To derive joy and strength from your outing it is of serious importance
that you sleep well every night while at camp, and your camp-bed must be
comfortable to insure a good night's rest.

A bough-bed is one of the joys of the forest when it is _well made_, and
to put it together properly will require about half an hour's time, but
the delight of sleeping on a soft balsam bed perfumed with the pungent
odors of the balsam will well repay for the time expended.


[Illustration: 25 26

The bough-bed, the cook-fire, and the wall-tent.]


=Bough-Bed=

Tips of balsam broken off with your fingers about fourteen inches long
make the best of beds, but hemlock, spruce, and other evergreens can be
used; if they are not obtainable, the fan-like branches from other trees
may take their place. Of these you will need a large quantity, in
order to have the bed springy and soft. Always place the outdoor bed
with the head well under cover and foot toward the opening of shelter,
or if without shelter, toward the fire. Make the bed by arranging the
branches shingle-like in _very_ thick overlapping rows, convex side up,
directly on the ground with _thick end_ of stems _toward_ the _foot_.
Push these ends into the ground so that the tips will be raised
slantingly up from the earth; make the rows which will come under the
hips extra thick and springy. Continue placing the layers in this manner
until the space for single or double bed, as the case may be, is covered