102 
CAMPING. 
There’s no use in trying,” decided Mr. C , 
after several ineffectual attempts to pitch it had 
been made. 
“ There isn’t a rock nor a bank of earth near 
here, and just the only thing we can do is to 
make our beds and get into them before they 
are taken off,” he continued. 
Some lunch was eaten, and then they pro- 
ceeded to follow his suggestion. When “ the 
bosom of our common mother ” is to serve one 
as bedstead and mattress both, one discovers be- 
fore morning that it is policy to select as smooth 
and soft a spot upon it as possible! A little 
gentle persuasion with the head of a hatchet given 
to over-ambitious grass roots is conducive to 
repose. One can maintain the same position so 
much longer when the ridge between one’s seven- 
teenth and eighteenth vertebra is only an inch 
high, than they can when it is three ! 
The removal of small stones and the substi- 
tution of a few leaves and slender twigs also has^ 
a soothing effect. Excursion parties usually 
sleep in tents. Where the company is not very 
large, and one of those portable hotels answers 
for all, as soon as it is pitched a part of the num- 
ber assume the duties of chambermaids and 
proceed to pick up the stones, smooth off the 
ground, and, where they are to be found, cover it 
thickly with boughs of evergreens, willows or 
