You see, therefore, that you have the prospect of hard work.  I do not wish to discourage you from going in this way:  on the contrary, there is a great deal of pleasure to be had by doing so.  But the majority of men under twenty years of age will find no pleasure in carrying so much weight more than ten miles a day; and if a party of them succeed in doing so, and in attending to all of the necessary work, without being worse for it, they will be fortunate.

In conclusion, then, if you walk, and carry all your stuff, camping, and doing all your work, and cooking as you go, you should travel but few miles a day, or, better still, should have many days when you do not move your camp at all.

OTHER WAYS OF GOING AFOOT.

It is not necessary to say much about the other ways of going afoot.  If you can safely dispense with cooking and carrying food, much will be gained for travel and observation.  The expenses, however, will be largely increased.  If you can also dispense with camping, you ought then to be able to walk fifteen or twenty miles daily, and do a good deal of sight-seeing besides.  You should be in practice, however, to do this.

You must know beforehand about your route, and whether the country is settled where you are going.

Keep in mind, when you are making plans, that it is easier for one or two to get accommodation at the farmhouses than for a larger party.

I heard once of two fellows, who, to avoid buying and carrying a tent, slept on hay-mows, usually without permission.  It looks to me as if those young men were candidates for the penitentiary.  If you cannot travel honorably, and without begging, I should advise you to stay at home.

FOOTNOTES: 

[2] A German officer tells me that his comrades in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 had no rubber blankets; nor had they any shelter-tents such as our Union soldiers used in 1861-5 as a make-shift when their rubbers were lost.  But this is nothing to you:  German discipline compelled the soldiers to carry a big cloak which sheds water quite well, and is useful to a soldier for other purposes:  but the weight and bulk condemn it for pleasure-seekers.

[3] In general it is better to put the shelter-tent in the roll, and to keep out the rubber blanket, for you may need the last before you camp.  You can roll the rubber blanket tightly around the other roll (the cloth side out, as the rubber side is too slippery), and thus be able to take it off readily without disturbing the other things.  You can also roll the rubber blanket separately, and link it to the large roll after the manner of two links of a chain.

[4] I knew an officer in the army, who carried a rubber air-pillow through thick and thin, esteeming it, after his life and his rations, the greatest necessity of his existence.  Another officer, when transportation was cut down, held to his camp-chair.  Almost every one has his whim.