Scott could not
wait. However welcome a blizzard could be to tired bodies (I speak only
of summer sledging), to Scott himself any delay was intolerable. And it
is hard to realize how difficult waiting may be to one in a responsible
position. It was our simple job to follow, to get up when we were roused,
to pull our hardest, to do our special work as thoroughly and quickly as
possible; it was Scott who had to organize distances and weights and
food, as well as do the same physical work as ourselves. In sledging
responsibility and physical work are combined to an extent seldom if ever
found elsewhere.
His was a subtle character, full of lights and shades.
England knows Scott as a hero; she has little idea of him as a man. He
was certainly the most dominating character in our not uninteresting
community: indeed, there is no doubt that he would carry weight in any
gathering of human beings. But few who knew him realized how shy and
reserved the man was, and it was partly for this reason that he so often
laid himself open to misunderstanding.
Add to this that he was sensitive, femininely sensitive, to a degree
which might be considered a fault, and it will be clear that leadership
to such a man may be almost a martyrdom, and that the confidence so
necessary between leader and followers, which must of necessity be based
upon mutual knowledge and trust, becomes in itself more difficult.
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