And If, After A Day
Of Hard Climbing Or Riding, You Want To Drop Into A Folding Chair, To
Make Room For It In Your Carry-All You Must Give Up Many Other Lesser
Things.
By travelling light I do not mean any lighter than the necessity
demands.
If there is transport at hand, a man is foolish not to
avail himself of it. He is always foolish if he does not make things
as easy for himself as possible. The tenderfoot will not agree with
this. With him there is no idea so fixed, and no idea so absurd, as
that to be comfortable is to be effeminate. He believes that
"roughing it" is synonymous with hardship, and in season and out of
season he plays the Spartan. Any man who suffers discomforts he can
avoid because he fears his comrades will think he cannot suffer
hardships is an idiot. You often hear it said of a man that "he can
rough it with the best of them." Any one can do that. The man I
want for a "bunkie" is the one who can be comfortable while the best
of them are roughing it. The old soldier knows that it is his duty
to keep himself fit, so that he can perform his work, whether his
work is scouting for forage or scouting for men, but you will often
hear the volunteer captain say: "Now, boys, don't forget we're
roughing it; and don't expect to be comfortable." As a rule, the
only reason his men are uncomfortable is because he does not know how
to make them otherwise; or because he thinks, on a campaign, to
endure unnecessary hardship is the mark of a soldier.
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