How Girls Can Help Their Country Part 13

INVENTORY GAME. Let each girl go into a room for half a minute and when she comes out let her make a list of what she has seen. Then compare lists to find who has seen the most.

TESTING NOSES. This is easiest with the compet.i.tors blindfolded. Let them smell different things and tell what they are. Also the objects may be placed in bags but this means much more work.

CHASING AN OWL. Another good stalking game is chasing the owl. This is done in thick woods where one Scout represents the owl hooting at intervals and then moving to one side for a distance. Each pursuer when seen is called out of the game and the owl, if a real good one, may get safely back to her stump.

TURKEY AND WILDCAT is played by the turkey blindfolded "going to roost"

in some place where there are plenty of twigs or dry leaves to crack and rustle. At the first sound the turkey jumps. If not then in reach of the wildcat she is safe and another wildcat has a chance. This is sometimes very laughable for the turkey being blindfolded may jump right on the wildcat.

FAR AND NEAR. On any walk, preferably in patrol formation, let each keep a list of things seen such as birds, flowers, different kinds of trees, insects, vehicles, tracks, or other "sign." Score up in points at the end of the walk on return to the club rooms.

ATHLETIC FEATS

The Palm Spring

Stand at a little distance from a wall with your face toward it and leaning forward until you are able to place the palm of your hand quite flat on the wall; you must then take a spring from the hand and recover your upright position without moving either of your feet. It is better to practice it first with the feet at a little distance only from the wall, increasing the s.p.a.ce as you gradually attain greater proficiency in the exercise.

Foot-Throw

Put a basket-ball between your feet in such a manner that it is held between your ankles and the inner side of the feet; then kick up backward with both your feet and in this manner try to jerk the ball over your head, catching it when it comes down.

Hand Wrestling

Two players face each other, feet planted firmly, full stride position apart, right hands grasped. Each player tries to displace the other player. One foot moved displaces a player.

Sitting Toe Wrestle

Two players sit on a mat facing each other, knees bent perpendicularly, toes touching opponent's. Pa.s.s stick under knees and clasp your hands in front of knees. When the signal is given, attempt to get your toes under opponent's toes and upset her.

(An excellent list of games to be used while in camp will be found on page 440 of _Games for the Home, School, and Gymnasium_, by Jessie H.

Bancroft. See, also, additional books listed under this topic in the Handbook.)

CAMPING

It is advisable that Patrols or Companies should have some place of their own at which to camp. Some small plot of woodland is easily secured near most any of our cities. At the beaches it is frequently impossible to secure the privacy desirable. The seaside is not easily fenced in. If you own your camping ground all desirable sanitary conditions can be looked after and buildings of a more or less permanent nature erected. Even a "brush house" in a spot which you are allowed to use exclusively is better than having to hunt a place every time you want to camp out. "Gypsying" from place to place is unadvisable.

When you have your own camp, too, much better chances for study will be found possible. You will have your own trees, flowers, and birds to notice and care for, and a record of them is valuable even in a very limited s.p.a.ce. Think of the beautiful work of White--_The Natural History of Selborne_.

Name your camp by all means. Long ago we formed the habit of naming all our camps using by preference the name of the first bird seen there. Now we use the Seminole name. So we have our "Ostata" and "Tashkoka." Some of the names are too hard, though, for civilized tongues. "Mooganaga"

for instance, might hurt somebody's mouth when she tries to p.r.o.nounce it.

When going into camp _never_ forget matches. When leaving camp I used to put all my spare matches into a dry empty bottle, cork it tight, and hide it. After many years I have found my matches as good as "new" where I had hidden them. By rubbing two sticks together one can make a fire without matches.

Camping out is one of my hobbies. Walks and picnics are all very well as far as they go, but to get the full benefit of actual contact with Nature it is absolutely necessary to camp out. That does not mean sleeping on wet bare ground but just living comfortably out of doors, where every breath of heaven can reach you and all wild things are in easy reach. A camp can be easily planned within daily reach of many of our large cities but should be far enough to escape city sounds and smells. It is not a camp, however, if it is where a stream of strangers can pa.s.s by at any time of the day or night within sight and hearing.

Water is a supreme requisite at any camp. Water to swim in may be dispensed with in extreme cases, but you can't carry your water with you and have a comfortable time. I have been where I had to do it so I know how it is. Also I have had to dig water out of the ground. That is not an easy operation so be sure and camp near a well or spring. Wood, too, you will want and it must be dry. Don't try to cook with fat pine. It's all right to kindle with but not for cooking. Your bacon fried over it will be as fine eating as a porous plaster. Fry your potatoes. If you must roast them dig a hole in the ashes and cover them deep. Then go away and forget them. Let some one else come along and cook all sorts of things on top of them. When you come back rake them out of the ashes and astonish every one.

