Scouting for Girls

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Girl Scouting has a double meaning. To some it means the fun of playing the games of the Girl Scouts; to others, the fun of “playing the game” in Scouting Girls. Our desire in producing this Scout scheme is to offer help to parents, teachers, and patriots who may care to avail themselves of it when it comes to the duty of training girls.

The object of the Scout training is to give our girls, whatever may be their circumstances, a series of healthy and jolly activities which, while delighting them, will afford them a course of education outside the school in four particular lines of which there is the greatest need:

I have ventured to describe the above as a course of education instead of a course of instruction since the girls are led to learn of their own desire—which is education—instead of having the knowledge impressed upon them from outside—which is instruction.

The Scouts are divided into four grades, to each of which a corresponding Part of this book applies:—

The latter are what would otherwise be termed officers, but their position is rather that of elder sisters reviving their youth by playing among and leading the girls than of officers ordering them about, or repressing them.

In each grade the training runs on the same four lines as that shown on the preceding paragraph, but on relatively higher standards at each stage, according to the psychology of the girl concerned in it.

Experience has shown that the scheme is easily applicable, even by untrained leaders, to all kinds of girls, whether in town or country, at home or overseas; and that it is capable of bringing about most satisfactory results.

This book merely offers an outline of principles, together with a few samples of details as an indication to guiders of the lines on which they can carry out the training. Further details are largely left to their own ingenuity to devise, according to the condition and character of their girls and of their surroundings.

In any case the programme of the training should be kept as unlike a school syllabus as possible in order to give it novelty and freshness.

The book is worded in such a way that it can be studied by the girls themselves in the different grades. The paragraphs in italics are more particularly addressed to the Scouters. In conjunction with this book the Book of Rules of the Association should be read, and where there may be any difference in detail between the two the Book of Rules should be taken as the guide, being more frequently under revision and, therefore, up to date; and also the monthly Girl Scouts’ Gazette.

For further suggestions on the work of Scouters and their aims and methods see Part IV. Perhaps the most important suggestion that I can offer here to Scouters may be summed up in the motto:—

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A Brownie is a household fairy who lives under and in the trees. This is the reason that the Brownies badge is an acorn.

There are many kinds of Brownies, such as Sprites, Elves, Gnomes, Fairies, Goblins, Pixies, Imps, Nymphs, Will-o’-the-wisps.

Have you ever seen a fairy ring? There are many in the woods and sometimes in the garden—just a wide circle in the ground of rather darker grass than the rest of the turf round about it. It is said to be a track made by the Brownies who come together and dance on the grass by moonlight, round a toadstool in the middle.

So our Brownies have a toadstool as their Totem and they make their ring around it. Like true fairies they can make their ring anywhere, not only in the woods or out on the grass, but even in the town and in a room.

When they come together they plant the toadstool in the center and the Brownie captain (that is, the leader of the Pack) takes her place by the toadstool. The Brownies then form a ring around her, the Elves together (there must not be more than eight of them), the Goblins together, the Fairies together, and so on.

For the Pow-wow (or Talking Ring) they stand close together, so that their elbows are touching. It is called the Pow-wow Ring, or Talking Ring, because they can hear the voice and the wise words of the Captain.

For the Dancing Ring they all join hands, and make the circle as wide as they can reach.

Any girl can become a Brownie who is under ten, and who does her best to carry out the Promise of the Brownies.

This is the Promise:

• 1. To be obedient.
• 2. To help other people, especially those at home.

When a girl first joins the Brownies she is only a recruit like a boy who joins the army, and before she can count as a real Brownie she must know and understand the Promise, and what is more she must have carried it out by doing a good turn in her own home.

The Goblins go together, the Fairies go together and so on, each forming a Pack. Some Packs are numbered like Girl Scout troops instead of being named Fairy, Pixie, Elf, etc.

The Captain or Leader of a pack is a grown-up person, and in each pack there are several parties of eight under a Leader who is selected if possible from a Girl Scout Patrol, and who is called a Brownie Lieutenant.

Each Brownie Pack selects the leaf of any tree for its crest. This may be a real leaf or any artificial one.

• LIST OF TREES
• Oak
• Sycamore
• Elm
• Maple
• Pine
• Ash
• Chestnut
• Beech
• Willow
• Cedar
• Spruce
• Poplar
• Aspen
• Dogwood
• Laurel

The Yell or Cry: LAH, LAH, LAH. It sounds nonsense but it is not, because it means Lend a Hand, and LAH are the initials.

A Brownie must know:

• The Brownie’s Promise.
• The Salute.
• The Good Turn.
• The Motto.

and must be able to:

• Tie her hair ribbon.
• Wash dishes properly.
• Know how to sit tall.

In the Brownie Pack every Brownie obeys the wishes of the leader. So it is in our nation. The Americans are a very big pack, but they have their one chief, the President. To be successful as an army in a battle or as the team in a football match all should obey their captain. If everybody started to play the game in his own way, there would be confusion, and there could be no results. But if we “play the game” according to orders our country will always be successful.

And in the same way, as a Brownie you must obey the Lieutenant of your Eight.

But now about the second promise, namely, to do a good turn to somebody every day.

The Brownies and the Girl Scouts have a patent dodge of making themselves happy. How do you suppose they do it?

By running about and playing at scouting games? By going out into camp? By lighting fires and cooking their own grub? By tracking down animals, and getting to know all about their ways?

Yes, they do all these things, and make themselves happy; but they have a still better way than that. It is very simple. They do it by making other people happy.

That is to say, every day they do a kindness to some one. It does not matter who the person is (so long as it is not themselves), friend or stranger, man or woman, or child.

And the kindness, or “good turn,” need not be a big thing. You can generally get a chance of doing a little kindness in your own home, such as helping your mother or a servant to do some little job about the house; or you can, if away from home, help an old lady to carry her parcel, or take a little child safely across the street, or do something of that sort.

But whatever you do, you must not take any reward for doing it. If you take money for it, it is not a good turn, but just a piece of work that has been paid for.

Brownies always smile, and if they are in difficulty, in pain, in trouble, or in danger, they don’t cry, they just grin and bear it.

When a Brownie shakes hands with another Brownie, or with a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, she does so with the left hand. That is the secret sign of brotherhood between them all.

Then also as a Brownie you must understand and be able to make the salute, which is done by holding up your hand with two fingers like this:

The Salute is another sign that you are a Brownie, even though you may not be dressed in uniform, and that you recognize the person you are saluting also as a Brownie.

When a girl has passed her test as a recruit she is admitted into her Eight as a Brownie, and she can then go on and pass her tests for a Second Class Brownie.

The pack is formed up in the dancing ring, and the recruits stand in the Pow-wow circle, with the Brownie Captain in the center.

The Brownie Captain says to the Recruit: “You have learnt what the Brownies are, and how they owe their duty to be obedient, to help other people, especially their own family, every day. What have you done to help in your home?”

When the recruit has answered, the Brownie Captain again asks: “What is your motto as a Brownie?”

