anding the saucepans "on the hob."

It is a simple thing to tie the tops of three sticks together and make
a tripod. Then from the place where they join you dangle a piece of
string, pass it through the handle of the kettle and tie it to itself,
in a knot that can be adjusted up or down to raise or lower the kettle
from the fire. This knot is our old friend the two half-hitches. Pass
the loose end round the down cord, letting it come back under the up
cord, then round again with the same finish, and lo! the up cord makes
two half-hitches round the down cord. You can slip, them up and put
them where you like and they will hold, but you have to undo them to
take the kettle clean away from the fire. So we add to our equipment a
few pot-hooks or pieces of steel wire shaped like an S. Their use will
be obvious. If we have three of them it is quite easy to keep three
kettles going over one fire. They swing cheek by jowl when they all
want the same amount of fire, but each can be raised or lowered an
inch or several inches to let them respectively boil, simmer or just
keep warm.

These are the cooking utensils. A biscuit tin would make an oven and
Gertrude says she must have an oven. For my part I would not attempt
baking when camping out and I will say no more about ovens, except
that all the biscuit tins in the world won't beat a hole in the ground
first filled with blazing sticks and then with the things to be baked
and covered with turves till they are done.

I had great difficulty in persuading Gertrude to feed out of tin
dishes like those which we use sometimes for making shallow round
cakes or setting the toffee in. They are ever so much better than
plates, being deep enough for soup-plates and not easy to upset when
you use them on your lap. Any number of the same size will go into one
another and a dozen scarcely take up more room than one.

It was worse still when it came to a still more useful substitute, the
camp equivalent of the teacup. In the first place we abolish the
saucer, for the simple reason that we have no earthly use for it in
camp. We take tin mugs with sloping sides and wire bucket handles.
They fit into one another in the same accommodating way as the eating
dishes. Gertrude was nearly put off this device altogether by Basil's
remark that he had only seen them in use in poulterers' shops, where
they are put under hares' noses....

"Basil, you, you monster," cried Gertrude, and I had to push thos