He Knows That, Especially At Night, It Is
Unfair To Ask His Stomach To Digest Cold Rations.
He knows that the
warmth of his body is needed to help him to sleep soundly, not to
fight chunks of canned meat.
So, no matter how sleepy he may be, he
takes the time to build a fire and boil a cup of tea or coffee. Its
warmth aids digestion and saves his stomach from working overtime.
Nor will he act on the theory that he is "so tired he can sleep
anywhere." For a few hours the man who does that may sleep the sleep
of exhaustion. But before day breaks he will feel under him the
roots and stones, and when he awakes he is stiff, sore and
unrefreshed. Ten minutes spent in digging holes for hips and
shoulder-blades, in collecting grass and branches to spread beneath
his blanket, and leaves to stuff in his boots for a pillow, will give
him a whole night of comfort and start him well and fit on the next
day's tramp. If you have watched an old sergeant, one of the Indian
fighters, of which there are now too few left in the army, when he
goes into camp, you will see him build a bunk and possibly a shelter
of boughs just as though for the rest of his life he intended to
dwell in that particular spot. Down in the Garcia campaign along the
Rio Grande I said to one of them: "Why do you go to all that
trouble? We break camp at daybreak." He said: "Do we? Well, maybe
you know that, and maybe the captain knows that, but I don't know it.
And so long as I don't know it, I am going to be just as snug as
though I was halted here for a month." In camping, that was one of
my first and best lessons - to make your surroundings healthy and
comfortable. The temptation always is to say, "Oh, it is for only
one night, and I am too tired." The next day you say the same thing,
"We'll move to-morrow. What's the use?" But the fishing or shooting
around the camp proves good, or it comes on to storm, and for maybe a
week you do not move, and for a week you suffer discomforts. An hour
of work put in at the beginning would have turned it into a week of
ease.
When there is transport of even one pack-horse, one of the best helps
toward making camp quickly is a combination of panniers and bed used
for many years by E. F. Knight, the Times war correspondent, who lost
an arm at Gras Pan. It consists of two leather trunks, which by day
carry your belongings slung on either side of the pack-animal, and by
night act as uprights for your bed. The bed is made of canvas
stretched on two poles which rest on the two trunks.
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