ll
personally, if necessary to win their approval.

THE CANVAS TENT.

[Illustration: Fig. 38. The Sail Stitch.]

When at last spring arrived and we returned to Lamington on our Easter
vacation, quite a sum of money had been collected, nearly $15.00, if I
remember rightly; at any rate plenty to buy the materials for a
good-sized tent and leave a large surplus for provisions, etc. Bill
figured out on paper just how much canvas we would need for a tent 7
feet wide by 9-1/2 feet long, which he estimated would be about large
enough to hold us. It took 34 yards, 30 inches wide. Then we visited the
village store to make our purchase. Canvas we found a little too
expensive for us, but a material called drill seemed about right. It
cost ten cents a yard, but since we wanted such a quantity of it the
price was reduced to a total of $3.00. We repaired to the attic to lay
out the material.

[Illustration: Fig. 39. Cutting out the Door Flaps.]

[Illustration: Fig. 40. Sewing on the Door Flaps.]

First we cut out four lengths of 5 yards and 26 inches each. The strips
were basted together, lapping the edges 1 inch and making a piece 17
feet 2 inches long by 9 feet 9 inches wide. Mother sewed the breadths
together on the machine, using a double seam, as in sail making; that
is, two parallel rows of stitching were sewed in, one along each
overlapping edge, as shown in Fig. 38. A 1-inch hem was then turned and
sewed at the ends of the goods, so that the piece measured exactly 17
feet long. It served for the roof and side walls of the tent. Our next
operation was to cut three strips 11 feet long, and sew them together
with a double seam as before. This piece was now slit along the center
line _m_, Fig. 39, making two lengths 3 feet 8 inches wide. The
strips were then cut along the diagonal lines _a a_, forming the
end walls or doors, so to speak, of the tent. In sewing on the door
flaps we started first at the bottom of the side _c_, sewing it to
the side edge of the main piece, as shown in Fig. 40, and running the
seam up for a distance of exactly 3 feet 6 inches. After all the door
strips had been sewed along their _c_ edges the sewing was
continued up the diagonal or _a_ edges. In cutting out the door
pieces we had allowed 1 inch on each side for hems and seams, so that
the door pieces met without lapping at the exact center of the main or
body piece, that is, at the peak of the tent.

[Illustration: The Wall Tent Set Up in