Camping Trips.
One would imagine that being at Camp was enough for the average boy, but
it is not always so. After the first novelty has worn off they want to
go around seeing other points of interest. Therefore, the weekly Camping
trips are planned for them.
We take one day each week, plan some place for each group of boys, who,
in charge of their instructor, go out either for a tramping trip or by
boat.
One group, for instance, plan to take boats and provisions, row up
stream for several miles, make their camp on some island, cook their
meals, rest up, swim, enjoy themselves by exploring the island,
returning in time for supper.
The next group plan a walking trip; that is much harder on them than the
trip by water. They must carry their own supplies, consisting of all
kinds of food, potatoes, bread, meat, eggs, coffee, sugar, milk,
matches, paper, fruit, besides a cup for each boy, a frying pan, coffee
pot and pail for water.
Here you see the way boys act more than on any other trip. The unselfish
chap will cheerfully fill his pockets with raw potatoes, try and roll a
can of tomatoes, a pound of butter and half dozen eggs altogether, in
his rubber coat; put the matches in his tin cup and stagger away. What
does it matter if the can of tomatoes does object to being smeared with
the butter or the eggs protest at the undue pressure that is put upon
them?
When some one yells at him that a streak of yellow is running down his
left leg he retorts with, "I don't care if it is. Lots of fellows have
streaks of yellow, but they don't want to show it."
We clean him up, show him how to pack hard substances together, and the
advantage of putting frail objects by themselves; also that butter is
apt to melt if stored away inside one's blouse. That crowd is started on
its way quite happy, although the lazy boy is grumbling at having to
carry the coffee-pot and frying-pan, while the little chap is leaving a
trail of potatoes behind him.
Then there is the lazy lot who don't care to walk, and don't want to row
a boat. What do they want?
They will take their share of grub and go up to the ball field. Mind
you, they demand some of everything, particularly the food that is easy
of preparation. The one and only idea that seems to percolate through
their brains is to get a whole lot of food; to make as little effort as
possible; to help themselves; to fuss over everything; to be on the
verge of starting a half dozen times, only to come back again with some
new demand, just like people who decide to take short trips, they know
not where, just to get away.
For the rest of the day you may be sure that whenever you look up
towards the baseball field you will see one or another of that special
party about to come down to the house for more supplies, or just to see
what is going on.
How much happier they would have been, had they gone with the crowd!
Nine times out of ten if you let a boy have his way, he is not satisfied
in the end, and then is ready to put the blame on the country, the lake,
the faculty, the dog, but not himself.
There was another lot of boys who were always under the impression that
the stay-at-homes were going to have so much better time, so much better
food, something better than the rest of the crowd, the sort of chaps
that are a little afraid of missing a trick.
Their special stunt was to ask the doctor to look at their ears or
throat, complain of an all-gone feeling in the pit of the stomach, a
slightly dizzy feeling, toothache or cramps.
When a boy really makes up his mind to stay home there is no limit to
his ingenuity in thinking up some plausible excuse. It would take a
Philadelphia lawyer to get the best of him.
The only way to take care of those poor little, sick, helpless chaps is
to have the cook prepare the plainest kind of fare for them. Leave them
beautifully alone and the day will drag along on leaden wings. Long
before the rest of the boys return they will be heartily tired of
playing sick, and the next camping trip that is planned will be among
the first lot of boys to want to go on a long jaunt.
There is heaps of fun in cooking your own dinner. What does it matter if
the chicken is scorched on the outside while raw in the middle? The
potatoes with crisp skins but underdone in the centre? Corn just warmed
through? Coffee hot if muddy? Paper plates? Butter mixed with pepper?
Salt mixed with sugar? Water and milk blending beautifully together?
Bread and pie in close embrace? Pickles and jam exchanging flavors? As
one good little boy said: "What did it matter? Even if you separated
them ever so carefully, they were bound to mix up in your stomach; so
if they were mixed up beforehand it saved time and trouble afterwards."
You couldn't serve such a meal as the above indoors. It wouldn't taste
right, and it would not look right. It needs the open air, with a
background of green forest; a gentle breeze blowing the smoke in one's
eyes as you watch the fish frying; the cool water at your feet inviting
you to jump in, to cool your fevered brow and wash some of the smudge
off yourself at the same time. To say nothing of a crowd of hungry boys
who have left their manners and fussy notions at home! Here they can get
along without a waiter standing at the back of their chair, without an
anxious mother coaxing them to eat the tenderloin, so long as they can
see their full share coming to them, they are happy.
I know lots of boys who at home are waited upon hand and foot. Yet these
same congenial spirits can work like Trojans when out for a day's sport,
can build dandy fireplaces with no better material than sand wet with
water and bound with cobble stones.
The same boys can cook a meal fit for a king. I don't mean the King of
the Cannibal Islands, but a real ruler, because from what I have read
the cannibals are not so very particular. Anything that comes their way,
so long as it will make a large, juicy meal, will do. They don't care
whether the meal is composed of a real good, young missionary or an old
tough trader. They would even take a party of elderly spinsters and cook
them for quite a while, adding some extra seasoning.
But these boys I have in mind can cook fish, chicken, potatoes and
coffee in a way to make you thankful you are living, both before and
after the meal.
After the meal is over the question of washing up comes before the
board. Most boys would prefer to throw the whole business in the lake,
but, having pledged ourselves to see that they were returned promptly to
the kitchen, we cannot allow that.
As usual, there are always one or two who are more willing than the
rest. They start in to scrape the debris together, put water on the fire
to get hot, and in many ways show that there was lost to mankind a good
girl when that boy was created.
No matter where one travels, Nature is charming in her virgin freshness.
Then look at the difference as soon as human beings step in. The ground
is torn up, the flowers trampled underfoot, trees chopped down, empty
cans left lying around, on every side upset, and untidiness! Wouldn't it
be nice if we just tried to leave the woods and shore as nearly like we
found it, not an eyesore, but a pleasure to go back to again?
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