“Be prepared.”

“Do you know that if you now make the Promise you must always stick to it afterwards and do your best to carry it out? So do you still wish to make it?” If the recruit is willing the Brownie Captain then says: “Come to the Totem Pole and repeat your promise as a Brownie.”

The recruit, touching the Totem Pole with her left hand, and with her right at the salute, then repeats the Brownie Promise. The Brownie Captain then pins on her left breast the badge of her Eight, and says: “You are now a Brownie, and wear the badge of the Eight. Will you promise to try?”

The Brownie Captain then shakes hands, left handed with the Brownie. The Brownie salutes with her right hand, faces about and salutes the Pack, and then runs to join her Eight. Her Eight all shakes hands with her, left-handed, to welcome her into the Eight.

To become a Second Class Brownie you must:

The first duty of a parcel is to be neatly and strongly tied up so that it does not come unfastened, but, poor thing, it cannot do this for itself, so you have to do it a good turn by tying it up. Wrap it neatly in strong paper.

Just as you tuck in the corners of the blankets on your bed to keep you warm and snug, so the corners of the paper should be tidily folded at the ends of a parcel and doubled over flat.

The string should be drawn quite tight, and have only small knots which won’t slip. It is therefore most important that you should learn, as Scouts do, how to tie knots properly.

When a parcel is going by post it gets thrown around a good deal and has to stand a lot of banging about, so bear that in mind when you are tying it up.

It is always wisest to write the name and address of the person to whom you are sending the parcel on the parcel itself. Very often people write this only on labels which they tie on, and then if this label gets torn off at all, away goes the parcel to the dead letter office or gets quite lost.

Double the edges twice, so that the rough edge of the square of linen or muslin are well inside the turning. Then baste all around so as to hold the turned edges in place, and so that they are the same width all round.

Then hem it with neat, small stitches.

You can do many a good turn by darning.

Mind you get wool or thread the same color, and if possible of the same thickness as the threads of the stockings you are going to darn.

You should put in your needle about an inch from the actual hole, and push it up and down in straight lines, taking a thread and missing a thread.

Then repeat this again criss-cross, leaving loops of the wool where you turn, so that the new wool can shrink without tearing the stocking when washed.

Spread the table-cloth smoothly and evenly.

Put the knives, spoons, forks, and other things also exactly in place, but before putting them there see that there is not a speck of dirt on them, no finger marks or dust.

Although there is a regular way of setting a table, and all tables look much alike when set, there is a great difference between one by a Scout and set by any other girl. The Scout thinks for herself what things will be needed for the meal, how many courses there will be, and therefore how many knives, forks, and spoons, whether pepper will be wanted or sugar, and puts them on the table accordingly. She uses her wits as well as her hands.

A cut on the hand. If anybody cuts his hand, and it is your job to render first aid, the first thing to think about is how to stop the bleeding. Remember, that just as important as stopping the bleeding is the keeping of any sort of dirt from getting near the wound. Now dirt here does not mean what you generally call dirt—mud and dust: it means anything containing germs. Germs are tiny little insects, so small that your eye can’t see them; if they get into a cut they may poison it so that it festers and becomes really dangerous, ending, possibly, in the loss of a finger or hand. The worst kind of germs are those that come out of earth—such as garden mold, or mud from the road. They cause a terrible disease known as lock-jaw, so great care should be taken if any one gets a deep cut while gardening, for instance. But any dust, or any soiled object may, and does, contain germs. So if you are about to bandage a cut, find the very cleanest thing you can think of to put next to the wound. The inside part of a clean, folded handkerchief would probably be the best you could do, or failing this the inside of a clean sheet of notepaper, or the inside of an envelope. Having put something clean over the wound, you must add padding of some sort—several handkerchiefs or pieces of rag. Then bind up very firmly with tight, even pressure so as to stop the bleeding.

You can do this with strips of rag or a large, folded handkerchief. Make the patient keep his hand raised, or put it in a sling, which you can make from a scarf if you have one. Remember that your help is only first aid: so take the patient to a grown-up person who will attend to the wound more thoroughly, or take him to a doctor to be stitched up.

A graze. A graze is a bad scrape which has taken the skin off, and is usually covered with dirt—grit off the road, and so on. It will not be bleeding much, as a rule. The treatment should be to wash it well with clean warm water, soaking it till the dirt comes away, and clean it with little swabs of wool or cloth. When all the grit is removed cover the graze with a clean piece of rag. Bandage firmly, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable.

In the Japanese army, where soldiers keep themselves very clean, they have the order that before eating a meal they must always wash their hands, and they must at no time allow their nails to be dirty. It is believed that it is this rule which has prevented a great deal of illness among the soldiers.

The reason for it is that these poisonous little germs, which float about in the air, live on dirt and are very liable to get on to your hands and to hide under your fingernails, therefore you should always be careful to keep these clean, especially before handling your food. Nails, both on fingers and toes, should be kept properly trimmed with scissors.

Soldiers as well as other people, very often suffer lameness and great pain from the nail of their big toe growing down into the toe at one side.

This is often caused by letting the nail grow too long until by the pressure of the shoe, it is driven to grow sideways into the toe. So you should be careful to cut your toe-nails frequently every week or ten days, and they should be cut square across the top, not rounded, and with sharp scissors.

Finger nails should also be cut about once a week to keep them in good order. They can be rounded to the shape of the finger to prevent the corners catching and getting torn.

Biting the nails is very bad for them.

There is no part of you that poisonous germs attack more readily than your teeth. They get in between them and burrow inside them, and bring about that awful pain known as toothache, and the teeth decay and have to be pulled out; and consequently your food after that does not get properly chewed.

But you can prevent this for yourself if you take the trouble to clean your teeth properly, and to brush and wash away these germs out of your mouth.

The first thing is to have a toothbrush. This you can buy for a few cents at any drugstore. If you cannot afford to buy one you can at any rate make one for yourself. There are no drug stores in the wilds of Africa, and yet the natives there have splendid teeth, and they keep them clean by continually brushing them after every meal with little brushes made out of bits of stick.

They take a short stick and hammer the end of it until it is all frayed out like a paint brush. It is a brush that any Brownie can make for herself in a few minutes. The thing is not to forget to use it every morning and every evening, when you get up and before going to bed, and also if possible after your midday meal.

Attack those germs with a brush and get them out from their hiding places between and behind the teeth, and wash them out with mouthfuls of water, so that they don’t get a chance of burrowing and destroying your grinders.

In pioneer days when the Indians scalped people they seized them by the hair growing on the crown of the head, which they called the scalp lock. A very good way to stand tall and sit tall is to imagine a string tied to your scalp lock, drawing you up to the ceiling or the sky, and all the rest of you, both inside and out, will fall into good position. It is quite painless, so try it.

A strict obedience to the rules of a game, good temper, pluck and honest, unselfish play count as much as skill in playing.

A Scout always shakes hands when she loses a game and congratulates the winner.

