When you are travelling on an unknown road, you should always inquire all about it, to avoid taking the wrong one, which you are likely to do, even if you have a good map with you.

LADIES AS PEDESTRIANS.

I have once or twice alluded to ladies walking and camping.  It is thoroughly practicable for them to do so.  They must have a wagon, and do none of the heavy work; their gowns must not reach quite to the ground, and all of their clothing must be loose and easy.[23] Of course there must be gentlemen in the party; and it may save annoyance to have at least one of the ladies well-nigh “middle-aged.”  Ladies must be cared for more tenderly than men.  If they are not well, the wagon should go back for them at the end of the day’s march; shelter-tents are not to be recommended for them, nor are two blankets sufficient bedclothing.  They ought not to be compelled to go any definite distance, but after having made their day’s walk let the tents be pitched.  Rainy weather is particularly unpleasant to ladies in tents; deserted houses, schoolhouses, saw-mills, or barns should be sought for them when a storm is brewing.

LADIES AND CHILDREN IN CAMP.

In a permanent camp, however, ladies, and children as well, can make themselves thoroughly at home.[24] They ought not to “rough it” so much as young men expect to:  consequently they should be better protected from the wet and cold.

I have seen a man with his wife and two children enjoy themselves through a week of rainy weather in an A-tent; but there are not many such happy families, and it is not advisable to camp with such limited accommodations.

Almost all women will find it trying to their backs to be kept all day in an A-tent.  If you have no other kind, you should build some sort of a wall, and pitch the tent on top of it.  It is not a difficult or expensive task to put guy-lines and a wall of drilling on an A-tent, and make new poles, or pitch the old ones upon posts.  In either case you should stay the tent with lines running from the top to the ground.

It has already been advised that women should have a stove; in general, they ought not to depart so far from home ways as men do.

Rubber boots are almost a necessity for women and children during rainy weather and while the dew is upon the grass.

SUMMER-HOUSES, SHEDS, AND BRUSH SCREENS.

There is little to be said of the summer-houses built at the seaside near our large cities, since that is rather a matter of carpentry; nor of portable houses; nor of lattice-work with painted paper; nor even of a “schbang” such as I have often built of old doors, shutters, outer windows, and tarred paper:  any one who is ingenious can knock together all the shelter his needs require or means allow.  But, where you are camping for a week or more, it pays you well to use all you have in making yourself comfortable.  A bush house, a canopy under which to eat, and something better than plain “out-of-doors” to cook in, are among the first things to attend to.