So one night I had the alarm given that the enemy were near, and ordered the men to double out at once to a spot a short distance outside the camp.
The ground was covered with prickly grass and camel-thorn. How those fellows hopped and skipped to get to the place. But they took care not to go to bed barefooted again.
* * * * *
HUT BUILDING.
In places where you can get the use of a wood for your camp, it saves the cost of a tent if you can make yourself a hut.
The important point in making a hut is to thatch it so closely and well with heather, straw, or twigs of fir, etc., that it is watertight.
The double lean-to, already described, makes the simplest form of hut—and if you like to make it more roomy, you can dig out the floor a couple of feet. But this is always a messy proceeding, and unhealthy, as upturned earth is very liable to give fever.
In addition to the articles of camp equipment which are mentioned in Scouting for Boys as being easily made by the Scout himself, there are several others which can be made during the long winter evenings, and these will be of great use to you when you go into camp in the summer, or they can be sold to other fellows wanting such things.
The following is taken, from Mr. H. Kephart's Book of Camping:
* * * * *