It is very easy to cultivate the street car habit, and some boys feel that they must ride to and from school even if it is only a few blocks or squares.  We have all read of the old men who are walking across the country from New York to California and back again and maintaining an average of forty miles a day.  There is not a horse in the world that would have the endurance to go half the distance in the same time and keep it up day after day.  For the first week or ten days the horse would be far ahead but, like the fable of the hare and the tortoise, after a while the tortoise would pass the hare and get in first.

In walking for pleasure, avoid a rambling, purposeless style.  Decide where you are going and go.  Walk out in the country if possible and on roads where the automobiles will not endanger your life or blow clouds of dust in your face.  Never mind the weather.  One rarely takes cold while in motion.  To walk comfortably we should wear loose clothing and old shoes.  Walking just for the sake of exercise can easily become a tiresome occupation, but the active mind can always see something of interest, such as wild flowers, gardens, and all the various sides of nature study in the country, and people, houses and life in the city.

A tramping vacation of several days furnishes a fine opportunity to see new scenes and to live economically, but near a city you may have difficulty in persuading the farm-wife where you stop that you are not a tramp who will burn the house in the night.  If you intend to live by the wayside, the surest way to inspire confidence is to show in advance that you have money to pay for your accommodations.  Also try to avoid looking like a tramp, which is quite different from looking like a tramper.

There seems to be a great difference of opinion on the question of how fast one can walk.  The popular idea is “four miles an hour” but any one who has tried to cover a mile every fifteen minutes will testify that such a rate of speed is more like a race than a walk and that it will require great physical exertion to maintain it for any considerable distance.  An eighteen or twenty-mile walk is about all the average boy should attempt in a day, and this is allowing the full day for the task from early morning until sunset.

Short and frequent rests are much better than long stops, which have a tendency to stiffen the muscles.  The walker on a long tramp must pay especial attention to the care of his feet.  They should be bathed frequently in cold water to which a little alum has been added.  A rough place or crease in the stocking will sometimes cause a very painful blister.

Mountain climbing is a very interesting branch of walking.  It is sometimes very dangerous as well and in such cases should only be attempted under the guidance of some one familiar with the neighbourhood.  For rough climbing our shoes should be provided with iron hob nails.  Steel nails often become very slippery and will cause a bad fall on rocks.