Having made your tent or hut, you will find it a good comfort in a
standing camp to have a table.
This you can well make in winter evenings before the camping season,
and while you are at it making one for yourself; you may just as well
make two or three more to sell to other people, and so add money to
your camping fund.
The table should be separate from its legs, so that it can be packed
easily in the cart.
If stakes can be got at camp, you would drive four of these into the
ground with a "maul" (big mallet), making them exactly the same
height, and lay your table top on these.
To make your table top, bits of board or old packing cases can be
planed smooth, and trimmed, and screwed together by cross-battens
underneath to form a tabletop of the size required; 34 in. by 40 in.
is a useful and portable size.
[Illustration: TABLE WHEN FINISHED.]
A pair of folding trestle legs can then be made for the table. These
are two frames, one just narrow enough to go inside the other, but
both of the same length.
A CAMP STOOL can be made in much the same way, with a strip of canvas
or carpet or several strings of webbing nailed across, from the top of
one trestle to the other, the trestles, of course, being quite small.
[Illustration: UNDER SIDE OF TABLE TOP.]
CANDLESTICKS, Forks, Tongs, and other small articles of camp furniture
are shown in _Scouting for Boys_, and can easily be made in the
winter evenings. If neatly done they also command a good sale at
bazaars.
CAMP BEDS are also described in _Scouting for Boys_, and straw
mats for making these may very well be woven in winter evenings, and,
with plenty of time for making them, can be really well made. When
finished, they can be rolled up and packed away until required for
camp.
The fellow who owns one of these in camp can enjoy life under canvas
about four times as much as the fellow who tries to make himself
comfortable on a hard, stony bit of ground. I think you never find out
how full of corners you are till you try sleeping on a hard bit of
ground.
Of course? every Scout knows that the worst corner in him is his
hip-bone, and if you have got to sleep on hard ground the secret of
comfort is to scoop out a little hole, about the size of a tea-cup,
where your hip-bone will rest. It makes all the difference to your
comfort at night.
Your night's rest is an important thing a fellow who does not get a
good sleep at night soon knocks up, and cannot get through a day's
work like the one who sleeps in comfort.
[Illustration: TRESTLE LEGS.]
So my advice is, make a good thick straw-mattress for yourself during
the winter ready for camp.
Another good way of giving yourself a comfortable bed is to make a big
bag of canvas or stout linen; 6 ft. long and 3 ft. wide.
This will do to roll up your kit in for travelling; and when you are
in camp you can stuff it with straw, or leaves, or bracken, etc., and
use it as a nice soft mattress.
A PILLOW is also a useful thing for giving you comfort in camp. For
this you only want a strong pillow-case (which also you can make for
yourself in the winter). This will serve as your clothes-bag by day
and your pillow by night, your clothes, if neatly rolled and packed in
it, serving as the stuffing.
I have often used my boots as a pillow, rolled up in a coat so that
they don't slip apart, and for a long time I used a Zulu pillow, which
is a little wooden stand on which you rest your neck; it sounds
uncomfortable, but it is not so--when you're used to it!
A Scout has to Be Prepared to turn out at any moment in the night. He
ought, therefore, to have his important clothes laid handy, so that he
can get into them at once in the dark.
[Illustration: A ZULU PILLOW.]
On service, of course, a Scout sleeps with shoes on, so that he can
turn out at any moment.
I remember on one occasion some of my men gave up obeying this rule,
and thought it more comfortable to take their boots off.
So one night I had the alarm given that the enemy were near, and
ordered the men to double out at once to a spot a short distance
outside the camp.
The ground was covered with prickly grass and camel-thorn. How those
fellows hopped and skipped to get to the place. But they took care not
to go to bed barefooted again.
* * * * *