Be sure your cooking fire is not too big. You must be able to get up to it comfortably close without scorching your face. Start a small fire and feed it as required with small dry twigs. Cooking over an outdoor fire is a fine art and has to be studied carefully. It should be called almost a post-graduate course in the camp studies. Of course the regular camp-fire can be made as big and smoky as you like. Smoke is fine to watch but not to breathe. Even the mosquitoes dislike it.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Roughing it is all very fine to talk about, but it is best to make your camp as comfortable as possible. The ground is good to sleep upon but not stones and sticks. It's really astonishing how big a stick, no longer than your finger, can grow in one night. Take my word for it and don't try it. It won't pay. A hammock is my preference but a cot is about as good. On a pinch twigs and gra.s.s are not to be despised. Moss is apt to be moist but there is no possible objection to clean dry sand.

Be sure not to let your fire get away from you and spread. Besides the damage to trees and fences that it may do it is impossible to tell what suffering it may cause to animal life. So, be very careful.

To prevent forest fires Congress pa.s.sed the law approved May 5, 1900, which--

~Forbids setting fire to the woods, and~ ~Forbids leaving any fires unextinguished.~

When you leave your camp clean up. Fragments of food--not pickles--can be put up somewhere for the birds. At some of our camps we have regular places to feed the birds and they get to know what time to come there.

Here in the woods my wrens have established for themselves the hour of sunrise, and it is partly to escape their scolding for neglect that I get up with the sun. Mrs. Jenny scolds furiously but for actual singing she can beat any bird in the woods.

Perhaps you notice that we have said nothing about snakes. Now it is really a very rare thing to see a snake in the woods. You have to look very carefully to find them, for they seem to be about the most timid of all creatures. So far as danger from poisonous snakes is concerned you are in much more danger from the driver of a dray than from a snake.

Take our word for it, snakes are much more afraid of you than you are of them. Give them the least little bit of a chance and they will be out of the way before you can see them. A gorged snake--that is one that has just taken a full meal--may be sluggish but in a majority of cases he will crawl away and hide in some secure place till the process of digestion is over. Do not go near a tub if you are afraid of water for you can get drowned in it about as easy as you can get bitten by a snake in the woods and to wind up the subject, not one-tenth of the people who get snake bitten, die from it. A very few do die but most of them die from the bad treatment they receive afterwards. The "deadly auto" will not get out of your way but all snakes will.

Once in a while you may find clinging in a low bush a pretty little green snake. It will readily submit to being handled and is perfectly harmless. We have found these snakes useful in the house to kill flies.

The harmless snakes are the brown snake, the common banded moccasin, the black mountain snake, the green snake. The garter and ring-necked snakes wear Eve's wedding-ring as a collar. They cannot hurt and they eat up quant.i.ties of insects, but beware of the yellow and brown rattlesnakes, especially after rainy weather, for it is said that after wet weather they cannot make any noise with their rattles and therefore you are not warned of their presence. The most deadly snake, the moccasin, is brownish with a flat head.

The green lizards, too, will almost rid a house of flies if left to wander about at will. The fence lizard, a scaly alligator looking chap, is just as useful but never gets tame.

Try petting a toad some time. He will get to be quite at home in a garden and pay well, for he will eat all kinds of destructive insects.

Some gardeners buy toads, paying as high as a quarter apiece, for they know how much good they can do. A toad digs his hole backwards. Watch him and see the fun. In the spring if there is water near he may be induced to sing to you. If you think he is slow and clumsy you have only to see how quick he can catch a fly.

Provisioning a Camp

This should be a matter of mature consideration. Unless there is some place near by where deficiencies can be supplied your camp may be a misery instead of a pleasure. Have lists made out of the things each is to bring, if it is to be a cooperative affair. It may be best to have a committee, even if it is a committee of one, to do all the buying. But even in this case individual tastes must be consulted. A full list should be made out and strictly adhered to. At one camp where each brought what she thought best there were six cans of soup, four pounds of sugar, and no tea or coffee.

Canned goods are all very well if you do not have to carry them too far.

So too are potatoes. For lightness on long trips, dried fruits and meal or grits are a wise selection. Oatmeal is light and easy to cook.

Prepared batter-cake flour is a pure joy to the camp cook. Once when camping in the mountains we had unexpected difficulties. We were at such an elevation that water boiled at too low a temperature to cook many things "done," so the frying-pan there reigned supreme. As to that same frying-pan be sure to select the "long handled kind." If not you will have to splice out the handle with a long stick. Never pack up your "unwetables" in paper bags. At any time a shower or even a heavy dew at night may make you run short on salt, sugar, or flour. Covered tin cans are too cheap to make it necessary to run any such risks. Have a lantern and oil of course. Candles blow out too easily to be of much use. For sudden calls for a light the pocket electric affair is very good and cheap. Keep it standing up. The batteries waste quite fast if it is left down on the side.

The quant.i.ty of provisions to be taken depends on the length of stay.

Consult any good military or naval ration list and a very good guess can be made. They all seem to lay stress on beans which certainly are very good if you have the "Boston" appet.i.te.

Keep your camp clean. Keep it in order. Let your motto be, "Tidy as you go." It is as bad to have to hunt for a thing you want in camp as it is at home and particularly exasperating if, when you have found it, you must wash it before using. "A place for everything and that place anywhere" is a bad camp rule, though it does sound as if it was a real easy way of disposing of the matter. Dig a hole to throw slops in and do not let them "fly" on the ground. You may want to sit down right there.