CHAPTER XIII
CAMP FUN AND FROLICS
Active Sports and Games. Evenings in Camp. Around the Camp-Fire. Quiet Games, Songs, and Stories. Lighting Fires Without a Match
Camp fun should have a place, and an important one, in your plans for the trail. For the time being the camp is your home and it should never be allowed to become dull for want of a little gayety and wholesome amusement. In a permanent camp there will be days when the entire party will be loafing and then is the time to start a frolic of some kind.
Obstacle Races
Competitive sports are always entertaining, and races, of one kind or another, are the most exciting. The Boy Scouts have a race in which the competitors drop first their staffs, then their hats, their neckties, leggins, and, finally struggling out of the blouse of their uniform, they drop that also. All this must be done while on the way and before they cross a given line. At the line they turn to go back over the course and, while running, take up their various belongings and put them on before they reach the home goal.
A race planned on these lines will be most amusing. A smooth course is not necessary, you probably won't have it at camp, and to get over the uneven ground, with the detentions of first dropping, then picking up the articles dropped, will add to the excitement of the sport. An entertaining variation of this will be to have those taking part in the race appear in impromptu costumes (worn over the ordinary dress) which they must remove piece by piece as they run and put the things all on again while returning over the course. Such hastily adjusted costumes cannot help but be funny.
Medals
The winner of the race should be given a medal as a prize. The medal can be made of any handy material. A tin circular disk cut from the top of a tin can will do. Drive a nail through this tin medal near the edge and pass a string through the hole so that it may be hung around the neck of the winner. Or instead of giving a medal, the victor may be crowned, like the ancient Greeks, with a wreath of leaves.