New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All TradesBeard, Daniel Carter
General
New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades
Beard, Daniel Carter
Amusements; Sports
A short time ago, while on a sketching trip through the mountains of
East Tennessee and Kentucky, I saw hundreds of these
Stick Chimneys
which have done service for years. Some of them were beautiful
specimens of skill, while others had a decided list to port or
starboard, as a sailor would say, and were apparently carelessly made.
In the mountains the fireplaces are lined with stones, in place of
clay, but in Illinois, where stones are scarce and mud plenty, the
old-time log-cabin hearth and fireplace were always made of clay.
Besides the berths or bunks already described, a table and some
benches, or three-legged stools, will be found very useful articles of
furniture. In a small house a
Table Takes Up Needed Room,
and as it is principally used at meal-time, a contrivance that may be
put away when not in use is most desirable; such a table can be made of
two wooden horses, with boards laid across them. When the weather is
fair the table may be set out-doors, and when the weather is foul it
can be placed in-doors. The horses and boards may be kept on the porch,
if you have one, or in a shed or on the rafters overhead.
Three-Legged Stools.
A piece of two-inch plank, with three oak, ash, or hickory sticks
driven into three holes bored for the purpose, makes a stool which
will last a lifetime. Two such stools have been in use for twelve or
thirteen years in my Pike County (Pa.) cabin, and are just as good as
new to-day.
Now, when your work is done and you balance yourself on a three-legged
stool, and rest from your labors, remember you are sitting on what has
before now proved to be the incipient Presidential chair.
General Camp Notes for Old Boys.
If the boys suppose that their parents are not interested in out-door
life, they are mistaken, for the author never fails to receive a batch
of letters from grown-up people, whenever he publishes an out-door
article for the boys. That the boys may answer the questions put to
the author by the parents, and incidentally profit themselves by the
information, the following suggestions to campers are given.
It will be observed that, when talking to the old people, the question
of having sufficient funds is not taken as strictly into account as it
is in all the plans for the boys themselves.
When You Start for Camp
leave artificialities and fripperies behind, packed up in camphor, and
bring only your free, untrammelled self with you, and ho! for a frolic,
for flapjacks and coffee, sweet-scented spruce boughs, camp-fires, and
the fireside song, and the music of the banjo. Let your first care be
to secure cheerful, happy companions, as the most important articles
for your camping outfit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account