PICNICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19374, 24 December 1932, Page 12

PICNICS.

Picnics are great fun, aren’t they? It is so much nicer to eat sandwiches and buns in a cornfield or a hayfield, on the sands or In a wood, under a shady tree or on the open common, than to have roast beef and potatoes at home, isn’t It? Perhaps if you are a Boy Scout or a Girl Guide you will be camping this year. If you have camped before you will know how jolly camping Is; if you have not, then let me tell you that you are going to have one long happy picnic, eating all your meals in the open air. living in the open all day long, and sleeping in tents at night. Of course, you’ll have jobs to do—cooking perhaps, or peeling potatoes, looking for wood, or fetching the milk from a farm, and doing your bit to keep the camp tidy, but that only makes the camping nicer. You would get bored with just playing games all the time, wouldn't you? If you are not able to camp, then perhaps you are to have what is called a day’s hike—setting out on a day’s tramp, taking your food with you, and cooking your dinner and boiling your kettle for tea by the wayside. That’s great fun, too. If you are not a Scout or a Guide, then perhaps you will be able to have a picnic with some of your friends. But remember that no Scout or Guide ever leaves a place untidy. There must be no orange peel or dirty bits of paper to mark the place where you had your picnic, and no broken bottles or tins carelessly left behind to damage another picnicker or a stray horse or cow. Gates that are found shut should be left shut; and if you light a fire then be very, very careful to see that there is not one spark left when you go home. The correct way to make a fire is to cut away a piece of turf, make the fire in the clearing and when you have finished with it rake it out—and rake it out until not one glowing fragment remains. Then neatly replace the turf and, if you have done the job well, very few people would be able to tell that you had had a fire at all. Of course, you must ask a farmer's permission first before you light a fire in his field. One is generally allowed to pick wild flowers, but if one has plenty of flowers at home it is kinder to leave them growing so that other people can see them. Anyway, don’t pick more than you can carry home. It is sad to see pretty flowers plucked and then thrown away. If there is a path through a field it generally means you can walk through it, but if there is not a path it is not wise to venture far—in case you meet a bull! Don't pull up wild plants or ferns by the roots, or break down branches when you are gathering nuts or blackberries. Just try to behave as you would in your own garden, and you’ll find that you will enjoy your picnic ever so much more, and the people owning the land where you picnic will welcome you when you go again. If you are going to walk a long way don’t carry too-heavy baskets. Most people will supply you with water, and probably you wifi be able to buy milk and butter on the way. If you carry sandwiches put them up in greaseproof paper to prevent them becoming dry. If you carry butter with you wrap it in a cabbage leaf, and it won’t melt so easily if the day is hot. Even if you cannot go far for a picnic, perhaps your mother will let you take your tea out of doors in the garden or in a near-by park or field. You can have a jolly picnic anywhere.