250 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



hardihood to believe we may be able to " hand out " 

 a few pointers that will prove neither redundant 

 nor altogether devoid of practical value to many of 

 our readers. There are things about this outdoor 

 game that it is not possible to overemphasize. 



Whenever you project a camping trip, take it 

 for granted that you are going to camp in the rain. 

 To be sure, it may not rain but then, again, it 

 does. If you are prepared for it, you yet can have 

 a satisfactory trip; if you are not, it is absolutely 

 and irretrievably spoiled. The first consideration 

 is to have your tents actually not supposedly 

 waterproof, especially their roofs; and if for an 

 extended trip, have an additional roof-piece or 

 " fly " to spread a few inches above the tent roof 

 proper. 



Of course one does not expect to go upon such 

 an expedition in the middle of June, in this latitude, 

 and encounter two weeks of the coolest and wettest 

 weather that the Weather Bureau has turned loose 

 in over forty years for a corresponding period. 

 And yet if one of the chief features of the trip was 

 to be the testing of the practical qualifications of a 

 little homemade shelter-tent, no one may deny that 

 the weather served the purpose admirably. 

 Wherefore the story of the tent that " made good." 



The place is the upper waters, in Sullivan County, 

 N. Y., of a little river that for recommendation has 

 size, beauty, and wildness in great variety, freedom 



