Pack

“ We got a big Gladstone for the clothes, and a couple of hampers for the victuals and the cooking utensils. We moved the table up against the window, piled everything in a heap in the middle of the floor, and sat round and looked at it.
I said I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing is one of those many things that I feel I know more about than any other person living. (It surprises me myself, sometimes, how many of these subjects there are.) I impressed the fact upon George and Harris, and told them that they had better leave the whole matter entirely to me. ”

“ These boxes are old and paintless and weather-beaten; and at night the very dusty-looking keepers, who from early morning until dark have had their shabby-backed wares spread out where dust and sunlight and wind and rain can attack them, pack them in the body of the box on which they are lying and close the lid. ”

“ When we speak of "fighting the pack" we mean fighting the load; that does not mean getting one's load up against a tree and punching it with one's fists or "kicking the stuffings out of it," but it means complaining and fretting because the load is uncomfortable.
There are two kinds of "packs"—the pack that you carry day after day on a long hike, and the pack that you carry when on a canoe trip and you are compelled to leave the water and carry your canoe and duffel overland around some bad [154] rapids or falls. ”

“ PACKING AND THE OUTFIT Ordinarily the verb to pack means to stow articles snugly into receptacles, but in the parlance of the trail it often means to carry or transport the articles from place to place. The pack in the language of the trail is the load a man or horse carries.
Likewise, a portage on a canoe route is a break between navigable waters, over which canoe and outfit must be carried ”

“ Pack′-an′imal, a beast of burden used to carry goods on its back; Pack′-cinch (-sinsh) , a wide girth of canvas, &c., having a hook and ring attached for adjusting the load of a pack-animal; Pack′-cloth, a cloth in which goods are tied up: packsheet; Pack′er, one who packs: one who cures and packs provisions: any device to fill the space between the tubing and the sides of an oil-well, &c.; Pack′et, a small package: a ship or vessel employed in carrying packets of letters, passengers, &c.: a vessel plying regularly between one port and another (also Pack′et-boat, Pack′et-ship, &c.) ”

“ Pack′ing-box, -case, a box in which goods are packed: a hollow place round the opening of a steam cylinder, filled with some soft substance which, being pressed hard against the piston-rod, makes it a tight fit; Pack′ing-need′le, or Sack-needle, a strong needle for sewing up packages; Pack′ing-pā′per, a strong and thick kind of wrapping-paper; Pack′ing-press, a press for squeezing goods into small compass for packing; Pack′ing-sheet, or Pack′sheet, coarse cloth for packing goods; Pack′-load, the load an animal can carry on its back; Pack′man, a peddler or a man who carries a pack ”

“ Have two packs of cards exactly alike: one pack to be constantly in use during the evening in performing your other tricks; the second, or prepared pack, in your pocket, which take an opportunity of exchanging, so that it may be believed that the pack of cards of which you tell the names is the same as that you have been doing your other tricks with, and which they must know have been well shuffled. ”

“ A pack, to be handsome, should vary little or none in height, and have a pleasing affinity to each other in colour: to be good, they should run well together; and the unison of their musical tongues should constitute a perfect harmony, without a single note of discord. It is well known, that it is not always the lot of the most complete and best selected packs to kill in proportion to their seeming excellence; some are very much superior in qualifications to what they may promise to a stranger at first view ”

“ The word "pack" itself is a joy to the outdoor man, for it is only outdoor men who use the word pack for carry, and who call a bundle or load a pack. The reason for this is that the real wilderness man, explorer, prospector, hunter, trapper or scout, packs all his duffel into a bundle which he carries on his back, in two small saddle-bags which are carried by his husky dogs, or a number of well-balanced bundles which are lashed on the pack saddle with a diamond hitch over the back of a pack horse. ”

“ Law 37.—An incorrect or imperfect pack is a pack containing duplicates or more or less than fifty-two cards, but it is neither incorrect nor imperfect because you think fit to place any number of your own cards in the other pack, or to supplement them with one from it. ”

“ You see we have pack dogs, pack horses and pack animals, pack saddles and packers, as well as the packs themselves, which the packers pack and these animals pack on their backs, or which the man himself packs on his own back. ”

“ A PACK OF CARDS KEPT TOGETHER IN THE AIR. Have a pack of cards bound together with a hair, on the shelf at the back of your table. After having shuffled another pack of cards, bunch them rapidly, and, in lowering your hand as if to throw them away—substitute the prepared pack. These will fly through the air like a solid body until it comes in contact with ceiling, wall, or floor, when it will fall asunder. ”

“ Holding the pack tightly, the person holding the card is now asked to thrust it into the pack wherever he likes. The performer now puts the pack in the hat and, taking out a few cards, commences to smell of each one. Pushing the cards around, the chosen card will be seen with its back the wrong way. ”

“ We took with us a pack-horse to carry our blankets, grub, &c., and I must here mention that a man soon learns to pack, there being very little both as to quantity and size—two blankets each, ten pounds of flour, coffee, bacon, frying-pan, and coffee-pot completing the outfit. ”

“ If one is going on a real camping excursion where one will need pack horses, one should, by all means, familiarize oneself with the proper method of packing a pack horse. This can be done in one's own cellar, attic or woodshed and without hiring a horse or keeping one for the purpose. ”

