Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1885-08-01
THE SUMMER VACATION.


PHILOSOPHER NJ. QUAD TELLS THE
BOYS HOW THEY MAY ENJOY IT.
And mt the Same Time Have Taste of
Life Away From Home.
Half dozen letters have been re-
ceived from as many different boys,
making inquiries on the subject OF
Camping OUT for week or more dur
ing the summer. When boy gets
this craze the best prescription is to
send him off to carry out his desires.
The outfit should consist of tent,
cooking utensils, blankets, candles,
fishing-rods and an old revolver. The
latter is necessary to protect the crowd
from being scalped by Indians who
will be almost sure to make an attack.
A camping-ground about ten miles
from home should be selected. This
distance will permit most of the boys
to feel homesick after the first night.
The site should be near a lake. 1t
ought to be lake into which some
Indian maiden plunged from an over
hanging rock because her father want
ed her to marry old Eat With-a- Knife,
while her heart beat only for young
Tafiy-on-a-C Cracker. 1t ought to be,
but it won't. 1t will be very COM
mon sort of pond which somebody
has dignifed with the title of lake.
The lake ought to swarm with fish. 1t
will swarm till the boys get there.
Pickerel, bass and perch ought to
climb over each other in their hurry to
seize the baited hooks, but somehow
they won't do it. All the climbing
will be done by the boys, and it will
be tall climbing before they hook a
single fish.
When the site has been reached the
first thing is to select a spot ON which
to pitch the tent. This will give the
tent an opportunity for the tent to
make strike by pitching itself, as no
two boys ever did agree on precise
location. One will want it on a hill,
anothe. in grove, and another along
the shore of a lake. No matter how
long the discussion lasts, or who car
ries the day, the tent will be set up in
the worst spot for half a mile around.
The next thing is to get all the
Craps" under shelter. Nobody came
to work, and another wrangle is the
result. Everything is finally dumped
in heap inside the tent, and every
body starts off to find the romance of
camping out. There should be boating
if there was boat. There would be
splendid bathing if it wasn't for the
old trees and roots and weeds along
the shore. Somebody might kill a
buffalo if the old revolver hadn't been
forgotten in the tent and if all the
buffaloes weren't a thousand miles
away ON the plains.
The first boy to return to the tent
doesn't begin to rush around to cook
supper. He sits down to wait for the
second boy. He hungry enough, but
he didn't come out there to cook. The
second boy waits for the third, and
when all the gang are finally in there
is a lively wrangle as to who shall turn
scullion. The hungriest chap finally
gives in and paws around for the skill
let and cofee-pot and provisions. He
wants water to begin with, and for the
first time discovers that the crystal
springs and babbling brooks they
talked of so much forgot to grow in
that neighborhood, and the dirty, tepid
waters Of the lake must be made to
answer.
The idea, when they started out, was
to have juicy buffalo stakes and quail
on toast for every meal, but the buffalo
hasn't come around and the quail are
too lively to stay ON toast. AS sub
stitute the cook peels a dozen potatoes
and cuts off pound of salt pork from
the chunk. The meat is nicely burned
black on the camp fire, the potatoes
sliced and dumped into the skillet,
and dish fit to be placed before a
king is the result. The king would
have to be very, hungry, to give it a
second look. The coffee pans out as
liquid which smells something like
coffee, but tastes something like root
beer kept over from last year. The
butter got badly melted by the heat,
and is somehow mixed with a pair Of
rubber boots, bedquilt and bottle of
camphor sent along by one of the
thoughtful mothers. The bakers
bread is full Of dust and grit, but the
supper, taken altogher, beats anything
ever put on table at Delmonico's.
The idea was to sit in front of a
camp fire after supper and tell Indian
stories and hunting anecdotes, but each
boy declines to hunt around for wood
to keep up a blaze. Everybody has
had the best time in all his life thus
far, but somehow, nobody starts a
story, and everybody wishes he was
home. AS darkness comes on one lad
remarks that he shouldn't like to have
a real Bengal tiger carry him off and
devour him alive, and three minutes
later everything able to walk has
walked inside the tent.
1t was figured that the tent was big
enough for circus, but when the five
or six boys came to stretch out there
was not near enough room for them to
lie comfortable. 1t was going to be so
romantic to sleep under tent with a
camp fire at the door, but the fire is
out and everybody is silently wonder
ing how on earth he came to make
such q fool of himself. The ground is
hard. the tent is hot as an oven, and
the idea that snake may take it into
his head to creep in among them, keeps
the cold chills galloping up and down
every spine.
Sleep comes at last, and nobody is
aroused when the rain begins to patter
down. 1t was no ones business to dig
a ditch around the tent, and the first
boy to be awakened finds small creek
trying to float him off. There are