een overlaid with bark.

[Illustration: 23 24

22

Dining-tent, handy racks, and log bedstead.]

One of the most comfortable and delightful of real forest camps which I
have ever been in, was a permanent camp in the Adirondacks owned and run
by one of the best of Adirondack guides. The camp consisted of several
shelters and two big permanent fireplaces.

Over the ground space for the large tent outlined with logs was a strong
substantial rustic frame, built of material at hand in the forest and
intended to last many seasons (Fig. 21). The shelter boasted of two
springy, woodsy beds, made of slender logs laid crosswise and raised
some inches from the ground. These slender logs slanted down slightly
from head to foot of the bed, and the edges of the bed were built high
enough to hold the deep thick filling of balsam tips, so generously deep
as to do away with all consciousness of the underlying slender-log
foundation (Fig. 22). Each bed was wide enough for two girls and the
shelter ample to accommodate comfortably four campers. There could have
been one more bed, when the tent would have sheltered six girls.

In the late fall, the guide removed the water-proof tent covering and
kept it in a safe, dry place until needed, leaving the beds and bare
tent frame standing.

There was a smaller tent and also a lean-to in this camp.

[Illustration: A forest camp by the water.]

The dining-table, contrived of logs and boards, was sheltered by a
square of canvas on a rustic frame (Fig. 23). The camp dishes of white
enamel ware were kept in a wooden box, nailed to a close-by tree; in
this box the guide had put shelves, resting them on wooden cleats. The
cupboard had a door that shut tight and fastened securely to keep out
the little wild creatures of the woods. Pots, kettles, frying-pan, etc.,
hung on the stubs of a slender tree where branches and top had been
lopped off (Fig. 24). The sealed foods were stowed away in a box
cupboard, and canned goods were cached in a cave-like spot under a huge
rock, with opening secured by stones.

The walls of the substantial fireplace, fully two feet high, were of big
stones, the centre filled in part-way with earth, and the cook-fire was
made on top of the earth, so there was not the slightest danger of the
fire spreading.

The soft, warm, cheerful-colored camp blankets when not in use were
stored carefully under cover of a water-proof tent-like storehouse, with
the canvas sides dro