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Young Knights of the Empire

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work. It is all a matter of aiming your stroke well. Aim your kerf so that the tree will fall clear of other trees, and not get hung up in their branches. [Illustration: THE TREE READY TO FALL] Then, when your tree falls, look out for the butt. This often jumps back from the stump; never stand directly behind it; many a tenderfoot has been killed that way. When the stem cracks and the tree begins to topple over, move forward in the direction of the fall, and, at the same time outwards, away from the butt. * * * * * FIRE-LIGHTING. As a backwoodsman you must, of course, be able to cook your own food--you can't lug your mother about with you to do it! But you cannot cook food straight off without ever having learnt how; and so I advise every Scout to set to work and learn this during the winter months, before the camping season comes on. You can do a good deal by helping in the kitchen, and seeing how the food is got ready. Also get a baker to show you how to mix dough and to bake bread. But it is no use merely to be _shown_ how it should be done; the thing is to do it yourself. You will make a few mistakes at first. Your dough will come out like custard, and your porridge will be burnt, and milk smoked, but after one or two trials you will soon find yourself able to cook quite well. The first thing that is necessary for cooking, even if it is only to boil a billy of tea, is to have a fire, and tenderfoot makes a pretty hash of lighting a fire until he knows how. [Illustration: FIRE READY FOR LIGHTING.] Begin in _a_ small way by putting first some dry "kindling" or small splinters and shavings, dry grass, or a _little_ paper, anything that will easily take fire, and over that stack a lot of small dry sticks, standing on end and leaning together, or leaning against a log on the _windward_ side of it. Remember, dry _sticks_ are very different from _sticks_ when it comes to lighting a fire. Dry sticks are seldom found on the ground, they are generally best got from a tree. Find a tree with a dead branch or two, break these off, and you will have dry sticks. For "kindling," a number of sticks partly split or splintered with your knife are useful. Do you know what "punk" is? Well, "punk," or "tinder," is what _a_ good many backwoodsmen carry about with them for lighting their fires. It can be a small bit of cotton waste soaked in petrol or spirits, or very dry, baked fungus, or bark fibre, or anything that will catch fire from the slightest spark. Then, if you have no matches, you can strike a spark with a flint and steel (the back of your knife on a stone will do it), and so set light to your punk. Or you can do it with a magnifying glass if there is a good sun shining, by making the sunlight pass through the glass on to a small amount of punk, and in a few seconds it will set it smouldering; and you must then gently blow it up into a glow, and finally into a flame, with which you can light the "kindling." Indians and savages, who have neither matches nor burning-glasses, get fire by rubbing wood together. The easiest way is by putting a slat of dry wood on the ground and boring a hole through it with a stick of dry wood, twirling the stick by means of a bow string. The friction of the two woods causes the kind of sawdust which comes from the hole to get red-hot, and if a little punk is then placed on it and blown into, it brings a flame. So soon as you have got your small kindling fire alight, add bigger dry sticks, upright and leaning together, until you can get a really strong fire going, when logs can be added. But for a cooking fire, use plenty of sticks at first, as they make the hot ashes and embers which are most necessary for cooking. * * * * * TIPS FOR THE CAMPING SEASON. If you make your own sleeping bag out of canvas or sacking, remember two points: first, to have its flaps about a yard longer than yourself, so that you can get well into it in case of rain, and secondly: that to keep warm and dry you want more thickness underneath than above you. [Illustration: A COMFORTABLE SLEEPING BAG.] The best way is to have a double sheet under you, or, in other words,

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