work if he had them. Yet I often see Boy Scouts go into camp with axes so blunt that they will cut nothing, and their knives very little better. You don't know the pleasure of handling an axe till you have used a really sharp one.
And then every Scout ought to know how to sharpen his own axe on a grindstone. You must wet the stone first, and then get someone to turn it, running the wheel away from you, while you lay the blade with its back towards you, and its edge in the same direction as the wheel is moving, and pass it gently on to the stone, doing each side of the blade in turn a little at a time until the whole blade becomes bright, especially at the cutting edge.
* * * * *
You remember that George and I went to Jasjvold Saeter in order to get some "reeper," and also to explore the gorge of which we had heard.