Canvas or duck is the common material from which tents are made.  The standard eight-ounce khaki duck used in the United States army will, for this size tent, cost about twenty dollars.  This will include a fly, which is merely a second roof to the tent.  The best material for tents is balloon silk.  It is much more waterproof than canvas and only weighs a quarter as much.  It is also much more expensive.  A tent can be made at home, which is of course the cheaper way.  They can also be hired from previous campers or from some awning maker who is also usually a tent maker.

A canvas tent without a fly will leak in a rain storm if the roof is touched on the inside either by our hands or our clothing.  It may be made partially waterproof by a coating of paraffine which has been previously dissolved in turpentine.  The simplest and at the same time the warmest tent for an experienced camper who knows the tricks of the trade is a leanto tent, one with one side entirely open, in front of which a blazing fire may be kept burning.  This is hardly adapted for boys on their first trip, however.

Another very good and very simple tent is the “A” tent used in the army.  This looks like a “V” turned upside down.  We can pitch it without the aid of tent poles by simply hanging it be ween two trees to which a rope has been stretched.

[Illustration:  An “A” tent]

The Hudson Bay tent, trapper’s tent, forester’s tent, canoe tent, and a dozen others, including an Indian tepee and wigwam, are all good tents for special purposes.  The pictures show the different styles and all of them are designed for special uses, either for warmth or lightness in carrying or ease in pitching.  If we go camping in summer and can have our equipment or “duffle,” as the woodsmen call it, carried by team, the wall tent will be the best one to take.

Tent pegs can always be cut in the woods, but it is far more satisfactory to get them ready at home before we leave.  If you do cut your own pegs, select hardwood saplings to make them from and to further harden the points, char them slightly in a fire.  If you spend a few winter evenings at home making the pegs, it will save you a lot of time and trouble when you reach the camping ground.  The best pegs are made of iron or steel.  This is especially true when the ground where they are to be driven is hard or rocky, which is usually the case.  Steel tent pins may be bought for six cents apiece or possibly the local blacksmith will make them for less.  They should be a foot long.

A sod cloth is a strip of canvas eight or ten inches wide fastened to the bottom of the tent wall.  Its purpose is to keep the wind and rain from blowing under the tent.  After the tent is pitched a ditch should be dug all around it to catch the rain and carry it away.  The earth that is dug from this trench may be thrown on the sod cloth to hold it down.

It is an excellent idea, if you are a beginner, to practise pitching the tent at home so that you will understand it better when you are in the woods.  Besides this, you can try sleeping out a night or two to see how you are going to like it.