The players divide into two parties and form in two lines, back to back, about three paces apart. One of the lines is named the “Day Party,” the other the “Night Party.” The leader has a disk painted black on one side and a white on the other. (A coin may be used instead of the disk.) In front of each party is a goal. The leader throws the disk into the air. If the disk alights with the white side up the leader calls “Day.” The “Day Party” then rushes toward its goal and the “Night Party” pursues, tagging as many players of the “Day Party” as possible. These they take back to their own line. The disk is thrown again, and the party whose side turns up starts for their goal as before. The game continues in this way until all the players on one of the sides are lost.

Of any even number of players, half form a circle, while the other half stand inside the ring, facing outward. The players in the center dodge the ball, which, while in play, is thrown by any of those forming the circle. Those who are hit with the ball take their places among those around the circle, and have an equal chance at those remaining in the center. One is put out at a time. This is kept up until no one is left in the circle, after which the players exchange places, that is, those who were in the circle now form around the circle, and vice versa.

Any player who is chased may be relieved by any other player running between her and the one trying to tag her. The latter must then run after the player who ran between, till she in turn is relieved.

One of the players is chosen as the “Sculptor” and she arranges the other players in different positions and attitudes as statues. No player dares move or speak, for as soon as she does the sculptor punishes her by beating her with a knotted handkerchief or towel, called the “sack-beetle.” After having arranged the players to suit her fancy the sculptor leaves the playground, saying: “The sculptor is not at home.” No sooner is she gone than the statues come to life, sing, dance, jump and play havoc in general. On the return of the sculptor she counts, “One, two, three,” and any player who is not in her former posture at “three” receives a beating with the knotted handkerchief from the sculptor. Should the sculptor punish the wrong statue all the players rush at her with knotted handkerchiefs and drive her to a goal previously decided upon, and the game is resumed with some other player as sculptor.

Let each girl go into a room for half a minute and when she comes out let her make a list of what she has seen. Then compare lists to find who has seen the most.

This is easiest with the competitors blindfolded. Let them smell different things and tell what they are. Also the objects may be placed in bags but this means much more work.

Twenty-four or more players form a circle of pairs with space enough between the players (who stand closely one behind the other, facing the center of the circle) to allow the runners to turn and run in all directions. Two players on the outside of the circle and at a distance from each other begin the game. One of these is called the “tagger,” the other is “It.” She tries to tag “It” before she can secure a place in front of any of the pairs forming the circle. If she succeeds, the player who has been tagged then becomes the “tagger” and the former “tagger” tries to secure a place in front of some pair. But whenever the runner (the player pursued) has succeeded in getting in front of a pair before being tagged, then the hindmost (the last or third in the respective rank) must take to her heels and seek to evade the unsuccessful “tagger,” who now turns her attention to the runner. In trying to evade a tagger the successive player may run in any direction, either left or right, outside the circle, but not pass in front of any one rank to another rank in such a manner as to induce wrong starts. A hindmost player may also form in front of his own rank, making the second player in such rank hindmost or “third.” The play is always directed against the third or last of a rank, two players being the number limited to each place.

(When numbers of players in the beginning are too large the circle may be formed by rows or ranks of threes, instead of twos or pairs.)

Expert players may form several circles and run from circle to circle, two pairs playing simultaneously. The above play may be varied in a number of ways.

Another good stalking game is chasing the owl. This is done in thick woods where one Scout represents the owl hooting at intervals and then moving to one side for a distance. Each pursuer when seen is called out of the game, and the owl, if a real good one, may get safely back to her stump.

This is played by the turkey blindfolded “going to roost” in some place where there are plenty of twigs or dry leaves to crack and rustle. At the first sound the turkey jumps. If not then within reach of one wildcat, she is safe and another wildcat has a chance. This is sometimes very laughable for the turkey being blindfolded may jump right on the wildcat.

Lay on the ground a couple of boards edgewise with an apple or small prize on the ground at the end of the board for the Brownie who can walk the plank, squat or stoop and pick up the prize, turn round and bring it safely back again.

(This practice is most valuable in producing concentration of mind and action—the effort of body-balance develops mental balance.)

Put down small bits of board, or cardboard (nailed to the ground) or mark on the ground a twisty line of stepping stones as if for crossing a brook—some close together, others far apart. Each Brownie to try the course in turn, two tries. In the second try she carries in her hand a board about eight inches square on which is a small ball which, of course, must not be dropped.

(Object similar to that of “Walking the Plank.”)

These are what you have to do to become a First Class Brownie.

American money is divided into

After you learn to count money up to one hundred cents or one dollar, it is easy to handle larger sums, such as five dollars, ten dollars.

The abbreviation for cents is cts. or ¢.

The abbreviation for dollar is this sign: $.

The monogram of the United States, “U. S.,” makes the dollar sign if you leave off the bottom of the U.

Some time ago some wild Australian natives were taken for a voyage on a ship. They had always been accustomed to finding their way by tracks on the ground, so when they got to sea they wondered how the Captain of the ship found his way across the trackless ocean and they kept a look-out in the bow looking over in the water to see if they could discover the footmarks or signs by which the Captain was finding his way, till at last they went to him and said, “How do you manage it?” So the Captain showed them the compass which told him which way was north, which south, east and west, and that by reading the compass, and reading his map with it, he was able to go into strange parts of the world without ever having been there before, but always able to find his way because he knew which way was north by the compass. He marked the points of the compass on his map and by comparing the map and the compass it led him north, south, east, or west. And so it is also necessary for a Girl Scout or a Brownie to know the points of the compass, because at any time you may be told to go off to the north or to the south with a message, or you want to know which way the wind is blowing, whether it is a north wind which is going to bring cold or an east wind, rain, and so on. But how can you do this if you do not know which is the south or which is the north? When you have not got a compass it is quite easy to judge this by the sun. The sun gets up in the east and sets in the west and in the middle of the day it is due south of you if you are in the northern part of the world. A Brownie must understand this and the different points of the compass before she can be considered a good useful messenger.

Use very hot water for first cleaning them to get off the grease. That is the secret of success. Rinse them and use dry clean towels. But mind you do not put the white handles of knives in the water, because they are apt to crack if you do so.

In Australia there is a school where the boys were taught farming, but the first thing that a boy had to do when he got there was to make his own saddle and bridle for riding a horse. He was only allowed to use that same saddle during the rest of his time at the school, some three or four years, so if he did not make it neatly and well, he was the laughing-stock of the other boys for the rest of his time. And it is much the same with the Brownies. They are given directions how to make their clothes but if they make them badly, well then they will be ashamed of them for the rest of their time as Brownies. So be careful to listen to all that is told you as to how you should make the things and then make them as well as you possibly can.

Of course you can do knitting either with a machine or with knitting needles by hand, but I strongly advise doing it by hand for though it is a little bit more difficult to learn at first it is much more pleasing afterwards. By being able to knit you can do good turns to other people very often indeed. All people, men and women, are glad to have warm things made for them in winter time, and by being able to knit a Brownie can lend a hand and give great happiness to other people.

