Tent peg

“ The men made camp in the slippery darkness, while we sat in the wagon, warm and dry, and thanked our stars there were still a few things left that men could do without our aid or competition. Presently a lantern flashed out, and spots of light shifted over them as they slaved—pounding tent-pegs, and scraping stones away from places where our blankets were to be spread, hacking and hewing among the wet willows, and grappling with stovepipes and tent-poles ”

“ An experienced hand will so adjust his pegs and lines, that the gale of wind which prostrates the canvas houses of the inexperienced, passes his harmlessly by. Much has been said and written in praise of iron tent pegs, and, under some circumstances, they may be found highly useful, but there are very serious objections to their use in wild countries. If of sufficient size and length to be efficient, their weight becomes a matter of considerable importance. Their value to natives is so great that to prevent loss by theft is next to impossible ”

“ Each member of a party of four or six is supposed to carry his share of the tent, which consists of one sheet, three tent pegs, and the half of a round wooden staff ferruled in the centre like a fishing-rod. ”

“ As Stanley was preparing the lean-to, this time in an opening, he was struck with the uselessness of going through the daily grind of cutting poles and gathering spruce or pine boughs.
“Why isn’t it more sensible to take a tent along?” he impatiently inquired, irritated by some remarks from Bub.
“Don’t want a tent,” grumbled Abner, still lamenting the loss of the flour. “If it had been in that canoe when we was spilled it would be soaked and heavy as lead. A tent ain’t the easiest thing in the world to pack ’round through the woods. ”

“ Whenever windstorms are expected, the tent pegs should be secured and additional guy ropes attached to the tents.
Tents may be prevented from blowing down by being made fast at the corners to posts firmly driven into the ground, or by passing ropes over the ridge poles and fastening them to pegs firmly set into the ground. ”

“ It is only a bad attack of influenza. I lie here in a dim, brown holland coloured twilight. A large marquee of double folded canvas keeps out the sun; a few shafts of light twinkle through here and there. Through three entrance gaps I catch glimpses, crossed by a web of tent ropes, of other surrounding tents, each neatly enclosed by a border of whitened stones, the purpose of which is to prevent people at night from tripping over the ropes. Everything is scrupulously neat and clean. Orderlies run from tent to tent minding their patients. ”

“ Then, when the fly in front is raised it makes a splendid place for the table, being sheltered from sun and rain. Each tent has a waterproof floorcloth, to keep the dampness out. Wait and see, Jerry."
They worked like beavers for a time.
When one tired his muscles chopping firewood another was eager to take up the job, and it was wonderful how the pile of fuel increased.
Frank rubbed his hands vith pleasure when, an hour or more later, he came over to take a look at it, having completed his own task, as the quantity of tent pegs announced. ”

“ Through the slit in the tent I could see the rain drizzling on the dead campfire. Eddie—long a guest of the forest lost now in the multiple folds of his sleeping-bag—had not stirred. A glimpse of the guides' tent opposite revealed that the flap was still tightly drawn. There was no voice or stir of any living creature. Only the feet of the rain went padding among the leaves and over the tent. ”

“ Every available cloth or sheet may be pressed into service, to make awnings and screens, as we see among the gipsies. There is a great deal of character shown in each different person's encampment. A tent should never be pitched in a slovenly way: it is so far more roomy, secure and pretty, when tightly stretched out, that no pains should be spared in drilling the men to do it well. I like to use a piece of string, marked with knots, by which I can measure the exact places in which the tent-pegs should be struck, for the eye is a deceitful guide in estimating squareness. ”

“ Emerging from a small ravine I came upon an opening in the wood on the edge of which was a cluster of three tents, one apparently for the occupancy of a luxurious owner; a plainer one for servant or servants and a third for a kitchen with a stove pipe projecting through its apex. In front of the principal tent was a sort of porch or shed covered with light boards to keep out the rain, and over-topped with boughs giving it a sylvan character.
I walked toward the tent when a huge old mastiff, fat and unwieldily, sprang toward me with a bark and growl which brought me to a sudden halt. ”

