Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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Young Knights of the Empire

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mats for making these may very well be woven in winter evenings, and, with plenty of time for making them, can be really well made. When finished, they can be rolled up and packed away until required for camp. The fellow who owns one of these in camp can enjoy life under canvas about four times as much as the fellow who tries to make himself comfortable on a hard, stony bit of ground. I think you never find out how full of corners you are till you try sleeping on a hard bit of ground. Of course? every Scout knows that the worst corner in him is his hip-bone, and if you have got to sleep on hard ground the secret of comfort is to scoop out a little hole, about the size of a tea-cup, where your hip-bone will rest. It makes all the difference to your comfort at night. Your night's rest is an important thing a fellow who does not get a good sleep at night soon knocks up, and cannot get through a day's work like the one who sleeps in comfort. [Illustration: TRESTLE LEGS.] So my advice is, make a good thick straw-mattress for yourself during the winter ready for camp. Another good way of giving yourself a comfortable bed is to make a big bag of canvas or stout linen; 6 ft. long and 3 ft. wide. This will do to roll up your kit in for travelling; and when you are in camp you can stuff it with straw, or leaves, or bracken, etc., and use it as a nice soft mattress. A PILLOW is also a useful thing for giving you comfort in camp. For this you only want a strong pillow-case (which also you can make for yourself in the winter). This will serve as your clothes-bag by day and your pillow by night, your clothes, if neatly rolled and packed in it, serving as the stuffing. I have often used my boots as a pillow, rolled up in a coat so that they don't slip apart, and for a long time I used a Zulu pillow, which is a little wooden stand on which you rest your neck; it sounds uncomfortable, but it is not so--when you're used to it! A Scout has to Be Prepared to turn out at any moment in the night. He ought, therefore, to have his important clothes laid handy, so that he can get into them at once in the dark. [Illustration: A ZULU PILLOW.] On service, of course, a Scout sleeps with shoes on, so that he can turn out at any moment. I remember on one occasion some of my men gave up obeying this rule, and thought it more comfortable to take their boots off. So one night I had the alarm given that the enemy were near, and ordered the men to double out at once to a spot a short distance outside the camp. The ground was covered with prickly grass and camel-thorn. How those fellows hopped and skipped to get to the place. But they took care not to go to bed barefooted again. * * * * * HUT BUILDING. In places where you can get the use of a wood for your camp, it saves the cost of a tent if you can make yourself a hut. The important point in making a hut is to thatch it so closely and well with heather, straw, or twigs of fir, etc., that it is watertight. The double lean-to, already described, makes the simplest form of hut--and if you like to make it more roomy, you can dig out the floor a couple of feet. But this is always a messy proceeding, and unhealthy, as upturned earth is very liable to give fever. In addition to the articles of camp equipment which are mentioned in _Scouting for Boys_ as being easily made by the Scout himself, there are several others which can be made during the long winter evenings, and these will be of great use to you when you go into camp in the summer, or they can be sold to other fellows wanting such things, The following is taken, from Mr. H. Kephart's _Book of Camping:_ * * * * * HORN DRINKING CUPS. "Get a cow's horn from a friendly butcher, a little over a foot long. Measure with a stick how far up it is hollow. Then, saw off the tip just below where it becomes solid, except a strip of the solid part, which should be left attached to the hollow part, about an inch wide and five inches long, quarter of an inch thick; this strip will form the handle of the cup." [Illustration: A HORN DRINKING CUP] * * * * *

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