CONCEALMENT. 73 



cloth is brought into a tight little bunch like the 

 top of a sponge-bag. It only remains to put 

 hooks and eyes, or preferably pairs of tapes, on 

 the edges of the two six-foot sides, to fasten them 

 together and complete the tent. There is nothing 

 here that a mere man may not accomplish, but if 

 there be more deft fingers to wield the needle and 

 the scissors, a more trim and shapely tent may be 

 attempted. To describe the nature and uses of 

 the " hide " to many ladies would be nearly as 

 great an undertaking as its manufacture, but if 

 we say that it is like a magnified egg-cosy or a 

 work-bag without a bottom, and give its size as 

 twelve feet round and six feet high, they will do 

 the thing, extracting gussets, etc., and giving it a 

 natural bell-shaped top in less time than we of 

 the clumsy- fingered sex would take to complete 

 our simple hem. The careful shaping of the top 

 is of more than fanciful importance ; it tends to 

 prevent flapping about in a wind. 



Opposite the entrance there should be a hole 

 for the lens to poke through, and as the height of 

 the camera from the ground will alter considerably 

 on different occasions, it is best for the hole to 

 take the form of a vertical slit, some twelve or 

 eighteen inches long, then, at whatever height 

 the lens happens to be, the slit can be fastened 

 tightly round it, either with a rubber band or 