A soldier or sailor on going to bed always puts his clothes neatly in some spot where he can find them readily in the dark and slip into them quickly in the case of alarm. And so also Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts do the same, because you never know when an accident may happen; the house may be on fire, or a thief may break in, and you may want your clothes suddenly in the dark. If you have them already folded in their place, you can readily find them and be quickly dressed. But if your clothes are lying all over the place it is impossible to find them in the dark. But there is another reason also for keeping your clothes neatly folded. And that is that they last much longer when properly taken care of, and always look neat, instead of getting baggy, worn and thread-bare. No true Brownie ever leaves her clothes lying about in an untidy way.

Scouts and Brownies are very often employed as messengers and have done very good work. That is why so many of them have won War Service badges in the Great War. And the reason they are used is because they remember what is told them, carry it in their heads and deliver it properly. A Brownie learns her message by heart as soon as it is given to her, and repeats it to the person who gives it; then she keeps on repeating it while she goes along, and remembers that all the time she is going she is on duty, and therefore it is her business not to stop and loiter and look at other things, but to get her duty done. In this way her attention fixed on her work she can always deliver her message at the end of the journey quite correctly as she got it in the first instance.

This is a thing that every Brownie ought to know how to do. It looks quite easy when you see other people do it, but it is most important that you should know how to do it yourself, and to do it correctly, because when people are injured it is necessary for a Brownie to keep her head and to be able to put on the bandage so that it will do real good, and not merely look like a good bandage

There are a great many ways of applying the triangular bandage. When you become a Scout you will learn these. At present the three most useful ways are given you, and as you only have three to learn you will be expected to apply these really well. The large arm-sling is used to support the forearm and hand. This is how you put it on. Open out the triangular bandage, lay it across the patient’s chest so that the point comes under the elbow of the injured arm. One of the ends will then be over the good shoulder. Take hold of the other end and bring it up over the bad shoulder, round the neck, and tie it in a square or reef knot. Then fold the point over the elbow and pin it neatly.

To apply a triangular bandage to a sprained ankle, fold it into what is called a “wide bandage.” This means bring the point down to the base, then fold it once again.

Apply the middle of this to the sole of the patient’s foot, bring the two ends up and cross the bandage firmly over the instep (or top of foot). Bring the ends round the ankle tightly, cross at the back, bring up round again and tie in a square or reef knot. This bandage is useless unless applied very firmly. A good way of insuring its getting tighter instead of looser, after it is applied is to wet the bandage: it will then shrink in drying and tighten the pressure evenly all over.

Now having won your First Class as a Brownie, you can go on and do great things. You can earn badges to wear on your arms. Look at these and see which you would like, and go in and win.

These are the Proficiency Badges for which First Class Brownies may qualify. They are in four groups.

Note:—The full details for these will be found in the Leaders’ Manual.

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On my honour I will try—

• To do my duty to God and to my Country.
• To help other people at all times.
• To obey the Scout Law.

•   1. A Scout’s honor is to be trusted.
•   2. A Scout is loyal.
•   3. A Scout’s duty is to be useful and to help others.
•   4. A Scout is a friend to all, and a sister to every other Girl Scout.
•   5. A Scout is courteous.
•   6. A Scout Keeps herself pure.
•   7. A Scout is a friend to animals.
•   8. A Scout obeys order.
•   9. A Girl Scout is cheerful.
• 10. A Scout is thrifty.

This is a Girl Scout.

She is in her uniform, wearing her badges of rank and awards for proficiency.

The stripes on her left breast and the badge in her hat show that she is a Patrol Leader—that is, she commands a group of seven other Scouts who form the “Patrol.” She carries in her hand the flag of the Patrol. The badge on her right breast is that for “War Service”—meaning that she has done public service during the war.

Look on the cover and you will see that they are jolly people who enjoy themselves, they are a happy sisterhood who do good turns to other people.

In Europe Girl Scouts are called Girl Guides and this is what they have done abroad during the Great War.

In the towns they have helped at the Military Hospitals as assistants to the ward-maids, cooks, and laundry women. In the Government offices, such as the War Office, the Admiralty, and other great departments of the State, they have acted as orderlies and messengers. They have taken up work in factories, or as motor-drivers, or on farms, in order to release men to go to the front.

At home and in their club-rooms they have made bandages for the wounded, and warm clothing for the men at the Front and in the Fleet.

In the country they have collected eggs for the sick, and on the moors have gathered sphagnum moss for the hospitals.

Over in France a great Recreation and Rest Hut for the soldiers has been supplied by the Guides with funds earned through their work. It is managed by Guide officers, or ex-Guides. Among the older Guides there are many who have done noble work with the Hospitals at home and overseas; there was one in particular who went through great adventures in Serbia during the invasion of that country.

At home in many of the great cities the Scouts have turned their Headquarters’ Club-Rooms into “Hostels.” That is, they have made them into small hospitals ready for taking in people injured in air-raids by the enemy.

So altogether the Scouts have shown themselves to be a pretty useful lot in many different kinds of works during the war, and, mind you, they are only girls between the ages of 11 and 18. But they have done their bit in the Great War as far as they were able, and have done it well.

There are 64,000 of them, and they are very smart, and ready for any job that may be demanded of them.

They were not raised for this special work during the war, for they began some years before it, but their motto is “Be Prepared,” and it was their business to train themselves to be ready for anything that might happen, even the most unlikely thing.

So even when war came they were “all there” and ready for it.

It is not only in Great Britain that they have been doing this, but—in Canada and Australia, West, East, and South Africa, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, West Indies, and India. The Scouts are a vast sisterhood of girls, ready to do anything they can for their country and Empire.

In this book I will show you as briefly as possible how you become a Scout, and what you have to do to make yourself fit for service. And I can tell you right off now that one thing you’ve got to do is to laugh and enjoy it all; you can’t help doing so when you get into it.

As a Guide your first duty is to be helpful to other people, both in small everyday matters and also under the worst of circumstances. You have to imagine to yourself what sort of things might possibly happen, and how you should deal with them when they occur. Then you will know what to do.

I was present when a German aeroplane dropped a bomb on to a railway station in London. There was the usual busy scene of people seeing to their luggage, saying good-bye and going off by train, when with a sudden bang a whole car was blown to bits, and the adjoining ones were in a blaze; seven or eight of those active in getting into the train were flung down—mangled and dead; while some thirty more were smashed, broken, and bleeding, but still alive. The suddenness of it made it all the more horrifying. But one of the first people I noticed as keeping their heads was a smartly dressed young lady kneeling by an injured working-man; his thigh was smashed and bleeding terribly; she had ripped up his trouser with her knife, and with strips of it had bound a pad to the wound; she found a cup somehow and filled it with water for him from the overhead hose for filling engines. Instead of being hysterical and useless, she was as cool and ready to do the right thing as if she had been in bomb-raids every day of her life. Well, that is what any girl can do if she only prepares herself for it.

