where you cannot easily find them in the dark. In a permanent camp
you may be tempted to use a lantern with oil, and perhaps you will like
it better than candles; but, when moving about, the lantern-lamp and
oil-can will give you trouble. If you have no candlestick handy, you can
use your pocket-knife, putting one blade in the bottom or side of the
candle, and another blade into the ground or tent-pole. You can quickly
cut a candlestick out of a potato, or can drive four nails in a block of
wood.

If your candles get crushed, or if you have no candles, but have grease
without salt in it, you can easily make a "slut" by putting the grease
in a small shallow pan or saucer with a piece of wicking or cotton rag,
one end of which shall be in the grease, and the other, which you light,
held out of it. This is a poor substitute for daylight, and I advise you
to rise and retire early (or "_turn in_" and "_turn out_" if you
prefer): you will then have more daylight than you need.

BEDS.

Time used in making a bed is well spent. Never let yourself be persuaded
that humps and hollows are good enough for a tired man. If you cut
boughs, do not let large sticks go into the bed: only put in the smaller
twigs and leaves. Try your bed before you "turn in," and see if it is
comfortable. In a permanent camp you ought to take time enough to keep
the bed soft; and I like best for this purpose to carry a mattress when
I can, or to take a sack and fill it with straw, shavings, boughs, or
what not. This makes a much better bed, and can be taken out daily to
the air and sun. By this I avoid the clutter there always is inside a
tent filled with boughs; and, more than all, the ground or floor does
not mould in damp weather, from the accumulation of rubbish on it.

It is better to sleep off the ground if you can, especially if you are
rheumatic. For this purpose build some sort of a platform ten inches or
more high, that will do for a seat in daytime. You can make a sort of
spring bottom affair if you can find the poles for it, and have a little
ingenuity and patience; or you can more quickly drive four large stakes,
and nail a framework to them, to which you can nail boards or
barrel-staves.[9] All this kind of work must be strong, or you can have
no rough-and-tumble sport on it. We used to see in the army sometimes, a
mattress with a bottom of rubber cloth, and a top of heavy drilling,
with rather more cotton quilted[10] between them than