David selected a level spot between two trees on a little rise near the shore.

The ridge rope was quickly stretched between the trees and the tent securely pegged down.

Then David and Jamie broke a quantity of low-hanging spruce boughs, which they snapped from the trees with a dexterous upward bend of the wrist.
When a liberal pile of these had been accumulated at the entrance of the tent, David proceeded to lay the bed.
The rear of the tent was to be the head.

Here he laid a row of the boughs, three deep, with the convex side uppermost, then he began "shingling" the boughs in rows toward the foot.

This was done by placing the butt end of the bough firmly against the ground with half the bough, the convex side uppermost, overlapping the bough above it, as shingles are lapped on a roof.