By Dan Beard
The real thing to wear in the dry snow is moccasins, and every boy and Boy Scout in America should know how to make this genuine American footgear, and every Scout should have a pair of moccasins to wear about the house in place of slippers, leaving the slippers for old men, ladies and girls. The Indian moccasin is the only thing to wear in the camp and in the forests. Of the many kinds of moccasins worn by the Indians we will select for our purpose those devoid of ornament.
It is well to know how to make a makeshift covering for the foot, one that may be used for a stocking with a shank moccasin, or for a foot-covering in dry, snowy weather, or over one's shoes or over one's moccasins when the desire is to keep the feet warm.
Take a piece of blanket 16 inches by 16 inches, Fig. 1, fold it over the foot, as in Figs. 2 and 3, then turn the flap A down under the foot and fold B over Q as in Fig, 4. You will now have Fig. 5. Turn in the heel and the toe as in Fig. 6 and slip your feet into a big pair of woolen stockings or bind the blanket foot-covering on with tape like strips of cloth or buckskin.
How to Half-Sole Your Own Moccasins
If, perchance, one has a real pair of moccasins that unfortunately need new soles to them, let him put on the old moccasins and standing on a piece of paper draw an outline around the feet, making it considerably larger than the moccasin; then, using this as a pattern, cut some soles from an old boot leg, an old pair of puttees or any bit of leather or buckskin or rawhide that one may find handy, for the soles of the old moccasins, Figs. 8 and 9.
In order to hold the soles in place baste them to the bottom of the moccasins by four stitches E, F, G, H, Fig. 8. Soak the new soles in water until they are pliable and then, with waxed shoemakers' thread, or a buckskin or rawhide thong, sew on the Sole, Fig. 9, using an awl, Fig. 7, with which to punch the holes. When the work is done the new sole will overlap the sides as in Fig. 10 and your moccasins are as good as new.
