George N. Beck, aged 7, of S, Portland, Maine, for his question:

How did a pup tent get named?

A tent is any canvas, skins or cloth stretched out to make a shelter. The word tent comes to us from an older word meaning to stretch. People have sheltered in tents since time began. Naturally different kinds of tents were invented. It was necessary to have different names to tell which kind of tent you were talking about,

When they went to battle, ancient kings had their quarters in very fancy tents. These gaudy shelters were called bell tents. The roof of a bell tent is stretched across a round hoop. A Selby tent is an ordinary cone shaped tent with a hole in the top. This is not so good in rainy weather. But it does let out smoke and so make it possible for those inside to light a fire, Selby tents were once used by American soldiers.

Now a pup, of course, is a young wolf, dog or other animal. Campers and woodsmen like to compare things to creatures of the wild. When a small camping tent was invented it seemed natural to call it a pup tent. For it certainly looks like the offspring of a normal sized tent. Soldiers call a small tent a dog tent. Maybe they mean that such a tent is about the right size for a dog house ~ just big enough for a man to stretch out.