Courage vs. Funk 153 



goes shooting, following, or trying to follow, a guide over 

 rough ground, when he has not walked more than quarter 

 or half of a mile a day for a year. When he comes home 

 he has a fit of sickness and is more in need of a vacation 

 than when he started. 



How shall you prepare yourself? First shut down a bit, 

 if not altogether, on tobacco and liquors. Take one Turk- 

 ish bath, or possibly two, a week, if you are carrying too 

 much fat. Begin with Indian clubs or dumb-bells at 

 home, if you cannot go regularly to a gymnasium, and work 

 moderately, say for one hour, with frequent resting and 

 afterward a cold spray before you go to bed. Repeat the 

 exercise and shower next morning before dressing for the 

 day. Increase the exercise until you can do two hours at 

 night and at least one in the morning, and in addition walk 

 to your office, or as much of the way as possible, and back 

 again. For the reasons already given in the chapter on 

 "Seat," in the passages speaking of riding by balance and of 

 the law of self-preservation, fencing or boxing would in all 

 probability be the best possible exercise for you. There is 

 no indoor sport like fencing. It trains the nerves, quickens 

 instinct, and developes every muscle in the body. There is 

 nothing better suited to a man after his college days are 

 over. 



Without this preparation, or something like it, your va- 

 cation will end just where it should have begun. Fit your- 

 self to be a suitable companion to your mount, and he will 

 give you such a month of sport as will keep your blood 

 tingling for a year to come. I cannot convey to you by 

 any words the great gulf there is fixed between the man 