“ I'm planning on eight tents all together, and there'll be ever so many things people will want to buy. Do you suppose, mother, that Mr. Peckham would let Sally manage anything like that up here? She's just dying to do something besides housework all her life."
"But where would you put her, dear?"
"Put her in another tent, if we couldn't do anything else, but I'll bet a cookie the boys down there at the mill could throw together a perfectly dandy little slab shack with birch trimmings. They could either have it down by the mill or put it right here at the crossroads. ”

“ The tents are ranged around a huge oblong lawn, green and refreshing after the sand and dust without. The designers have wisely refrained from disfiguring it with banks of sickly flowers, though a few dwarf palms are dotted about. Every tent has its fire-place and chimney and boarded floor, and is cosily furnished. People say that Lord Northcote's guests will be more comfortable than any other party in camp, and tell you wonderful stories of billiard tables, and tents with glass doors, and other marvels. ”

“ In choosing a tent, select one that will stand in some sort of shape with only four pegs, or with six at the very utmost; it should admit of being pegged close to the ground without any intervening 'fly;' it is no objection that it should require more than one pole; and, when considering how much weight it will be possible to carry, it must be borne in mind that the tent will become far heavier than it is found to be in the peculiarly dry atmosphere of a tent-maker's show-room. ”

“ I don't know if I really like a tent to live in. The floor is covered with straw, and then a carpet is stretched over it, which makes a particularly bulgy, uneven surface to stand dressing-tables and things on. The straw, too, is apt to stick out where it is least expected, and gives one rather the feeling of being a tinker sleeping in a barn. At night a tent is an awesome place. It is terrible to have no door to lock, and to be entirely at the mercy of anything that creeps and crawls ”

“ A great wind arose in the night, and had not W. seen himself to the tent ropes and pegs our tent would certainly have been blown down, and we should have been smothered in a mass of flapping canvas. As it was, the tent shook and heaved at its moorings and cracked like pistol-shots, some of the furniture coming down with a crash. ”

“ Every one is kind and sympathetic; a cool breeze blows through the looped-up tents; it is all very luxurious and pleasant for wearied-out soldiers. I like to lie and watch the little pictures through the tent openings of low blue veldt hills in the distance (which somehow remind one of the background glimpses in old Italian pictures) , and dream over things one has seen and done, many of which seem already such ages ago, and listen to the bugle calls that sound at intervals in the camp. ”

“ But then that horrid old wretch the sun comes ranting up; the tents get baked through; and all through the camp there is a general moulting of fur shoes and merino and shawls, then an outcry for muslin, and then for a Punkah to give us breath. We cannot go out till it is nearly dark; and then about dinner-time, when we cross over from our private tents to the great dining-room, we want cloaks and boas and all sorts of comforts again. Those cold hours of the day are very English and pleasant.
I hate my tent and so does George. ”

“ I knew better, and went around camp with my thumbs stuck in my armholes, and felt big. It was an awful long day, but I put in the time thinking how I would draw cards, and bet judiciously, and finally night came, and I went over to the major's tent, where the officers usually congregated. I was early, and had to wait half an hour before the crowd showed up. As they came in each had something to say to me. “Here's the man who walked off with our wealth last night,” said one. “Here's our victim,” said another. “We will send him to his tent tonight without a dollar.” ”

“ In small, inexpensive tents that stand apart from the car, tents without floors, a quite satisfactory article is the Scout Featherweight Shelter Tent.
The “Scout Featherweight” has a door at each end, and each door is equipped with an overlapping lapel and double row of tie strings. Draw the lapels together, tie them securely and the whole world is shut out completely.
Two folding poles, six stakes and a pack-bag are supplied with each tent. It’s no trick at all for a man or a boy to put the tent up in two minutes. No ridge poles, no guy lines. ”

