Employer and Companion

1895

One of the most important secrets of a hunting expedition is this: "Never allow yourselves any luxuries in a 'tight place' which your men have no share in." The English sportsman whose advice we have quoted tells how he was rewarded in the Caucasus for treating his men as comrades and sharing camp comforts with them. He says:

One chilly night among the mountains I awoke at 3 o'clock to find myself warm and snug under two extra native blankets. The owners of the blankets were squatting on their hams, almost in the fire, and talking to pass the long, cold hours until dawn.

Having rated them for their folly and made them take back their blankets and turn in, I rolled over and slept again. When I next woke, it was 7 o'clock, and the men were still crouching over the embers, helping to cook breakfast, their blankets having been replaced upon my shoulders.

I had paid those men off the day before this happened, and they left me the next morning with a hearty "God be with you," unconscious that they had done anything more than the proper thing toward their employer and companion. — Youth's Companion.