8:00 p.m. Cocoa
8:30-9:30 p.m. Camp fire
10:00 p.m. Lights out
Bathing and Swimming
When in camp, bathing will be one of your joys and one of your duties—a joy because it is such fun, a duty because no Scout can consider himself a full-blown Scout until he is able to swim and to save life in the water. But there are dangers about bathing for which every sensible Scout will be prepared.
First, there is the danger of cramp. If you bathe within an hour and a half after taking a meal, that is, before your food is digested, you are very likely to get cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs—and down you go. You may drown—and it will be your own fault.
There should always be a bathing guard posted, while bathing is going on, of two good swimmers, who will not bathe themselves but will be ready, undressed, prepared to jump in at any moment and help a bather if he is in difficulties. The guards should not bathe until the others have left the water, and a life line must be available.
A bulletin board may be put up for “Standing Orders”
and “Camp Routine”. Notice the Patrol dining room in the background.
Many lives are lost every summer through foolishness on the part of boys bathing, because they don t think of these things. Bathing must only be permitted in safe places and under strict supervision.
Trespassing
Be careful to get permission from the owners of land before you go on to it. You have no right to go anywhere off the roads without leave, but most owners will give you this if you go and tell them who you are and what you want to do.
When going over their land remember above all things:
1. Leave all gates as you found them.
2. Disturb animals and game as little as you possibly can.
3. Do no damage to fences, crops, or trees.
Any firewood that you require you must ask for before taking it. And be careful not to take out of hedges dead wood which is being used to fill up a gap.
Loafers in Camp
A camp is a roomy place. But there is no room in it for one chap, and that is the fellow who does not want to take his share in the many little odd jobs that have to be done. There is no room for the shirker or the grouser— well, there is no room for them in the Boy Scouts at all, but least of all in camp.
Every fellow must help, and help cheerily in making it comfortable for all. In this way comradeship grows.
Camp Beds
There are many ways of making a comfortable bed in camp, but always have a waterproof sheet over the ground between your body and the earth. Cut grass or straw or bracken is good to lay down thickly where you
are going to lie.
I think you never find out how full of corners you are till you have to sleep on a hard bit of ground where you cannot get straw or grass.
TOMMY THE TENDERFOOT No. 5 - TOMMY SLEEPS OUT
Plenty of blankets below—he’d been told. But Tommy knew better—and so he got cold.
Of course, every Scout knows that the worst corner in him is his hip-bone, and if you have 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 sleeping.
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. So my best advice is: Make a good thick straw mattress for yourself.
Making a Mattress
To make a mattress, set up a camp loom and weave it out of bracken, ferns, heather, straw, or grass, six feet long, and two feet nine inches across. With this same loom you can make straw mats, with which to form tents, or shelters, or walls (page 133).
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. 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 comfort in camp. For this you only need a strong pillow-case about two feet long by one foot wide. This you can also make for yourself. It will serve as your clothes-bag by day and your pillow by night with your clothes, 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.
Camp Dodges
Camp candlesticks can be made by bending a bit of wire into a small spiral spring; or by using a cleft stick stuck in the wall; or by sticking the candle upright in a lump of clay or in a hole bored in a big potato. A glass candle shade can be made by cutting the bottom off a bottle and sticking it upside down in the ground with a candle in the
