How to Care for Your Pencil

A pencil may have passed through several pairs of paws before it reaches yours. The paint will tell you where some of them held it. It will not tell you whether the wood is sound. Take a little time to find out, preferably while you are sitting somewhere dry and nobody is asking you to lower the point.

1. Begin with the wood

Turn the shaft in good light. Wipe away the dirt that has gathered around the places where the paint is missing. Look along the grain, particularly below the sharpened end.

If you find a split, show it to your sergeant. Show the split itself; saying that the pencil is “mostly sound” leaves the sergeant rather a lot to discover. Set it aside until it has been examined. Do not spend the evening making the outside handsome and hope nobody looks beneath your paw.

2. Attend to the grip

Walk far enough with a rough shaft and you will begin changing your grip to avoid it. Eventually you will be carrying the pencil in whichever way hurts least.

Sit down before it comes to that. Borrow a knife if you need one, and take off the raised splinters with care. You are smoothing a place for your paws. There is no need to remove all the paint, straighten every old scar or reduce the entire shaft to match one hollow.

Try the grip as you work. When it is comfortable, stop. If you cannot find anything wrong with it unless you keep searching, put the knife away and eat.

3. Remember the other end

After examining the point, look at the ferrule and eraser butt. Clear away the packed earth and tell someone if the metal has worked loose.

Mind that end when you turn. Mind the point as well. A company contains ears, tails, packs and other pencils, and most of them belong to mice who have already had a long day.

4. Give it somewhere to stand

At a halt, choose a place where the pencil will stay when you let go. Keep it clear of the passage between the packs. If someone has to move it to bring a wounded mouse through, help them.

Do not lean it against a sleeper merely because the sleeper has remained still. Nor should you leave it balanced where the first mouse reaching for a bowl will bring it down.

When you take it up again, look along it. Another soldier may have moved it while your back was turned. That is a reason to check, not a reason to quarrel.

5. Leave the light for someone else

Clean a borrowed knife before returning it. Gather your shavings from the bedding. If another mouse held the lantern while you worked, offer to hold it for them.

A quiet halt is a good time to notice the soldier beside you turning a sore paw away from the wood. Ask whether they have found the rough place. Shift along the bench and let the light reach them.