Young Knights of the Empire Part 38

In country where there are no trees to make poles with, like parts of South Africa, where there is only a lot of small thorn bush and long gra.s.s, you can make "scherms," or loose thorn bushes piled in a heap and made into a small horse-shoe, arched over, back to wind, and covered or roughly thatched with gra.s.s.

These, with a fire in front, make very good shelter against cold wind or against sun, and, if covered with a canvas waggon-sail or tarpaulin, make a good enough protection against rain and against very hot sun. A "scherm" can be made with heather or gorse--only look out for its catching fire!

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SHELTER HUT.]

Remember that to make a tent or hut cool in hot sun put on more roof--put blankets over the top of your tent, and bank up the sides near the ground. But if you want to make your tent or hut warm, take care to thicken the walls at the foot to prevent draughts coming in along the floor.

Also never forget that your floor is on raised ground, not in a hollow that will become a pool in wet weather.

CAMP FURNITURE.

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 p.r.i.c.kly gra.s.s 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.

HUT BUILDING.

In places where you can get the use of a wood for your camp, it saves the cost of a tent if you can make yourself a hut.

The important point in making a hut is to thatch it so closely and well with heather, straw, or twigs of fir, etc., that it is watertight.

The double lean-to, already described, makes the simplest form of hut--and if you like to make it more roomy, you can dig out the floor a couple of feet. But this is always a messy proceeding, and unhealthy, as upturned earth is very liable to give fever.

In addition to the articles of camp equipment which are mentioned in _Scouting for Boys_ as being easily made by the Scout himself, there are several others which can be made during the long winter evenings, and these will be of great use to you when you go into camp in the summer, or they can be sold to other fellows wanting such things.

The following is taken, from Mr. H. Kephart's _Book of Camping:_

HORN DRINKING CUPS.

"Get a cow's horn from a friendly butcher, a little over a foot long.

Measure with a stick how far up it is hollow. Then, saw off the tip just below where it becomes solid, except a strip of the solid part, which should be left attached to the hollow part, about an inch wide and five inches long, quarter of an inch thick; this strip will form the handle of the cup."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A HORN DRINKING CUP]

THE AXE.

Of course a backwoodsman has to be pretty useful with his axe; and to become a good axeman a fellow must know, firstly, how the thing ought to be done, and, secondly, he must then have lots of practice in doing it before he can be considered any good.

Bad workmen complain of their tools, but before starting to work be sure that your tool is a good one.

Your axe should be a "felling" axe, of which the head will weigh nearly three pounds. See that the handle or "helve" is perfectly straight and true in line with the head and the edge. To do this look along the helve with the edge of the head turned upwards. If the edge is not true to the bevel, your cuts will go all astray.