Only if you are in your shirt sleeves, as you generally are, you haven't many pockets, and if, like some people, you have only two hands, it is a difficult job.
The old campaigner, therefore, always has his three "ration bags," little bags which he makes himself out of bits of shirt tails or pocket-handkerchiefs, or other such luxuries; and into one he puts the flour and baking-powder, into No. 2 his coffee and sugar, into No. 3 his salt and pepper.
Very often just after we had got our rations we would have to march at once. How do you suppose we made our flour into bread in one minute?
We just mixed it with a lot of water in a mug and drank it! It did just as well in the end.
CATTLE-DRIVING AND SLAUGHTERING.
Before you cook your hare you've got to catch him. So with mutton or beef—you have to bring the sheep or ox to the place where you want him. Then you have to kill him and cut him up before you can cook him and eat him.
Scouts ought to know how to drive sheep and cattle and horses. Tenderfoots always forget to send someone in front of the herd to draw them on.
Sheep are apt to crowd up too much together so that those in the middle of the flock soon get half suffocated in dust and heat, and then they faint. It is often therefore, advisable for one driver to keep moving in the centre of the flock to make an occasional opening for air, and it keeps the whole flock moving better. If you come to an obstacle like a stile or wall with sheep, lift one or two over it and the rest will soon follow, but they should not be too hurried.
Scouts should also know how to kill and cut up their cattle.
Cattle are generally poleaxed, or a spike is driven into the forehead with a mallet, or a shot or blank cartridge is fired into the forehead, or a big sharp knife is driven into the spine just behind the horns, the animal's head having first been securely tied down to a cart wheel or fence.