[5] I never heard of a party exclusively of young men going on a tour of this kind, and consequently I cannot write their experiences; but I can easily imagine their troubles, quarrels, and separation into cliques.  I once went as captain of a party of ten, composed of ladies, gentlemen, and schoolboys.  We walked around the White Mountains from North Conway to Jefferson and back, by way of Jackson.  It cost each of us a dollar and thirty-two cents a day for sixteen days, including railroad fares to and from Portland, but excluding the cost of clothes, tents, and cooking-utensils.  Another time a similar party of twelve walked from Centre Harbor, N.H., to Bethel, Me., in seventeen days, at a daily cost of a dollar and two cents, reckoning as before.  In both cases, “my right there was none to dispute;” and by borrowing a horse the first time, and selling at a loss of only five dollars the second, our expenses for the horse were small.

[6] In one of my tours around the mountains, a lad of sixteen, in attempting to hold up the horse’s head as they were running down hill, was hit by the horse’s fore-leg, knocked down, and run over by both wheels.

CHAPTER IV.

Clothing.

If your means allow it, have a suit especially for the summer tour, and sufficiently in fashion to indicate that you are a traveller or camper.

SHIRTS.

Loose woollen shirts, of dark colors and with flowing collars, will probably always be the proper thing.  Avoid gaudiness and too much trimming.  Large pockets, one over each breast, are “handy;” but they spoil the fit of the shirt, and are always wet from perspiration.  I advise you to have the collar-binding of silesia, and fitted the same as on a cotton shirt, only looser; then have a number of woollen collars (of different styles if you choose), to button on in the same manner as a linen collar.  You can thus keep your neck cool or warm, and can wash the collars, which soil so easily, without washing the whole shirt.  The shirt should reach nearly to the knees, to prevent disorders in the stomach and bowels.  There are many who will prefer cotton-and-wool goods to all-wool for shirts.  The former do not shrink as much, nor are they as expensive, as the latter.

DRAWERS.

If you wear drawers, better turn them inside out, so that the seams may not chafe you.  They must be loose.

SHOES.

You need to exercise more care in the selection of shoes than of any other article of your outfit.  Tight boots put an end to all pleasure, if worn on the march; heavy boots or shoes, with enormously thick soles, will weary you; thin boots will not protect the feet sufficiently, and are liable to burst or wear out; Congress boots are apt to bind the cords of the leg, and thus make one lame; short-toed boots or shoes hurt the toes; loose ones do the same by allowing the foot to slide into the toe of the boot or shoe; low-cut shoes continually fill with dust, sand, or mud.