Scott was anxious to see how such a tiny tent as they were packing could possibly be made to accommodate four good-sized men. His curiosity was still further aroused by the eagerness with which the others seemed to be looking for a large fallen tree. A shout from Ormand brought the party to a halt.
“Here she is. Just where we want her, too.” The “she” referred to a large rotten log lying parallel to the river bank and some thirty feet from it.
Ormand began singing out orders like a major general even before he had slipped out of his pack. “Morgan, you build the fire and get the kettle on. Greenleaf, you and Scotty put up the tent and make the beds. I’ll go get the turkey.” And he disappeared in the bushes.
Greenleaf immediately took charge of the operation. “You unpack the tent, Scotty, while I cut the poles.” Scott busied himself with the pack while Greenleaf went circling through the neighboring woods eying critically every sapling he passed. An occasional sound of chopping announced the discovery of the sought-for pieces. In ten minutes he was back with two pieces, each three and a half feet long and forked at one end, a long slender pole, and two heavier poles about twelve feet long.
Scott buttoned the two halves of the dog tent together and watched Greenleaf chopping off the brush and smoothing the ground on the south side of the log. When this was completed to Greenleaf’s satisfaction, and he was very particular about it, he stretched the straight edge of the tent—what would ordinarily have been the front—tight along the log. He then produced from his pocket three twenty-penny spikes which he proceeded to drive through the brass eyelets into the log.
He and Scott stretched the tent out flat in a horizontal position and pushed the two forked sticks into the ground just outside of the front corners. On these two forked sticks the slender pole was laid and the front corners of the tent tied to it, thus keeping the canvas taut. The heavy poles were then pushed butt first through the forked sticks, under the canvass, over the slender pole, over the log, and shoved firmly into the ground behind the log. The flaps which usually form the back of the tent were then extended to their full length and tied to the ends of the heavy poles. In just fifteen minutes the little lean-to was completed and as steady as could be desired.