“ The tent is pitched on the banks of this bright little stream, the entrance but a half-dozen paces from its sparkling water, and a couple of guards are stationed near by to keep away intrusive villagers; an abundance of eatables, including sweetmeats, bowls of sherbet, and dried apricots, and pears from Foorg, are provided at once.
A neatly dressed attendant squats himself down on the shady side of the tent outside, and at ridiculously short intervals brings me in a newly primed kalian and a samovar of tea. Everything possible to contribute to my comfort is attended to and nothing overlooked ”

“ When the tents were erected with openings to the East, in a row by the water, backed by a belt of woodland, whose pungent odors added a zest to the girls’ ideals of the camp life, Nathalie and Helen hurried to their tent to unpack. The big packing-box which had served as a trunk for two was hastily turned on its narrowest side, with open side to the tent, and then with hammer and nails converted into a combination arrangement of book-case and dresser, the top having a piece of white shelf oilcloth tacked on it. ”

“ Another form of tent which I used in Mafeking and South Africa, and still use for sleeping out in, in England, is one which you would hardly call a tent. It is really a slungcot, with a movable canvas roof to it. It is called the "Ashanti Hammock."
[Illustration: A BIVOUAC SHELTER.]
It packs up quite small, and is put up in a few minutes. Requires no pegs. Keeps you off the wet ground. And when the gale comes and all the tents in camp blow down, you lie there swinging gently in the breeze, the envy of all the rest. It also forms an excellent stretcher if you are ill and have to be carried ”

“ I call men to close the opening of my tent. I hear Robert raise a whoop as his airy dwelling flaps about and threatens to split up into shreds. But a dozen men set it to rights again. Then my tent is strengthened with sand heaps and boxes; I am shut in with my brazier, but a small spy-hole is left in the tent opening. The moonshine glistens on the surf of the billows rolling against the shore—a grand spectacle—wild, weird, almost theatrical in its beauty. A storm of unsurpassed violence rushes ruthlessly along. ”

“ One morning, I woke all on a sudden.—What's up? A troop of horse galloping exactly towards my tent, and I could hear the tramping of a band of traps. I got out of the stretcher, and hastened out of my tent. All the neighbours, in night-caps and unmentionables, were groping round the tents, to inquire what was the matter. It was not yet day-light. There was a sly-grog seller at the top of the hill; close to his store he had a small tent, crammed with brandy cases and other grog, newly come up from town. There must have been a spy, who had scented such valuable game. ”

“ A canvas tent without a fly will leak in a rain storm if the roof is touched on the inside either by our hands or our clothing. It may be made partially waterproof by a coating of paraffine which has been previously dissolved in turpentine. The simplest and at the same time the warmest tent for an experienced camper who knows the tricks of the trade is a leanto tent, one with one side entirely open, in front of which a blazing fire may be kept burning. ”

“ Almost of more importance than either food or kitchen gear is the sportsman’s ‘sleeping outfit,’ if I may use the jargon of the camp.
The common A tent is the one most used in America, but probably there is nothing better than that known as Whymper’s Alpine tent, made of Willesden canvas, as recommended in ‘Hints to Travellers.’ For extremely rough work I have used a little ‘tente d’abri’ into which we had to crawl on our hands and knees, but which held two men, kept them dry, and weighed with poles, pegs, ropes, and a bag to pack it in, only nineteen pounds. ”

“ Over the horizontal pole is hung a large mat, the ends of which are pegged to the ground, and the tent is then complete. The mat is made of the epidermis of young palm leaves. In order to prevent water from flooding the tent in rainy weather, a trench is dug around it. The only furniture is the hammock in which the inhabitant sleeps, and in fine weather, this is much more often slung between two palm trees than between the upright posts of the tent. In fact, the only use of the tent is as a shelter in rainy weather, the whole of the life being passed in the open air. ”