Another poor kind of a camper pitches his tent so that his bed gets wet and his food spoiled on the first rainy day, and then sits around cold and hungry trying hard to think that he is having fun, to keep from getting homesick.  This kind of a boy “locks the door after the horse is stolen.”  If we go camping we must know how to prevent the unpleasant things from happening.  We must always be ready for wind and rain, heat and cold.  A camping party should make their plans a long time ahead in order to get their equipment ready.  Careful lists should be made of what we think we shall need.  After we are out in the woods, there will be no chance to run around the corner to the grocer’s to supply what we have forgotten.  If it is forgotten, we must simply make the best of it and not allow it to spoil our trip.

It is surprising how many things that we think are almost necessary to life we can get along without if we are obliged to.  The true woodsman knows how to turn to his use a thousand of nature’s gifts and to make himself comfortable, while you and I might stand terrified and miserable under the same conditions.

Daniel Boone, the great wilderness traveller, could go out alone in the untracked forest with nothing but his rifle, his axe and a small pack on his back and by a knowledge of the stars, the rivers, the trees and the wild animals, he could go for weeks travelling hundreds of miles, building his bed and his leanto out of the evergreen boughs, lighting his fire with his flint and steel, shooting game for his food and dressing and curing their skins for his clothing and in a thousand ways supplying his needs from nature’s storehouse.  The school of the woods never sends out graduates.  We may learn something new every day.

[Illustration:  With a head shelter and a sleeping bag he can keep dry and warm]

The average city boy or girl does not have an opportunity to become a skilled master of woodcraft, but because we cannot learn it all is no reason why we should not learn something.  The best way to learn it is in the woods themselves and not out of books.

A party of four boys makes a good number for a camping trip.  They will probably agree better than two or three.  They can do much of the camp work in pairs.  No one need to be left alone to look after the camp while the others go fishing or hunting or to some nearby town for the mail or for supplies.  There is no reason why four boys of fifteen who are resourceful and careful cannot spend a week or two in the woods in perfect safety and come back home sounder in mind and body than when they left.  It is always better to take along some one who has “camped out” before.  If he cannot be found, then make your plans, decide what you will do and how you will do it, take a few cooking lessons from mother or the cook—­if the latter is good-natured—­and go anyway.  First elect a leader, not because he is any more important than the rest but because if some one goes ahead and gives directions, the life in camp will run much more smoothly and every one will have a better time.