was first cut out to the form shown
in Fig. 213. We used two thicknesses of the heaviest brown canvas we
could find, binding the two pieces together with tape. The yoke was
padded with cotton at the shoulders and a strap was fastened to each
shoulder piece. These were arranged to be buckled to a pair of straps
fastened to the back of the yoke and passing under the arms. Riveted to
these straps were a pair of straps used for fastening on the pack. The
yoke straps were attached with the rough side against the yoke, while
the pack straps were riveted on with the rough side uppermost, as
indicated in the drawing.

RIVETING.

[Illustration: Fig. 214. Riveting the Straps Together.]

The method of riveting together the leather straps may need a word of
explanation. A copper rivet was passed through a hole in the two straps;
then the washer was slipped over the projecting end of the rivet. This
washer had to be jammed down tight against the leather, and to do this
we drilled a hole of the diameter of the rivet in a block of wood, and
putting this block over the washer, with the end of the rivet projecting
into the hole, we hammered the block until the washer was forced down
tight against the leather. Then taking a light tack hammer we battered
down the end of the rivet onto the washer. Care was taken to do this
hammering very lightly, otherwise the end would have been bent over
instead of being flattened.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE LAND YACHT.

Only one thing of importance occurred between our Christmas holidays and
Eastertide: this was Bill's invention of the tricycle sailboat or land
yacht. We had returned to school with sailing on the brain. Our skate
sail served us well enough while there was any ice, but as spring came
on we wished we had our canoe with us, or even the old scow to sail on
the lakes near the school. Once we seriously considered building a
sailboat, but the project was given up, as we had few facilities for
such work. But Bill wasn't easily baffled, and I wasn't surprised to
have him come tearing into the room one day, yelling, "I've got it! I've
got it!" In his hands were two bicycle wheels, which I recognized as
belonging to a couple of bicycles we had discarded the year before.

"What are you going to do with them?" I inquired.

"I'm going to make a tricycle sailboat."

"What?"

"A tricycle sailboat, a land boat, or anything you've a mind to call it.
I mean a boat just like our ice boat onl