This gave us a two-room tent, which we found to be quite an advantage.
Twelve more yards of drill were bought and cut into two strips, each 17
feet 2 inches long. The breadths were then sewed together, and the ends
turned up and hemmed to make a piece 17 feet long and 4 feet 9 inches
wide. Tape loops were then sewed on as before, and ropes were fastened on
at the top of the side walls, that is, 3 feet 6 inches from the ends of
the strips. We thought it would be better to have a slanting ridge on the
annex, so we cut out a wedge-shaped piece from the center of the two
strips, as shown by dotted lines B B in Fig. 46. This wedge-shaped piece
measured 2 feet at the outer end of the annex, and tapered down to a point
at the inner end. The canvas was then sewed together along these edges.
Tie strings were sewed to the inner edge of the annex and corresponding
ones were attached to the main tent a little ways back from the edge, so
that the two could be tied together, with the annex lapping well over on
the roof and side walls. A notch was cut out of the peak of the annex, so
that it could be tied around the rear post of the tent, and notches were
cut at the top of the side walls to permit passing the cloth around the
wall ropes. Instead of supporting the ridge of the annex on a ridge pole,
we used the rear guy line of the tent, propping it up with a scantling
about 5-1/2 feet long.



CHAPTER V.

PREPARING FOR THE EXPEDITION.

School closed on the 21st of June that year, just ten days before the
expected arrival of Uncle Ed. The first thing we did was to set up our
tent in the back yard and camp out so as to become acclimatized. It is