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"If your hands or feet get cold," I admonished the boys, "put on an extra sweater." They looked unbelieving, but I meant it and tried to explain about the body's thermostats which, when they must choose, will always shut down on circulation to the skin and the extremities if this is necessary to conserve heat for the vital organs. I wasn't too lucid, for we had shouldered our G.I. rucksacks and I found it discreet to conserve words as we started up the grade. For a fairly long uphill stint we ordinarily would tie climbers on our skis. Plush will do but sealskins are better—they slide forward but not back, even on a thirty-per-cent slope. I let the boys know that going uphill is nothing but honest toil. They would discover toil's own good reward for themselves, and I needed to concentrate, between puffs, on hoping that I would rediscover it. |
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