Camp bed

“ Behind the deacon seat, lounging upon the boughy bed, you may see half a dozen sturdy fellows—the bone and sinew of the crew—telling "yarns," or giving expression to the buoyancy of their feelings in a song, while the whole interior of the camp is lighted with a blazing hard-wood fire, which casts upward its rays through the capacious smoke-hole, gilding the overhanging branches of the neighboring trees. All within indicates health, content, and cheerfulness. ”

“ The centre piece of the bed was of stout canvas, sewn into pipes at the sides, through which the side bars passed. The head of the bed was formed by fixing two uprights in holes made for them, and then fixing a cross bar on their ends to keep them in place. A very thin cocoa-fibre mattress, cocoa-fibre pillow, and three thoroughly good brown blankets, are conveniently packed in a painted canvas bag, with the framework of the bed. Camp beds, of endless variety, are sold by all outfitters ”

“ THE OUTDOOR BED QUESTION TO one who has never done any camping the choice of a bed is one that nettles him and he will have doubts about being comfortable with the outfits recommended by those of experience. Upon no article of wilderness equipment is there so much diversity of opinion expressed nor upon which more experimentation is lavished by the average enthusiast than the camp bed. From the cumbersome bedstead of civilization to the necessarily extremely portable bed of the movable camp is a far cry. ”

“ After dinner we played whist, and then had some broiled bones for supper, and finally went home to our respective huts not much earlier than four o'clock. But I don't wonder these gentlemen sit up as long as they can keep their eyes open; for never was there anything so utterly comfortless as their camp-beds. They are really worse than the bed of honor, no wider, no softer, no warmer, and affording not nearly so sound sleep. ”

“ The floor was Mother Earth, which in wet weather became mud, and quite a common thing it was for my joys to be enhanced during a heavy shower of rain by my having to sleep, almost suffocated, mackintosh over my head, owing to a slight break in the continuity of the roof—my umbrella being unavailable, as one of my men dropped it over a precipice two days out. For many reasons a camp-bed is to Europeans an indispensable part of even the most modest traveling equipment. ”

“ The lower one can be rolled with your spare clothes inside it to form your pillow, while the upper one can be supported by a crossbar to form a little roof over your head. In a sleeping bag of this kind, if waterproof, you can sleep out without a tent at all.
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HOW TO MAKE A CAMP BED. A very simple and comfortable form of camp bed-and one which you can easily rig up and use in your home, or at an inn, if a bedstead is not available-is this: Make a "hasty stretcher" with two staves and a sack, and lay the ends of the staves on a couple of logs, stones, or boxes. ”

“ How we do sleep! It seems hardly an hour from the time we go to bed until we hear Wu rousing the servants, and the crackle of the camp-fire outside the tent. We half dress in our sleeping bags and with chattering teeth dash for the fire to lace our high boots in its comfortable warmth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The camping kit, including the few handy articles needed in the woods, as well as the bedding and cooking outfit, may be either elaborate or simple, according to the personal experience and ideas of the camper. In making up a list, it is a good plan to remember that only comparatively few articles are really essential for a comfortable vacation in the wilderness. A comfortable bed must be reckoned one of the chief essentials, and one may choose the de-luxe couch—the air mattress or sleeping pocket—use the ordinary sleeping bag, or court slumber on one of the several other styles of camp beds. ”

“ A more comfortable camp bed it was impossible to have and it took about ten minutes to construct. With men such as I had, skilful with their axes, to bring camp furniture was unnecessary: tables, benches, poles for [183] hanging clothes, rifle and gun rests, can easily be made, and one day in a permanent camp is sufficient to have all a hunter can want. My men were as good as, if not better than the French Canadians I employed when hunting moose in Canada some nine years before. They introduced me to a bench or camp seat I had never seen before. ”

“ When the camp is located where there is no material for a bough-bed, each girl can carry with her a bag three feet wide and six and one-half feet long, made of strong cloth, ticking, soft khaki, or like material, to be filled with leaves, grass, or other browse found on or near the camp-grounds. Such a mattress made up with poncho and blankets is very satisfactory, but it must be well filled, so that when you lie on the mattress it will not mash flat and hard. ”

“ These beds should be placed so that the persons [6] will lie with their heads at the sides of the tent and feet toward the center. On the boards spread straw, hay, or dry seaweed, then the blankets. Every thing used about the bed should be laid in the sun every day. Some prefer sleeping on the ground rolled up in a blanket ”

“ Camping equipment is an enigma. A light tent, heavy enough to shed rain, large enough to accommodate all, and not having unwieldy poles, is the first essential; unless cabins, when accessible, or hotels are to be used. Second, enough cots should be provided to accommodate all. Car cushions and car beds are sometimes desirable. Probably the best is the small steel folding double camp bed with springs and a thin mattress. ”

“ Where the camper prefers to do his sleeping in a tent, he has the choice of the tent floor for a bed, a bed made for the occasion by laying blankets over [144] straw, leaves, cedar boughs, hemlock fans, or other browse, or, finally, a camp cot.
If the ground is dry with a gravel or sandy foundation a sleeper can be quite comfortable lying on a canvas spread directly on the ground itself. This is true particularly during July and August in those regions where the nights are warm. ”

“ In camp there is no need to think about elegance. Fitness and usefulness are all the girl need ever consider. It is astonishing how much beauty your homely cabin and white tent will acquire—a beauty all their own.
For tent camping the usual camp cot bed is probably most satisfactory, for it is light and readily carried. If you are on the march and carrying at the most a tent fly for protection, you will, of course, sleep on bough beds or browse beds. ”

