With a head shelter and a sleeping bag he can keep dry and warm

The average city boy or girl does not have an opportunity to become a skilled master of woodcraft, but because we cannot learn it all is no reason why we should not learn something. The best way to learn it is in the woods themselves and not out of books.
A party of four boys makes a good number for a camping trip. They will probably agree better than two or three. They can do much of the camp work in pairs. No one need to be left alone to look after the camp while the others go fishing or hunting or to some nearby town for the mail or for supplies. There is no reason why four boys of fifteen who are resourceful and careful cannot spend a week or two in the woods in perfect safety and come back home sounder in mind and body than when they left. It is always better to take along some one who has “camped out” before. If he cannot be found, then make your plans, decide what you will do and how you will do it, take a few cooking lessons from mother or the cook—if the latter is good-natured—and go anyway. First elect a leader, not because he is any more important than the rest but because if some one goes ahead and gives directions, the life in camp will run much more smoothly and every one will have a better time.
If it is your first experience in camping, you had better go somewhere near home. The best place is one that can be reached by wagon. If we have to carry our supplies on our backs or in a canoe, the amount we can take will be much less. After you have had some experience near home you can safely try the other way. Where you go is of comparatively little importance. Near every large city there is some lake or river where you can find a good camping site. Campers always have more fun if they are near some water, but if such a place is not easily found near where you live, go into the woods. Try to get away from towns or villages. The wilder the place is, the better.
You had better make sure of your camping ground before you go by writing a letter to the owner of the land. It isn’t much fun after we have pitched the tent and made everything shipshape to have some angry landowner come along and order us off because we are trespassers.
In selecting a place to camp, there are several very important things to look out for.
1. Be sure you are near a supply of drinking water. A spring or a brook is best, but even the lake or river will do if the water is pure and clean. The water at the bottom of a lake is always much colder and cleaner than the surface water. When I was a boy, I used a simple device for getting cold water which some of you may like to copy. I took an old-fashioned jug and fastened a strong string to the handle and also fastened this string to the cork of the jug as the drawing shows. The jug was weighted so that it would sink, by means of a piece of stone tied to the handle. We used to go out to the middle of the lake where the water was the deepest and lower the jug over the side of a boat. When it reached bottom we would give the string a sharp tug and thus pull out the cork. The bubbles coming to the surface showed us when the jug was full. We then hauled it on board and had clear, cold, drinking water from a lake that on the surface was warm enough for swimming.