In these few pages I have tried to prepare something about camping and
walking, such as I should have enjoyed reading when I was a boy; and,
with this thought in my mind, I some years ago began to collect the
subject-matter for a book of this kind, by jotting down all questions
about camping, &c., that my young friends asked me. I have also taken
pains, when I have been off on a walk, or have been camping, to notice
the parties of campers and trampers that I have chanced to meet, and
have made a note of their failures or success. The experiences of the
pleasant days when, in my teens, I climbed the mountains of Oxford
County, or sailed through Casco Bay, have added largely to the stock of
notes; and finally the diaries of “the war,” and the recollections of
“the field,” have contributed generously; so that, with quotations, and
some help from other sources, a sizable volume is ready.