“ Some of us are carrying portage packs which we can dump off our shoulders at the end of the "carry," some of us are carrying hiking packs which we must carry through life and can never dump from our shoulders until we cross the Grand Portage from which no voyagers ever return. All our packs vary in weight, but none of them is easy to carry if we fret and fume and complain under the load.
We outdoor folks call our load "pack," but our Sunday School teachers sometimes speak of the pack they bear as a "cross." ”

“ Everything being thus arranged, having retained in your memory the above words, and the order of the colours, desire any person to cut the pack as many times as he chooses; for it will be easy to name all the cards in order provided you have found means, by some dextrous manœuvre, to observe that one which is at the top of the pack. ”

“ Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back— For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. Wash daily from nose-tip to tail-tip; drink deeply, but never too deep; And remember the night is for hunting, and forget not the day is for sleep. ”

“ The main supply you will pack in some sort of waterproof receptacle. I read a story recently in which a man was recognized as a true woodsman because he carried his matches in a bottle. He must have had good luck. The cardinal principle of packing is never to carry any glassware. Ninety and nine days it may pass safely, but the hundredth will smash it as sure as some people's shooting. And then you have jam, or chili powder, or syrup, or whiskey, all over the place—or else no matches. Any good screw top can—or better still, two telescoping tubes—is infinitely better. ”

“ Then, taking the pack in your left hand, and addressing yourself first to the person on your right, request him to place the two aces which he holds respectively at the top and bottom of the pack. Then, turning to the other person, request him to place the two other aces in the middle of the pack, which you (apparently) open midway with the right hand for the purpose. In reality, instead of merely lifting up, as you appear to do, the top half of the pack, you make the pass by sliding out the bottom half of the pack to the left. ”

“ In case of two or more people, each pack would be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both.
3. Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one.
More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe; mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils; extra shirt; whisky. ”

“ Our girls, moreover, packed with corrugated paper and matchbook-wood box partitions when everybody else was using expensive young men to pack through the top of the box with straw, many breakages and much waste and confusion. ”

“ If the pack is heavy, it may be lightened by having each camper carry his own blankets, in a roll, the case resting on the right shoulder. I would advise each to carry a canteen if there is danger of your being long away from good water. ”

“ A man whose duty it is to place and adjust the loads of pack-animals and to take charge of them upon the march. As packing requires long training and experience, packers are usually hired when needed. ”

“ I might as well git the pack-basket out, and begin to put the things in't, fur it be a goodly distance, and an early start will make the day pleasant to the woman and the leetle uns, ef vict'als be scant in the cupboard. Yis, I'll git the pack-basket out, and look round a leetle, and see what I can find to take 'em. I don't conceit it'll make much of a show, fur what might be good fur a man, won't be of sarvice to a woman; and as fur the leetle uns, I don't know ef I've got a single thing but vict'als that'll fit 'em. ”

“ Another girl stood ready with my machine to label the corked bottles and hand them to the three packers, who slipped them into their outer papers and put them, with a pad of corrugated paper between each pair, into a little groove from which they could be made to slide neatly into position in our standard packing-case. It sounds wild, I know, but I believe I was the first man in the city of London to pack patent medicines through the side of the packing-case, to discover there was a better way in than by the lid. ”

“ A just and particular account of all the merchandise, so laden on board, whether in packages or stowed loose, of any kind or nature whatever, together with the marks and numbers as marked on each package, and the number or quantity and description of the packages in words at length, whether leaguer, pipe, butt, puncheon, {28} hogshead, barrel, keg, case, bale, pack, truss, chest, box, band-box, bundle, parcel, cask, or package, of any kind or sort, describing the same by its usual name or denomination. ”

“ No man can doubt the sadness in the wailing cries of the passing geese,—telling of the bleak, glooming marshes where they live and die. The winter song of the pack, the little shrieking of pikas on the sliderock, even the murmur of the pines are filled with the ancient sadness of existence, the old complaint of the pain of living with only Fear and Death at the end. ”

“ When the box is packed, tie it securely with a length of cord, and have one end of the cord for a strap by means of which the knapsack is hung across the soldier’s back. Roll a square of old blanket and tie to the top of the box just as a real soldier fastens his blanket to his knapsack, and the make-believe soldier in cap, epaulets, and shield can draw his sword and start off in search of any adventure. ”

“ At least twice a year, a packet came with letters for me, and some valuable present for the house, of spice, or comfits, or wonderful lace, such as they know how to make in those parts. But after a time, these packets stopped coming, and for many a year, I had no news of these dear ones at all. ”

“ Simultaneously, as the mouth of that valise yawned, the two men leaped forward so that their heads came together resoundingly and absurdly, but not before the bag had exposed its surface articles: a pair of tortoise-shell military brushes, a packet of documents, and a precious silver and lapis-lazuli box about the dimensions of a playing card, the kind usually dedicated to such elusive addenda as stamps, collar buttons, or sewing box in a lady's overnight bag. ”

“ You begin the day with the common packing, as they call it. They wrap you up in cold, damp sheets, and then in woollen blankets, in which they fasten you up so tight that you can't move any part of your body except your toes. ”

“ The medium takes the packet into his hand for a moment—turning to the light to read the label—and passes them back with the remark that they are the right kind—which now they certainly are, for the sitter’s original packet is in the medium’s breast-pocket. ”

“ It is true that had I packed all my belongings in one huge box the same company would have conveyed them to the steamer for one and eightpence, which is the regular charge per package. But I could not have taken this box into my state-room; I must in any case have had a cabin trunk; and for an ocean voyage, a bundle of rugs is, to say the least of it, advisable. ”