Long before there was any idea of the war the Scouts had been taught to think out and to practise what they should do supposing such a thing as war happened in their own country, or that people should get injured by bombs or by accidents in their neighbourhood.

In order to be able to deal with such cases the first thing that you have to know is how to go out in the country and find the wounded by following their tracks to where they have crawled away to hide themselves or get water; you must know how to bind up their wounds temporarily; how to light a fire and boil up some hot soup, or fomentations for their injuries; you must be able to signal to other Scouts in the distance in order to call up help; you must be able to make a shelter out of the brush-wood around you, or to rig up a stretcher or means of carrying the injured on carts or barrows and so to get them in to hospital.

Then you have to know how to turn a room or a cellar into a ward, how to make up beds and apparatus for the use of the sick and wounded; how to nurse them; how to change their bandages; how to cook their food; what sort of ventilation is necessary; how to wash the linen and so on.

Finally there comes the convalescent stage when your patients are getting better, and you have to give them more nourishing food, cooked in a tempting manner, and you have to keep their minds active and cheerful by being able to read or sing to them, and so to cheer them back to life.

These are things which have to be learnt in peace-time, and because they were learnt by the Scouts beforehand, these girls were able to do their bit so well when war came.

But they have to Be Prepared for many other things besides sickness. It falls to the lot of very many girls to take up life Overseas, and very often it is a rough life, and one full of adventures and romance.

But although this sounds nice in books and stories it is no fun for a girl who has had everything done for her at home, to find herself stranded in an outlandish place with no one available to help her, no water or gas laid on, no shops, or bakers, no cooks, no doctors.

She has to do everything for herself. This is where so many women, who had charge of ambulances in Serbia and other countries during the war, came out so splendidly, doing everything for themselves, and showing the greatest possible courage and handiness in the difficulties and dangers of active service.

A story which should appeal with special force to Girl Scouts is that of Emilienne Moreau.

She is a French girl, and was living at Loos where the heavy fighting took place in October, 1915.

When the Germans took the place and held it, after their retreat from the Marne a year before, she, with her family, remained there and made the best of things under the German occupation.

She lived with her aged father and invalid mother, a sister, and a small brother of ten.

The father, broken in health and spirits by the presence of the hated Germans, died. Loos was practically empty of inhabitants, business was at a standstill—it was impossible to get a coffin even in which to bury the poor man.

So this girl, with the help of her young brother, got hold of some planks and themselves made one for their father’s body.

In September she noticed that the German garrison of the place were getting disturbed. More men were put into the town, and more defensive works were made. Shells began to fall, and the firing to become more intense day by day.

Instead of hiding in the cellar she climbed into the roof, where through a hole in the tiles, she was able to see the fighting that went on between the German defenders and the Highlanders who were attacking.

For several days it continued, but the Scotsmen finally got into the town and drove the Germans out from street to street with hand-to-hand fightings.

In a hidden corner five Germans kept fighting our troops unseen until this girl discovered their position.

She got hold of some hand-grenades and threw them in among them, killing three of them. The two survivors attacked her with bayonets, but she had armed herself with the revolver belonging to a dead British officer, and as they came at her she turned it on them with quick and steady aim and shot them both.

Then she went to work, regardless of the danger of rifle fire and shrapnel, tending the wounded, rendering first-aid, bringing water and blankets to them, thereby saving their lives and easing the pain of a number of British soldiers.

Our officers found her doing these things. She was personally thanked and congratulated by the British general for her valuable assistance to the medical staff, and for her courage and gallant help against the enemy, and she was later on awarded the French Military Cross “for valour on the field of battle.” Later we heard that Emilienne Moreau was a French Girl Scout, and what this gallant French girl did, her sister Girl Scouts in Britain would, I hope, also do in similar circumstances.

But it could only be done when a girl has trained herself as the Scouts do to be plucky, to be handy, to keep cool, to know what is the right thing to do—and to do it at no matter what risk to herself.

I have met many fine frontierswomen in my time. In Matabeleland, when the natives rose against us, Mrs. Selous, the wife of the great elephant hunter, was alone in her home, thirty miles away from the nearest town. Some natives living close by came and asked her for the loan of as many axes as she could spare, as they wanted to chop firewood. Shortly afterwards her husband, who had been away shooting, came galloping in, and told her to saddle and mount her horse at once and to get away as the natives were “up” and murdering the white inhabitants.

Being a frontierswoman it did not take her long to catch and saddle up her horse, and in a few minutes she and her husband had left their home, and were riding for their lives towards Bulawayo. Before they were out of sight of their house they could see smoke and flames already issuing from it. The natives who had borrowed the axes had done so with the object of murdering them, and finding that they had escaped, were now wreaking their vengeance on their property. It was just Mrs. Selous’ promptness, cool-headedness, and ability to ride that saved her life.

Another woman at that time was similarly out on her farm, while her husband was away in some other part of the country. The natives surrounded her house in the night and attacked her faithful native servants. Knowing her danger, she slept in her clothes, and realising what was the matter when she heard the noise of the attack, she seized her revolver and, slipping out of the house through a back window, she escaped into the garden and hid herself behind a tombstone there. In the early dawn the marauders departed, and she came out of her hiding-place to find her home wrecked and her faithful servants all killed. A relief party of white men soon after arrived from the nearest township, and found her quite self-possessed and calm. The only excitement she showed was her intense relief at the fact that one of the attackers had seized her sewing machine and was making off with it when he was killed by one of her men, and had dropped the machine at a spot where it just escaped falling down the well. So she rode back to Salisbury in triumph with her rescuers, clutching her beloved sewing machine. She had no sooner reached safety than she discovered that she had dropped her revolver, and she insisted on going back again to find it. You might think that she could have got a new revolver in the town, but that was not the question. The revolver was a favourite of hers, because, although old and rather out of gear, she had once killed a lion with it.

She had many other exciting adventures in Rhodesia which I have not space to tell here, but she was a splendid type of what a London girl can do when put to it in places of difficulty and danger, if only she has trained herself.

The story of Laura Secord, the heroine of Canada, shows what a frontierswoman may be called upon to do, and what she can do if only she has Been Preparing herself in strength of mind and body like a Scout.

Canada was at war with the United States over a hundred years ago. Battles between the Americans and the English were being fought on all sides in that unhappy year 1812. After the engagement on Queenstown Heights a terror-stricken woman went tramping over the field where the slain were lying in search of her husband. Laura Secord had heard that her husband had been wounded and left there for dead; but on finding him, to her joy she discovered that he was still alive, though badly injured.

It was during his long illness that a report was brought to Laura Secord that the Americans were again coming to surprise the English, unknown to the general.

