CHAPTER III.

Large party travelling afoot with baggage-wagon.

With a horse and wagon to haul your baggage you can of course carry more.  First of all take another blanket or two, a light overcoat, more spare clothing, an axe, and try to have a larger tent than the “shelter.”

If the body of the wagon has high sides, it will not be a very difficult task to make a cloth cover that will shed water, and you will then have what is almost as good as a tent:  you can also put things under the wagon.  You must have a cover of some sort for your wagon-load while on the march, to prevent injury from showers that overtake you, and to keep out dust and mud.  A tent-fly will answer for this purpose.

You want also to carry a few carriage-bolts, some nails, tacks, straps, a hand-saw, and axle-wrench or monkey-wrench.  I have always found use for a sail-needle and twine; and I carry them now, even when I go for a few days, and carry all on my person.

The first drawback that appears, when you begin to plan for a horse and wagon, is the expense.  You can overcome this in part by adding members to your company; but then you meet what is perhaps a still more serious difficulty,—­the management of a large party.

Another inconvenience of large numbers is that each member must limit his baggage.  You are apt to accumulate too great bulk for the wagon, rather than too great weight for the horse.

Where there are many there must be a captain,—­some one that the others are responsible to, and who commands their respect.  It is necessary that those who join such a party should understand that they ought to yield to him, whether they like it or not.

The captain should always consult the wishes of the others, and should never let selfish considerations influence him.  Every day his decisions as to what the party shall do will tend to make some one dissatisfied; and although it is the duty of the dissatisfied ones to yield, yet, since submission to another’s will is so hard, the captain must try to prevent any “feeling,” and above all to avoid even the appearance of tyranny.

System and order become quite essential as our numbers increase, and it is well to have the members take daily turns at the several duties; and during that day the captain must hold each man to a strict performance of his special trust, and allow no shirking.

After a few days some of the party will show a willingness to accept particular burdens all of the time; and, if these burdens are the more disagreeable ones, the captain will do well to make the detail permanent.