[Illustration:  A trapper’s tent]

When you reach your camping place, the first step is to clear the ground of all rubbish, loose stones, sticks and brush to have a clean floor.  Then unpack the tent and fit the pegs of the two upright poles through the two holes in the ridge pole.  Next raise the tent and peg the guy ropes on the four corners first.  A little practice will show you how to do this.  After all the ropes are pegged at a proper distance from the tent, they should be tightened and the tent made secure.

Always plan to have a full four hours of daylight to make your camp ready.  If the drive is a long one and you are obliged to get up very early in the morning, you will have to do it, that is all.  I made my first camping trip when I was twelve years old.  We had just reached the camping ground, unloaded our kit and sent the team home that brought us when—­bang! over the mountain across the lake from where we were going to camp, a terrific thunder shower came up and in a few minutes it was pouring.  There was our whole outfit—­tent, bedding and food—­getting soaked because, instead of hurrying along during the day, we had fooled away our time trying to catch fish in wayside brooks that had never seen a fish and not realizing how important it is to make haste as well as hay while the sun shines.

[Illustration:  An Indian tepee]

We quickly pitched the tent, not as it should have been pitched, but in a heap over the rest of our goods to keep out as much water as possible and then ran for a nearby barn where we spent a cold hungry night, wetter but wiser.  The next day, out came the sun and dried our things, but if the rain had continued we certainly should have been obliged to go home or at least to a farmhouse to stay until the weather cleared.  We soon forgot our unpleasant experience but we have not forgotten the lesson it taught—­and that is not to waste time along the road when there is work to be done at the journey’s end.

Next to a good tent, the most important thing for the camper is a good bed.  It is even more important than good food because if we sleep well, hunger will furnish the sauce for our grub, but if we spend the night trying to dodge some root or rock that is boring into our back and that we hardly felt when we turned in but which grew to an enormous size in our imagination before morning, we will be half sick and soon get enough of being an Indian.  A canvas cot makes the best camp bed if it can be taken along conveniently.  There is one important thing to look out for in sleeping on a cot.  In my first experience of the kind, I nearly froze.  I kept piling things on me until all my clothing, and even the camp towels and table-cloth were pressed into service and was thinking about pulling some dry grass to pile on the rest of the stuff.  Still I shivered until I discovered that the cold was coming up from underneath because there was nothing to keep it out but the single thickness of canvas.  When I put one of my blankets under me, I was as warm as toast.