Owing to her pluck and determination, Laura achieved a famous deed of heroism and saved her country by taking the information of the advance of the enemy right away to the commanding officer of the British troops. Through difficulties and dangers she sped without a fear for her own safety; she trudged on through forests and bogs, going twenty miles round out of the beaten track so as to avoid being traced. In the dusk of the evening her path was checked by a deep stream. Here she felt almost hopeless, until she found a tree-trunk fallen across the water, and by this she managed to scramble to the opposite bank. Whilst dreading what might happen at home to her invalid husband and her little children left behind, Laura Secord still pressed forward through the darkness, tired and weak, till she at length reached the British camp, and was able to unburden her mind and give the news of the danger to the officer in command. All present were struck with admiration for her gallant effort, and with the knowledge of the impending danger thus gained, the British were able to BE PREPARED.

Now, did not this Laura Secord, though quite untrained, do every part of the duty of a Girl Scout? She showed SENSE OF DUTY in leaving all that was dearest to her to go off to the commander.

She showed cleverness and RESOURCE in getting through the American outposts by driving her cow in front of her, pretending that she was merely taking her out to graze.

She showed ENDURANCE going such a long journey rapidly and well, being healthy and fit for hard work.

Also CAMPAIGNING in being able to find her way by a circuitous route through forests and by night, and yet not seen by the enemy—SAVING LIFE, too, not only of the soldiers in the force, but eventually of all her nation, by freeing her country of the enemy.

She showed PATRIOTISM by sacrificing her own wishes for the good of her country, and risking her life for the good of her nation.

On the North-West Frontier of India there is a famous Corps of soldiers known as the Scouts, and their duty is to be always ready to turn out at any moment to repel raids by the hostile tribes across the Border, and to prevent them from coming down into the peaceful plains of India. This body of men must be prepared for every kind of fighting. Sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, sometimes in the mountains, often with pioneer work, wading through rivers and making bridges, and so on. But they have to be a skilful lot of men, brave and enduring, ready to turn out at any time, winter or summer, or to sacrifice themselves if necessary in order that peace may reign throughout India while they keep down any hostile raids against it. So they are true handymen in every sense of the word, and true patriots.

When people speak of Scouts in Europe one naturally thinks of those men who are mountaineers in Switzerland and other mountainous place, who can guide people over the most difficult parts by their own bravery and skill in tackling obstacles, by helpfulness to those with them, and by their bodily strength of wind and limb. They are splendid fellows those guides, and yet if they were told to go across the same amount of miles on an open flat plain it would be nothing to them, it would not be interesting, and they would not be able to display those grand qualities which they show directly the country is a bit broken up into mountains. It is no fun to them to walk by easy paths, the whole excitement of life is facing difficulties and dangers and apparent impossibilities, and in the end getting a chance of attaining the summit of the mountain they have wanted to reach.

Well, I think it is the case with most girls nowadays. They do not want to sit down and lead an idle life, not to have everything done for them, nor to have a very easy time. They don’t want merely to walk across the plain, they would much rather show themselves handy people, able to help others and ready, if necessary, to sacrifice themselves for others just like the Scouts on the North-west Frontier. And they also want to tackle difficult jobs themselves in their life, to face mountains and difficulties and dangers, and to go at them having prepared themselves to be skilful and brave; and also they would like to help other people to get over their difficulties also. When they attain success after facing difficulties, then they feel really happy and triumphant. It is a big satisfaction to them to have succeeded and to have made other people succeed also. That is what the Girl Scouts want to do, just like the mountaineer guides do among the mountains.

Then, too, a woman who can do things is looked up to by others, both men and women, and they are always ready to follow her advice and example, so there she becomes a Scout too. And later on if she has children of her own, or if she becomes a teacher of children, she can be a really good Scout to them.

In fact, if one caricatured a Scout one would draw her thus:—“Turn to the right and keep straight on.” And for these reasons the name Scout was given to them originally.

By means of games and activities which the Scouts practise they are able to learn the different things which will help them to get on in life, and show the way to others to get on also. Thus camping and signalling, first aid work, camp cooking, and all these things that the Scouts practise are all going to be helpful to them afterwards in making them strong, resourceful women, skilful and helpful to others, and strong in body as well as in mind, and what is more it makes them a jolly cheery lot of comrades also.

The motto of the Scouts on which they work is “Be Prepared,” that is, be ready for any kind of duty that may be thrust upon them, and what is more, to know what to do by having practised it beforehand in the case of any kind of accident or any kind of work that they may be asked to take up. Thousands of women have done splendid work in this war, but thousands more would have been able to do good work also had they only Been Prepared for it beforehand by learning a few things that are useful to them outside their mere school work or work in their own home. And that is what the Scouts are learning in all their games and camp work; they mean to be useful in other ways besides what they are taught in school.

You join a Troop in your neighborhood and become a member of one of the Patrols in it. A Patrol is a group of eight girls, under the command of a Patrol Leader. Each Patrol is called after a bird or a flower, and has that flower or bird embroidered on its flag. The Patrol is the team for play or for work, and each Patrol endeavors—or at least considers itself—to be the best in the Troop.

If there is no Troop in your neighborhood you can become a “Lone Scout.” That is, you can make the promise, carry out the Scout Law and all the practices by yourself, and you can wear the uniform and win the badges.

For this you must report and be registered. That is, if you cannot hear of a Scout officer near you, write to the Secretary at Headquarters, tell her where you live and she will put you in touch with the nearest officer who will register you and help you.

At first you rank as a Candidate until you pass your Tenderfoot tests. Then you can go on and rise to the following ranks:—

• Candidate.
• Tenderfoot.
• Second-Class Scout.
• First-Class Scout.
• Corporal.
• Patrol Leader.
• Senior Scout or Citizen Scout.

This may seem to be rather a lot of things to learn, but they are really very easy, and I will show you in the next few pages how to do it without much trouble.

When you can do these you will no longer be a Candidate, you will be admitted into the Scouts as a “Tenderfoot,” and can then go on and win badges.

The Badge of the Girl Scouts is the “Trefoil” (three leaves), which represent the three promises made on joining, as the three fingers held up in the salute also do.

The proper place for the Tenderfoot Badge is in the centre of the loose ends of the tie.

Last year a man went out into the woods to try and see if he could live like the prehistoric men used to do; that is to say, he took nothing with him in the way of food or equipment or even clothing—he went just as he was, and started out to make his own living as best he could. Of course the first thing he had to do was to make some sort of tool or weapon by which he could kill some animals, cut his wood and make his fire and so on. So he made a stone axe, and with that was able to cut out branches of trees so that he could make a trap in which he eventually caught a bear and killed it. He then cut up the bear and used the skin for blankets and the flesh for food. He also cut sticks and made a little instrument by which he was able to ignite bits of wood and so start his fire. He also searched out various roots and berries and leaves, which he was able to cook and make into good food, and he even went so far as to make charcoal and to cut slips of bark from the trees and draw pictures of the scenery and animals around him. In this way he lived for over a month in the wild, and came out in the end very much better in health and spirits and with a great experience of life. For he had learned to shift entirely for himself and to be independent of the different things we get in civilisation to keep us going in comfort.

