Tent tales

There were once three Beaver friends called Eager Beaver, Boaster Beaver and Wait-a-Bit Beaver. They’d been friends all their lives, and they loved playing together and exploring the countryside.

Eager Beaver liked to jump straight in, which was brilliant when it came to swimming in the river or leaping into piles of leaves. It wasn’t always so good when it came to doing things carefully, like drawing and craft.

Boaster Beaver thought they knew how to do everything. It was brilliant when it came to being brave and giving things a go, but it wasn’t so great when they were trying something new and they didn’t know how to do it yet.

Wait-a-Bit Beaver was quite cautious and careful. It was brilliant when it came to staying safe (and helping keep their friends safe too!), but it wasn’t so good when it came to running races.

One day, the Beaver friends decided to go camping together.

‘Hang on, everyone,’ said Wait-a-Bit Beaver. ‘Before we go camping, I think we should practise putting up our tent in the garden so we know what to do.’

‘I already know how to put up a tent, it’ll be easy for me’ bragged Boaster Beaver, even though they’d never put up a tent before in their life.

‘Great, let’s get started!’ said Eager Beaver, pulling all of the tent bits out of the bag and spreading them across the garden.

‘Wait a bit!’ said Wait-a-Bit Beaver. ‘Let’s do it one thing at a time. Slow and steady wins the race you know,’ they added with a smile. The other two grumbled a bit, but agreed.

‘First,’ said Wait-a-Bit, ‘let’s read the instructions.’

Eager Beaver grabbed the instructions and read quickly, ‘We’ve got to unfold the tent’.

The three friends unrolled the tent. ‘OK, we’ve unrolled the tent. Let’s put it up!’ said Eager Beaver.

‘Not so fast,’ said Wait-a-Bit. ‘Let’s check that the ground is nice and flat.’ Eager Beaver and Boaster Beaver looked at each other and shrugged, but they carefully checked for a place where ground was flat and smooth, and spread the tent out on the ground.

‘Next, we put the poles together,’ read Eager.

‘I know how to do that!’ said Boaster Beaver, grabbing the tent poles and twisting and bending them together. Five minutes later, the poles were in a complete muddle and Boaster Beaver was panting and exhausted.

Eager Beaver checked the instructions and read out how to properly attach the poles while Wait-a-Bit carefully slotted the poles together and threaded them through the tent fabric.

‘Give us a hand, Boaster,’ said Wait-a-Bit, grinning at their friend who was looking rather cross. Once the pair had the poles in place, it was starting to look like a proper tent.

The three had to work together to slip the outer wall of the tent over the structure. ‘There seem to be some strings hanging off the tent,’ said Eager Beaver. ‘I wonder what they’re for?’

‘I know’ said Boaster Beaver, ‘that’s the washing line where you hang up your socks!’

‘Let’s not worry about that right now,’ said Eager Beaver, crawling inside the tent. ‘I think the tent is ready.’

‘Actually,’ said Wait-a-Bit, ‘those strings are called guy lines and they…’ but just then the wind started to blow and the tent began to lift up into the air with Eager Beaver still inside. ‘Hold on!’ shouted Wait-a-Bit as Eager Beaver struggled to hold down the sides of the tent.

Eventually, the wind dropped and Eager Beaver crawled out of the tent. ‘Phew, that was close,’ Eager said. ‘Why did the tent start to fly up like that?’

‘Those strings are called guy lines and you have to peg them into the ground to keep the tent upright,’ sighed Wait-a-Bit. ‘If you’d just waited a bit, you’d have heard me trying to tell you.’

‘I knew that,’ boasted Boaster.

‘And,’ added Wait-a-Bit, ‘we need to hammer in tent pegs through those loops at the bottom of the tent to keep it sturdy and upright.’ Eager Beaver grabbed some pegs and huffed and puffed while trying to push the pegs into the hard ground.

Wait-a-Bit stood behind Eager. ‘You might need this.’ Wait-a-Bit said, holding out the mallet.

‘Give it to me,’ said Boaster Beaver, ‘I know how to use a mallet to hammer things in.’

‘No!’ shouted Eager Beaver and Wait-a-Bit together.

‘I think I’ll do the hammering,’ said Wait-a-Bit. ‘Now who’s going to hold the pegs steady while I hammer them into the ground?’

This time all three friends worked together to hammer in the pegs and check the tent was ready.

They all congratulated each other on a job well done.

‘I can’t wait to sleep in the tent tonight,’ said Eager Beaver.

‘Let’s make some hot chocolate to celebrate,’ suggested Wait-a-Bit.

‘Great idea,’ said Eager Beaver, dashing off in the wrong direction.

‘I know how to make hot chocolate,’ said Boaster Beaver. ‘At least, I think I do.’

Wait-a-Bit smiled at their two friends. ‘I’ve got everything we need to make hot chocolate right here,’ they said, getting out some mugs, ‘but you’ll just have to…’

‘Wait a bit!’ Everyone shouted.

Now it’s your turn to put up a tent. Which Beaver do you think you’ll be?