Woodcraft and Camping

Book Excerpt: ...nger, bigger fellows than myself, four have gone "where they never see the sun," I will copy the statement as it stands today, on paper yellow with age. For I have kept it over forty years. A WOODSMAN, To getting up one limber-go-shiftless pocket-axe: DR. Cost of blade $3.00 Fare on boat 1.00 Expenses for 3 days 3.00 Three days lost time at $1.25 per day 3.75 Two days making model, handle and sheath, say 2.00 -------- Total $12.75 Per contra, by actual value of axe 2.00 -------- Balance $10.75Then they raised a horse laugh, and the cost of that hatchet became a standing joke and a slur on my "business ability." What aggravated me most was, that the rascals were not so far out in their calculation. And was I so far wrong? That hatchet was my favorite for nearly thirty years. It has been "upset" twice by skilled workmen; and, if my friend "Bero" has not lost it, is still in service. Would I have gone without it any year for one or two dollars? But I prefer the double.