That is why we go into camp a good deal in the Boy Scout and in the Girl Scout movements, because in camp life we learn to do without so many things which while we are in houses we think are necessary, and find that we can do for ourselves many things where we used to think ourselves helpless. And before going into camp it is just as well to learn some of the things that will be most useful to you when you get there. And that is what we teach in the Headquarters of the Girl Scout Troops before they go out and take the field. For instance, you must know how to light your own fire; how to collect dry enough wood to make it burn; because you will not find gas stoves out in the wild. Then you have to learn how to find your own water, and good water that will not make you ill. You have not a whole cooking range or a kitchen full of cooking pots, and so you have to learn to cook your food in the simplest way with the means at your hand, such as a simple cooking pot or a roasting stick or an oven made with your own hands out of an old tin box or something of that kind.

It is only while in camp that one can really learn to study Nature in the proper way and not as you merely do it inside the school; because here you are face to face with Nature at all hours of the day and night. For the first time you live under the stars and can watch them by the hour and see what they really look like, and realise what an enormous expanse of almost endless space they cover. You know from your lessons at school that our sun warms and lights up a large number of different worlds like ours, all circling round it in the Heavens. And when you hold up a coin at arm’s length and look at the sky, the coin covers no less than two hundred of those suns, each with their different little worlds circling round them. And you then begin to realise what an enormous endless space the Heavens comprise. You realise perhaps for the first time the enormous work of God.

Then also in camp you are living among plants of every kind, and you can study them in their natural state, how they grow and what they look like, instead of merely seeing pictures of them in books or dried specimens of them in collections.

All round you, too, are the birds and animals and insects, and the more you know of them the more you begin to like them and to take an interest in them; and once you take an interest in them you do not want to hurt them in any way. You would not rob a bird’s nest; you would not bully an animal; you would not kill an insect—once you have realised what its life and habits are. In this way, therefore, you fulfil the Scout Law of becoming a friend to animals.

By living in camp you begin to find that though there are many discomforts and difficulties to be got over, they can be got over with a little trouble and especially if you smile at them and tackle them.

Then living among other comrades in camp you have to be helpful and do good turns at almost every minute, and you have to exercise a great deal of give and take and good temper, otherwise the camp would become unbearable.

So you carry out the different laws of courteousness, of helpfulness, and friendliness to others that come in the Scout Law. Also you pick up the idea of how necessary it is to keep everything in its place, and to keep your kit and tent and ground as clean as possible; otherwise you get into a horrible state of dirt, and dirt brings flies and other inconveniences.

You save every particle of food and in this way you learn not only cleanliness, but thrift and economy. And you very soon realise how cheaply you can live in camp, and how very much enjoyment you can get for very little money. And as you live in the fresh, pure air of God you find that your own thoughts are clean and pure as the air around you. There is hardly one of the Scout Laws that is not better carried out after you have been living and practising it in camp.

On my honour I will try—

• 1. To do my Duty to God and to my Country.
• 2. To help other people at all times.
• 3. To obey the Scout Law.

An old British chieftain, some thirteen hundred years ago, said:

“Our life has always seemed to me like the flight of a sparrow through the great hall, when one is sitting at meals with the log-fire blazing on the hearth, while all is storm and darkness outside. He comes in, no one knows from where, and hovers for a short time in the warmth and light, and then flies forth again into the darkness. And so it is with the life of a man; he comes no one knows from where; he is here in the world for a short time, till he flies forth again, no one knows whither. But now you show us that if we do our duty during our life we shall not fly out into darkness again, when life is ended, since Christ has opened a door, for us to enter a brighter room, a heaven where we can go and dwell in peace for ever.”

Religion seems a very simple thing:

• 1st. To trust in God.
• 2nd. To do good to other people.

The old knights, who were the scouts of the nation, were very religious. They were always careful to attend religious service, especially before going into battle or undertaking any serious difficulty. They considered it was the right thing always to be prepared for death. In the great church of Malta you can see to-day where the old knights used to pray, and they all stood up and drew their swords during the reading of the Creed, as a sign that they were prepared to defend the gospel with their swords and lives. Besides worshipping God in church, the knights always recognised His work in the things which He made, such as animals, plants, and scenery. And so it is with the Scouts to-day, that wherever they go they love the woodlands, the mountains, and the prairies, and they like to watch and know about the animals that inhabit them, and the wonders of the flowers and plants. No man is much good, either to himself or to others, unless he believes in God and obeys His laws. So every Scout should have a religion.

There are many kinds of religion, such as Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mohammedans, and so on, but the main point about them is that they all worship God, although in different ways. They are like an army which serves one king, though it is divided into different branches, such as cavalry, artillery, and infantry, and these wear different uniforms. So, when you meet a girl of a different religion from your own, you should not be hostile to her, but recognise that she is still serving the same king as you.

In doing your duty to God always be grateful to Him. Whenever you enjoy a pleasure or a good game, or succeed in doing a good thing, thank Him for it, if only with a word or two, just as you say grace after a meal. And it is a good thing to bless other people. For instance, if you see a train starting off, just pray for God’s blessing on all that are in the train.

In doing your duty towards man be helpful and generous, and also always be grateful for any kindness done to you, and be careful to show that you are grateful.

Remember that a present given to you is not yours until you have thanked the giver for it. While you are the sparrow flying through the hall, that is to say, while you are living your life on this earth, try and do something good which may remain after you. One writer says:

“I often think that when the sun goes down the world is hidden by a big blanket from the light of heaven, but the stars are little holes pierced in that blanket by those who have done good deeds in this world. The stars are not all the same size; some are big, some little, and some men have done great deeds and others have done small deeds, but they have made their hole in the blanket by doing good before they went to heaven.”

Try and make your hole in the blanket by good work while you are on the earth.

It is something to be good, but it is far better to do good.

Have you ever thought what a lot we owe to the Kaiser William of Germany. If he had not tried for world power, we should never have come together so closely as we have done with all our brothers and sisters overseas.

The right hand raised level with shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of the little finger, and the other three fingers upright pointing upward.

That is the Scout Salute.

The three fingers held up (like the three points of a Scout Badge) remind her of her three promises in the Scout Promise.

• 1. To do her duty to God and Country.
• 2. To help others.
• 3. To obey the Scout Law.

When a Scout meets another for the first time in the day, whether she is a comrade or a stranger, she salutes.

She always salutes an officer—that is a Patrol Leader or a Captain.

Also the hoisting of the Flag, the colors of a regiment, the playing of Star Spangled Banner.

When the National Anthem is played the Scouts do not salute, but merely stand at attention.

When marching in Troop or Patrol formation do not salute with the hand. When passing other Troops or a superior officer, the officer or Patrol Leader in charge alone will salute with the hand, at the same time giving the command, “Eyes right,” or “Eyes left,” as the case may be, on which every Scout will turn her head sharply in that direction till the officer gives the word “Eyes front.”

It is more than ever necessary to hold yourself smartly when giving the salute, otherwise you would make a very slovenly show of it.

Scout signs on the ground or wall, etc., close to the right-hand side of the road.

