A scout has to sleep a great deal in the open air, therefore when he is in a house he sleeps with the windows as wide open as possible, otherwise he feels stuffy; and also if he gets accustomed to sleeping in warm atmosphere he would catch cold when he goes into camp, and nothing could be more ridiculous or more like a tenderfoot than a scout with a cold in his head. When once he is accustomed to having his windows open he will never catch cold in a room.
FOOD.
A good many illnesses come from over-eating or eating the wrong kind of food.
A scout must know how to take care of himself, else he is of no use. He must keep himself light and active. Once he has got the right kind of muscles on he can remain fit without further special exercising of those muscles, provided that he eats the right kind of food.
Eustace Miles, the tennis and racket champion, does not go into training before he plays his matches; he knows he has got his muscles rightly formed, and he simply lives on plain, light food always, and so is always fit to play a hard game. He never eats meat.
In the siege of Mafeking, when we were put on short commons, those of the garrison who were accustomed to eat very little at their meals did not suffer like some people, who had been accustomed to do themselves well in peace time; these became weak and irritable. Our food there towards the end was limited to a hunk of pounded-up oats, about the size of a penny bun, which was our whole bread-supply for the day, and about a pound of meat and two pints of "sowens," a kind of stuff like bill-stickers' paste that had gone wrong.
English people as a rule eat more meat than is necessary, in fact they could do without it altogether if they tried, and would be none the worse. It is an expensive luxury. The Japanese are as strong as us, but they do not eat any meat, and only eat small meals of other things.
The cheapest and best foods are Dried Peas, 2d. per lb; Flour, 1s. 4d. per stone; Oatmeal, 2d. per lb.; Potatoes, 1/2d. per lb.; Hominy, 1-1/2d. per lb.; Cheese at 6d. per lb. Other good foods are fruit, vegetables, fish, eggs, nuts, rice, and milk, and one can live on these perfectly well without meat; bananas are especially good food, they are cheap, have no seeds nor pips to irritate your inside, their skin protects them from germs of disease and their flesh is of a wholesome kind and satisfying.
The natives of the West Coast of Africa eat very little else all their lives and they are fat and happy.
If you have lots of fresh air you do not want much food, if on the other hand you are sitting indoors all day much food makes you fat and sleepy, so that in either case you are better for taking a little; still, growing boys should not starve themselves but, at the same time, they need not be like that little hog at the school-feast who, when asked, "Can't you eat any more?" replied, "Yes, I could eat more, but I've no room to swallow it."