Some Aspects of a Sierra Club Outing. 22^ 



to the mountains and the purposes of the club are among 

 the things you hear nightly, and once at least in the course 

 of the trip a grand vaudeville performance calls forth all 

 the talent in camp. These camp-fire gatherings hold a 

 place among your dearest recollections of the summer. 

 The faces that you have seen illumined by the leaping 

 flames can never be indifferent to you, and wheresoever 

 you may meet them, in crowded streets or dingy offices, 

 or in the heat and babble of an afternoon tea, they will 

 bring to you a little thrill of joy as if you caught again a 

 breath from the pines. 



Very closely linked with your memory of these gen- 

 eral gatherings lies the remembrance of the smaller circle 

 that lingered about the embers of the commissary fire after 

 a day spent in conquering a mountain, or of the little 

 well-guarded fire built nightly within your own precincts 

 by you and your chosen camp-mates, cheerful little altars, 

 whereon the happy fellowship of the day burned to a 

 stronger and closer friendship. Each camping-place of 

 the trip, whether it be occupied for one night or twenty, 

 is arranged after the same general plan : the commissary — 

 kitchen, dining-room, and drawing-room in one — is placed 

 in the center, with the men's camp on one side and the 

 women's on the other. With these boundaries once fixed 

 you are free to make choice of your individual camp. You 

 may elect to camp alone or to join a party of friends ; you 

 may choose a site close to the commissary or one on the 

 very outskirts ; but if you are wise you will select a spot 

 not too far from the center of things, where, while 

 secluded, you still can catch the glimmer of a dozen 

 clustering fires or hear now and then a merry laugh ring 

 out into the stillness. 



