Fifty,’ said Max.
Fifty was in heaven. Fires. He loves fires (and Probably Rose and sugar).
‘What about you, Keener?’ Max asked me. He was good at names. He knew all of us already.
‘I’m for the woods,’ I said.
‘And you, Lily?’
‘Woods too,’ she said.
‘So Bee, Copper Pie and Fifty, are you my helpers?’
‘We are,’ said Fifty, with a massive smile on his face.
‘Good.’
We went off for lunch. I was hungry as a hippo, to quote my dad. As I ate my ham roll I realised I hadn’t told the others about the Tribers’ Camp Rules, so they didn’t know we were about to break one. The one that said we should ‘stick together’.
The
Woods
Fifty didn’t need a lesson in how to build a fire. He gave Max a lesson. On my first trip back from the woods, dragging a heap of wood tied in a bundle behind me, the fire team were all sitting cross-legged listening to Fifty’s lecture.
FIFTY’S CAMPFIRE
IN 10 EASY STEPS
You need a spank to start the fine, from matches on a finesteel.
Collect small dry sticks, bits of bank, and dry leaves (called tinden).
Collect kindling – slightly bigger sticks and twigs.
Collect fuel – that means big bits of wood that will make the fine last longen because they take ages to burn. It has to be dead wood from the ground. Live stuff still attached to the tree is too wet.
Use rocks to make a ring to keep the fire from spreading.
Make a pile of the tinder.
Make a teepee around the pile using the kindling.
Build four square walls around the teepee using longer pieces with gaps between them. This makes a chimney.
Carry on adding wood in a teepee shape, but leave a way in so you can still reach the tinder to light the fire.
Light it!
‘You forgot something, Fifty,’ said Max. Fifty looked a bit puzzled. ‘Putting out a fire. Making the area safe so no one gets burnt and it doesn’t relight.’
Copper Pie, Lily, Bee and me all laughed – Fifty isn’t interested in putting them out. The laughing stopped pretty quickly though as Max had something else to say in a deadly serious voice. ‘Never start a fire without an adult present. Never think of fire as a toy.’ He wasn’t just staring at Fifty, he was drilling a direct channel into the centre of Fifty’s brain.
Fifty nodded.
Max sent me off to find tinder. Jonno was put in charge of kindling. The other two teams (Missiles and We Hate Spiders) were on fuel – we needed lots of fuel. The other lucky team (Team GB) got to go down on the beach and collect driftwood.
The nurse who wasn’t a nurse stayed up in the woods. She was ‘supervising’ us to make sure there was no tree climbing, no wandering away from the group, no lots-of-other-stuff-I-didn’t-listen-to. I was more interested in the problem of transportation. I needed a bucket to collect the tinder. It was too small to hold. And there was a limit to how much I could get in my pockets.
‘Jonno, what can I use to collect the small stuff for the fire?’
He looked around. Was he expecting to see a basket, or a great big plastic bag hanging from a tree?
‘How about a huge piece of bark?’ he said.
Good idea, I thought. He helped me peel off a long curved bit, like a piece of guttering. I filled it with dry leaves, twigs and more bark and held it with one end against my tummy and the other end in the air, so none of it fell out. We had to tell the nurse person every time we went back down to camp, so that’s what I did.
Jonno came down a few minutes later. He’d used the same idea to carry the kindling.
‘Good lads,’ said Max. There was quite a pile of wood that the others had collected, neatly stacked in size order. Lily and Bee seemed to be in charge of that. A few of the kids were having a rest – they’d obviously lugged too much heavy wood. Fifty was busy with Max, chatting, and Copper Pie was laying a stone circle. Made me feel a bit spooked, as though evil sprits might dance in it while we were asleep. I left them to it and went back up
Fifty was in heaven. Fires. He loves fires (and Probably Rose and sugar).
‘What about you, Keener?’ Max asked me. He was good at names. He knew all of us already.
‘I’m for the woods,’ I said.
‘And you, Lily?’
‘Woods too,’ she said.
‘So Bee, Copper Pie and Fifty, are you my helpers?’
‘We are,’ said Fifty, with a massive smile on his face.
‘Good.’
We went off for lunch. I was hungry as a hippo, to quote my dad. As I ate my ham roll I realised I hadn’t told the others about the Tribers’ Camp Rules, so they didn’t know we were about to break one. The one that said we should ‘stick together’.
The
Woods
Fifty didn’t need a lesson in how to build a fire. He gave Max a lesson. On my first trip back from the woods, dragging a heap of wood tied in a bundle behind me, the fire team were all sitting cross-legged listening to Fifty’s lecture.
FIFTY’S CAMPFIRE
IN 10 EASY STEPS
You need a spank to start the fine, from matches on a finesteel.
Collect small dry sticks, bits of bank, and dry leaves (called tinden).
Collect kindling – slightly bigger sticks and twigs.
Collect fuel – that means big bits of wood that will make the fine last longen because they take ages to burn. It has to be dead wood from the ground. Live stuff still attached to the tree is too wet.
Use rocks to make a ring to keep the fire from spreading.
Make a pile of the tinder.
Make a teepee around the pile using the kindling.
Build four square walls around the teepee using longer pieces with gaps between them. This makes a chimney.
Carry on adding wood in a teepee shape, but leave a way in so you can still reach the tinder to light the fire.
Light it!
‘You forgot something, Fifty,’ said Max. Fifty looked a bit puzzled. ‘Putting out a fire. Making the area safe so no one gets burnt and it doesn’t relight.’
Copper Pie, Lily, Bee and me all laughed – Fifty isn’t interested in putting them out. The laughing stopped pretty quickly though as Max had something else to say in a deadly serious voice. ‘Never start a fire without an adult present. Never think of fire as a toy.’ He wasn’t just staring at Fifty, he was drilling a direct channel into the centre of Fifty’s brain.
Fifty nodded.
Max sent me off to find tinder. Jonno was put in charge of kindling. The other two teams (Missiles and We Hate Spiders) were on fuel – we needed lots of fuel. The other lucky team (Team GB) got to go down on the beach and collect driftwood.
The nurse who wasn’t a nurse stayed up in the woods. She was ‘supervising’ us to make sure there was no tree climbing, no wandering away from the group, no lots-of-other-stuff-I-didn’t-listen-to. I was more interested in the problem of transportation. I needed a bucket to collect the tinder. It was too small to hold. And there was a limit to how much I could get in my pockets.
‘Jonno, what can I use to collect the small stuff for the fire?’
He looked around. Was he expecting to see a basket, or a great big plastic bag hanging from a tree?
‘How about a huge piece of bark?’ he said.
Good idea, I thought. He helped me peel off a long curved bit, like a piece of guttering. I filled it with dry leaves, twigs and more bark and held it with one end against my tummy and the other end in the air, so none of it fell out. We had to tell the nurse person every time we went back down to camp, so that’s what I did.
Jonno came down a few minutes later. He’d used the same idea to carry the kindling.
‘Good lads,’ said Max. There was quite a pile of wood that the others had collected, neatly stacked in size order. Lily and Bee seemed to be in charge of that. A few of the kids were having a rest – they’d obviously lugged too much heavy wood. Fifty was busy with Max, chatting, and Copper Pie was laying a stone circle. Made me feel a bit spooked, as though evil sprits might dance in it while we were asleep. I left them to it and went back up
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