“ By digging out a place about 2 ft. deep, building up the [178] earth into a wall all round and pitching the tent on to the top of that you can turn a small bivouac tent into quite a large and commodious abode, which will contain a camp bed if you have one and a fireplace with an earth chimney for the smoke, and when you have a fire going and four or five of you are sitting in there no one need complain of the cold, even on the coldest evening ”

“ The bedding for each person should consist of two blankets, a comforter, and a pillow, and a gutta percha or painted canvas cloth to spread beneath the bed upon the ground, and to contain it when rolled up for transportation.
Every mess of six or eight persons will require a wrought-iron camp kettle, large enough for boiling meat and making soup ”

“ Every tiny opening in our own log walls has been chinked with pieces of blanket or anything that could be found, and the entire dirt floor has been covered with clean grain sacks that are held down smooth and tight by little pegs of wood, and over this rough carpet we have three rugs we brought with us. At the small window are turkey-red curtains that make very good shades when let down at night. There are warm army blankets on the camp bed, and a folded red squaw blanket on the trunk. ”

“ but the dungeon was considered too horrible, so now it is composed of an iron gate, a grated sky-light, a camp-bed, a brick pavement, a stone ceiling, four stone walls, and it is called a "punishment room." ”

“ Every morning, also, a detail from each cabin was assigned to police the camp; that is, clear up all rubbish, chop fire-wood, draw water from the bubbling spring nearby, wash dishes, and keep the camp in order.
In the two log cabins, the beds were plain box bunks arranged in a double tier down the sides, each containing a tick stuffed with straw. Red blankets, sheets, and a thin pillow filled with aromatic fir balsam completed the equipment. Of course each boy was expected to look after the airing and making of his own bed. ”

“ As the hotel was filled with men, women and [Pg 29] crying children, bitten to agony by punkies and mosquitoes, I chose to spread my blanket in a well-made bark shanty, which a sign-board in black and white said was the "Guides' Camp."
And this camp was a very popular institution. Here it was that every evening, when night had settled down on forest and lake, the guests of the hotel would gather to lounge on the bed of fresh balsam browse, chat, sing and enjoy the huge camp-fire.
No woodland hotel will long remain popular that does not keep up a bright, cheery, out-o'-door fire. ”

“ A bag of stout bed ticking, filled with leaves and grass, forms an excellent mattress and has the virtue of being portable, for the bag can always be emptied, folded up, packed, and refilled at the next camp ground. ”

“ A single day's work will do wonders towards making a cabin comfortable. Sometimes through press of more important work, such as getting out a line of traps while the season is yet young, the trapper may well neglect these touches of comfort, and the simplest of camp furnishings will answer until a stormy day keeps him indoors, when he can make good use of his time in making camp furniture. A bed and a stove or fireplace are the only absolutely necessary furnishings to start with, if other work demands immediate attention. ”

“ Do not lay the pork on the sugar bag, nor the salt against anything else.
The beds are of prime necessity. If you must economize on anything, let it not be on the bedding. If you are where you can get plenty of fir or spruce boughs, you have the finest bed in the world. Cut a large supply and spread them over the sleeping place. ”

“ The width of this bed is determined by the number of occupants, varying from ten to twenty feet. Bed-clothes are suited to the width of the bed by sewing quilts and blankets together. The occupants, as a general thing, throw off their outer garments only when they "turn in" for the night. These hardy sons of the forest envy not those who roll on beds of down; their sleep is sound and invigorating; they need not court the gentle spell, turning from side to side, but, quietly submitting, sink into its profound depths. ”

“ These apartments are not denoted by partitioned walls, but simply by small poles some six inches in diameter, laid upon the floor of the camp (which is the pure loam) , running in various directions, and thus forming square areas of different dimensions, and appropriated as above suggested. The head-board to our bed consists of one or more logs, which form also the back wall of the camp. The foot-board is a small pole, some four or six feet from the fire. Our bedstead is mother earth, upon whose cool but maternal bosom we strew a thick coating of hemlock, cedar, and fir boughs. ”

“ The Penobscot boatmen are well skilled in the art of camping in a comfortable manner, and soon prepare their fire for the night, make a bed of boughs, and pitch the tent in such a manner as to afford a complete shelter. Having partaken of our meal, we reposed upon the boughs spread upon the earth, our feet being turned toward the fire. ”

“ An auto camper who has been at the camping game for the past ten years, who has kept at week-end camping right along and who has crossed the continent a couple of times, camping along the route, has out of his long experience reached this as his standard outfit. He takes an “Auto bed” with a 7 by 7-foot tent; a six-pound cotton pad or mattress for the bed; a two-burner gasoline camp stove; one heavy double blanket; one wool-filled quilt; a blanket roll; two eight-quart milk cans for water; and a refrigerator basket. ”

“ We eat, smoke, and sleep for one hour or two; we then ride on again till we reach our tents.
We are supposed to find them pitched, mattresses and blankets spread, mules and donkeys free and rolling to refresh themselves, baggage stacked, the gypsy-pot over a good fire, and perhaps a [Pg 478] glass of lemonade or a cup of coffee ready for us. It does sometimes happen that we miss our camp, that we have the ground for bed, the saddle for pillow, and the water-melon for supper. Richard used to take all the notes, sketches, observations, and maps, and gather all the information. ”

“ If one wishes to provide a tent, brown canvas is far preferable to white. It does not make a glare of light, nor does it stand out aggressively in the landscape. You have your little nightly kingdom waiting for you and can sleep cosily if nothing else is provided. Whenever possible, get your bed blown up and your sleeping bags in order on top and your sleeping things together where you can put your hands on them during the daylight, or if that is impossible, make it the first thing you do when you make camp, while the cook is getting supper. ”