It is well to carry a spare shirt hanging down the back with the sleeves tied round the neck.  Change when the shirt you are wearing becomes too wet with perspiration.

The Pack

The most practical and inexpensive pack is the one manufactured for the Boy Scouts of America.  Price, sixty cents.  It is about 14 by 20 inches square, and 6 inches thick, made of water-proof canvas, with shoulder straps, and will easily hold everything needed for a tramping trip.

A few simple remedies for bruises, cuts, etc., should be taken along by the leader (see chapter on “Simple Remedies").  You may not need them, and some may poke fun at them, but as the old lady said:  “You can’t always sometimes tell.”  Amount and kind of provisions must be determined by the locality and habitation.

[Illustration:  Hiking Pack]

The “Lean-to”

Reach the place where you are going to spend the night in plenty of time to build your “lean-to,” and make your bed for the night.  Select your camping spot, with reference to water, wood, drainage, and material for your “lean-to.”  Choose a dry, level place, the ground just sloping enough to insure the water running away from your “lean-to” in case of rain.  In building your “lean-to,” look for a couple of good trees standing from eight to ten feet apart with branches from six to eight feet above the ground.  By studying the illustration below, you will be able to build a very serviceable shack, affording protection from the dews and rain.  While two or more boys are building the shack, another should be gathering firewood, and preparing the meal, while another should be cutting and bringing in as many soft, thick tips of hemlock or balsam boughs as possible, for the roof of the shack and the beds.  How to thatch the “lean-to” is shown in this illustration.

If the camp site is to be used for several days, two “lean-tos” may be built facing each other, about six feet apart.  This will make a very comfortable camp, as a small fire can be built between the two, thus giving warmth and light.

[Illustration:  Frame of Lean To]

[Illustration:  Method of Thatching.]

The Bed

On the floor of your “lean-to” lay a thick layer of the “fans” or branches of balsam fir or hemlock, with the convex side up, and the butts of the stems toward the foot of the bed.  Now thatch this over with more “fans” by thrusting the butt ends through the first layer at a slight angle toward the head of the bed, so that the soft tips will curve toward the foot of the bed, and be sure to make the head of your bed away from the opening of the “lean-to” and the foot toward the opening.  Over this bed spread your rubber blanket with rubber side down, your sleeping blanket on top, and you will be surprised how soft, springy, and fragrant a bed you have, upon which to rest your “weary frame,” and sing with the poet: 

Then the pine boughs croon me a lullaby,
  And trickle the white moonbeams
To my face on the balsam where I lie
  While the owl hoots at my dreams.
-J.  George Frederick.