Chapter XVII: Camping Out in Your Back Yard

WHO is ready to go out on a camping expedition to Make-Believe Land?

It is a wild land, full of wild creatures if you choose to believe in them. Cats you will probably meet on the trail, and they are wild ones if you will. Wolves, too, may prowl around, for what else are Tramp and Nipper, your own dearly loved dogs, but descendants of the wild wolf. There will be plenty of sailing, fishing and outdoor sports. Guides can be secured at headquarters and you will not have to travel far, for the camping ground is your own back yard.

You must have your

=Camping Outfit,=

as all campers do, and it is the proper thing to think, plan and talk much about this same outfit. As the trip is to be made overland and you will have no camping wagon, use bags for carrying the various articles needed in camp. Old flour bags are just the thing. Into these you can put all your things except perhaps the camp kettle. The camping party should be supplied with a tent, a hatchet, a camp kettle, coffee pot, tin plates and cups, old knives, fork and spoons, a tin pail and dipper and a tin wash-basin; all these, as well as provisions must be taken on the journey in true campers’ fashion, for there should be no running back from Make-Believe Land to get forgotten articles. Shawls and blankets to spread on the ground if it seem too damp will be a welcome addition to the outfit, and the party should be provided with sharp pocket knives for whittling stakes and for other needs.

Select the site of your camp and pitch your tent with reference to the clothes line, for the line is to support the tent and act as a ridge pole.

=Make the Tent=

of two muslin sheets sewed together along two of the edges, one edge on each sheet, which run from the wide hem at the head to the narrow hem at the foot of the sheet. Tie a tape on each of the four corners (Fig. 250) and tie a tape at the centre of the ends of the tent sheet-covering. This will give three tapes on each side of the tent—six tapes in all (Fig. 251).

Make six wooden pegs resembling Fig. 252. You can have them either round, square, three-cornered or irregular; the only essentials are that the pegs be strong and large enough to hold the tent securely. Have a notch cut near the top for the tape and a point whittled at the bottom that the peg may be easily driven into the ground.

Look about carefully and decide exactly where you want the tent placed on the clothesline; then hang the crosswise centre of the covering evenly over the line. Hold the top ridge centre in place with clothespins while you stretch one side out away from the clothesline, and peg it to the ground by tying the tapes around the pegs and pushing the pegs slantingly into the ground, with the peg head running from and the point directed toward the tent (Fig. 253). Remove the clothespins and peg down the other side of the tent in the same way.

Find the best place near the tent for

=A Table,=

and make the table in true woodsman fashion. Take four strong forked sticks, sharpened on the lower end, and drive two of them into the ground in a straight line about one foot or more apart, and the remaining two in a line with, and two feet from the first sticks (Fig. 254). Have the sticks stand above the ground about two feet, or the height you want the table, and keep the crotch, or angle where the two forks separate, on all the sticks at an equal height from the ground. Lay a stick across each pair of forked sticks. Get a piece of board, rest one end on each of the supports you have just made, and you will have a rustic table, strong and suitable for any camp (Fig. 255). Use wooden boxes for seats. Select one box for your

=Safe or Cupboard=

in which to keep supplies and camping utensils. Fit one or two shelves, made from a side of another wooden box, in the cupboard. Do this by first nailing strips of wood, for cleats, on the inside of each side of the cupboard at equal distances from the bottom (Fig. 256). Slide in the shelves, resting each on two pieces of wood (Fig. 257). Set a lot of lids of tin cans in the cupboard to serve as camping plates, also a few tin spoons, an old table knife, a kitchen fork or two, three tin cups, and a smooth, clean, folded piece of white paper for a tablecloth.

Now for

=The Spring=

Ask your mother to let you have a large, clean pail suitable for drinking water. Carry the pail to the opposite side of the yard from your tent. There dig a hole large enough to sink the pail down about half its height (Fig. 258). Bank the loose earth up all around the pail (Fig. 259), and cover the earth with leaves, grass, moss and vines; hiding the pail completely with the greenery; then fill the pail with fresh, cool water, and lo: there is your mountain spring (Fig. 260).

A clean tomato can, free from rust, with the top removed, will make

=A Fine Pail=

for carrying water. You can make a hole in the tin, near the top on each side of the can, by hammering a good-sized wire nail through, and then form a handle to the pail by threading one end of a piece of twine through each hole and tying a large knot on the outside to prevent the string from sliding out of place (Fig. 261). When you need water in the camp, always go to the spring for it, and carry the water in the little tin pail.

It is not necessary to have a real

=Camp Fire,=

but you can pretend there is one. Drive two forked sticks in the ground a short distance from each other; lay a stout stick across from one to the other forked stick; then pile up some dry twigs midway between the stakes. Tie a strong cord on the centre of the cross stick, leaving one end long enough to loop down and under the handle of a pail or kettle and reach up and tie to the short end of the cord. You can put various things into the camp kettle and pretend to cook them over the make-believe fire (Fig. 262).

Of course you must have a boat, for there are lakes in Make-Believe Land and plenty of fish to be caught, so

=Make a Boat=

for your camp. Select a rather long, narrow wooden packing-box (Fig. 263), and on each end tack an extra pointed pasteboard end (Fig. 264). To make the pasteboard end you will have to measure the height of the packing-box, and cut from an old pasteboard box a strip of pasteboard wide enough to fit the height of the wooden box and long enough to allow for tacking on the end of the wooden box and extending far enough out beyond the box to form half, or one side, of the pointed end with two inches over. Score the extra two inches and bend (Fig. 265); the bend A forms the extreme end when the pasteboard point is bent in shape. Cut another strip of pasteboard two inches shorter than the first strip, and sew it on the two-inch bent flap of the first strip (Fig. 266). Score the two ends of the long strip and be careful to score them on the side that will cause the pasteboard to bend outward in the right direction, then bend (Fig. 267).

Tack the pasteboard strip on the end of the wooden box and make another pasteboard point for the other end of the box (Fig. 264). Cover both pasteboard ends with stout paper by gumming the paper over and down on the outside top edge of the pasteboard points.

Make the boat seats of short boards laid across from side to side of the wooden box and nailed in place (Fig. 268). Use broom-sticks for oars, and make believe the boat is off on the water, a long distance from the tent.

If you want to play that you are

=Out Fishing=

in the boat, take any kind of long sticks or walking canes for fishing poles, with common string for line and a bit of paper tied to the end of the string for bait. When you want to turn the row-boat into a sail-boat, you can tack a three-cornered piece of white cloth on the end of a pole and rig up a sail (Fig. 269). Cut a hole in the forward centre of the bottom of the boat immediately next to the covered bow, run the pole through the hole down into the earth until it is well planted in the ground and stands straight and steady; then tie a string to the free end of the sail and fasten the string to the boat to keep the sail stretched out, just as if there were truly a good stiff breeze and you were sailing along at a rapid rate with the spray dashing upon, and at times over, the sides of the boat.

If your back yard is large and you need more tents for friends, erect several, one on each stretch of the clothesline. Should the line be fastened to four posts, a tent can be put up on each of the four turns of the clothesline, making a little settlement of tents.