Sometimes the boys laughed, sometimes they stormed, and Tom was more than once obliged to beat a rapid retreat to escape a volley of boots and other missiles.
At first the tent was pitched in the usual way on the ground; but one of the boys, in a ramble through the camp, had seen an officer's tent prepared in a way which added greatly to its comfort, and this they at once adopted.

Tom Hammond was set to dig a hole of eighteen inches smaller diameter than the circle of the tent.

It was three feet in depth, with perpendicular sides.

At nine inches from the edge a trench a foot deep was dug.

In the centre was an old flour barrel filled with earth.