Road to be followed.

Letter hidden five paces from here in the direction of the arrow.

This path not to be followed.

“I have gone home.”

At night sticks with a wisp of grass round them or stones should be laid on the road in similar forms so that they can be felt with the hand.

[Practise this.]

When a Captain wants to call her Scouts together she sounds her whistle. Then they double to the Captain.

Whistle signals are there:—

One long blast means “Halt,” “Silence,” “Alert,” “Look out for my next signal,” or “Cease.” (Stop what you’re doing, look out for next command.)

A succession of long, slow blasts means “Go out,” “Get farther away,” or “Advance,” “Extend,” “Scatter.”

A succession of short, sharp blasts means “Rally,” “Close in,” “Come together,” “Fall in.”

A succession of short and long blasts alternately means “Alarm,” “Look out,” “Be ready,” “Man your alarm posts.”

Three short blasts followed by one long one from Scout Captain calls up the patrol leaders—that is, “Leaders come here!”

Any whistle signal must be instantly obeyed at the double as fast as ever you can run, no matter what other job you may be doing at the time.

Hand signals (which can also be made by patrol leaders with their patrol flags when necessary):—

“Advance,” “Forward.”—Swing the arm from rear to front, below the shoulder.

“Retire.”—Circle the arm above the head.

“Halt.”—Raise the arm to full extension above the head, etc.

“Double.”—The closed fist moved up and down between your shoulder and thigh.

“Quick Time.”—To change from the “Double” to the Quick Time, raise the hand to the shoulder.

“Reinforce.”—Swing the arm from the rear to the front above the shoulder.

“Lie down.”—With the open hand make two or three slight movements towards the ground.

“Wheel.”—Extend your arm in line with your shoulder and make a circular movement in the direction required.

“Incline.”—Extend your arm in line with your shoulder and make a turn with your body in the direction required.

Stalking.—A Scout has to be sharp at seeing things if she is going to be any good as a Scout. She has to notice every little track and every little sign, and it is this studying of tracks and following them out and finding out their meaning which we include under the name of stalking. For instance, if you want to find a bird’s-nest you have to stalk. That is to say, you watch a bird flying into a bush and guess where its nest is, and follow it up and find the nest. With some birds it is a most difficult thing to find their nests; take, for instance, the skylark or the snipe. But those who know the birds, especially the snipe, will recognise their call. The snipe when she is alarmed gives quite a different call from when she is happy and flying about. She has a particular call when she has young ones about. So that those who have watched and listened and know her call when they hear it know pretty well where the young ones are or where the nest is and so on.

Tracking.—The native hunters in most wild countries follow their game by watching for tracks on the ground, and they become so expert at seeing the slightest sign of a footmark on the ground that they can follow up their prey when an ordinary civilized man can see no sign whatever. But the great reason for looking for signs and tracks is that from these you can read a meaning. It is exactly like reading a book. You will see the different letters, each letter combining to make a word, and the words then make sense; and there are also commas and full-stops and colons; all of these alter the meaning of the sense. They are all little signs which one who is practised and has learnt reading makes into sense at once, whereas a savage who has never learned could make no sense of it at all. And so it is with tracking.

Reading Signs.—As you know a soldier Scout in war can only get his information about the enemy by watching for the smallest signs both on the ground and in the far distance. In the war of Texas against Mexico in the last century, it was very important that the general commanding the Mexican Army should be captured when the defeat of that army was accomplished by the Texans. He had disappeared; but some of the Scouts of the Texan force were out scouting for the enemy when they saw in the distance some deer were suddenly startled by something they could not see and ran away. The Texan Scouts were at once suspicious, and went to the spot as fast as they could. There they found a soldier of the Mexicans evidently trying to escape. When they caught him and opened his tunic they found underneath he was wearing a silk shirt, which was not usual with a private in the Army. They took him to Headquarters, and there found that he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican Army, trying to escape disguised as a soldier. And had it not been that they had noticed the deer being startled, it is probable that they would not have caught him.

Sherlock Holmesing.—In just the same way detectives, when they are following up a crime, have to act on the very smallest clues, and if they did not use their wits and notice these the criminal would probably escape.

Well, I want Girl Scouts to learn to be almost like detectives in their sharpness in noticing small signs and reading the meaning of them, not merely for the purpose of studying animals and birds, but also for studying their human fellow creatures.

It is by noticing small signs of distress or poverty in people that you can often help them in the best way. Generally those people who most need help are the ones who hide their distress; and if you are clever and notice little signs such as unhappiness, you can then give them or offer them help in some way or other. In this way you learn sympathy for fellow-creatures—not merely to be a friend of animals, but also to be a friend of your fellow-men in this world; and that again is carrying out the Girl Scout Law of helping others and being friendly to all.

Nature in the City.—This noticing of small things, especially in animal life, not only gives you great interest, but it also gives you great fun and enjoyment in life. Even if you live in a city you can do a certain amount of observation of birds and animals. You would think there is not much fun to be got out of it in a city, and yet if you begin to notice and know all about the sparrows you begin to find there is a great deal of character and amusement to be got out of them, by watching their ways and habits, their nesting, and their way of teaching their young ones to fly.

Dissecting.—If you go to the butcher’s and get him to give you a sheep’s foot and you carefully open it up with a sharp penknife you will see how wonderfully every bone and joint and sinew is made and fitted into the machine which enables the foot to move and the sheep to get along. Then, if you think it out, you know that if you go away across the sea to the other end of the world, to Australia or New Zealand, and take a sheep’s foot there and dissect it in the same way you find it exactly and identically the same over there as it is here. God’s work is the same all over the world. People don’t notice these things and don’t think about them as a rule, and when you begin to think it out you begin to see what a wonderful work it is of God’s, who made all these different animals in their own form, all alike, and yet so different from the other kind of animals, fishes, or birds. You begin to realise then what a wonderful Creator has made the world and all that is in it.

Scouts in uniform will always salute the colors (or standard of a regiment) when they pass. There are generally two such standards, one the “Stars and Stripes,” and the other the “Regimental Colors.”

The Army and Government buildings fly the stars and stripes.

The flag to-day has thirteen alternate stripes of red and white, with a blue field in the corner bearing forty-eight stars. The thirteen stripes symbolize the thirteen original states, and the stars stand for the states now in the Union. The five pointed star is used, it is said at Betsey Ross’s suggestion. This five pointed star is the seal of King Solomon, and the sign of infinity. Even the colors of the flag mean something: red stands for valor, blue for justice, and white for purity.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

When you pledge your allegiance make the full salute, keeping the hand at the brow until you say “flag,” when you extend the hand, still in the salute position, palm up, pointing toward the flag. Hold the hand out thus until the end of the pledge.

While making your knots S.T.

Strings or ropes are used almost daily by every one in some form or other, and yet people often break their nails and teeth gnawing at their own knots to untie them. Time spent in learning a few simple reliable knots is not time wasted, but quite the contrary.

To tie a knot seems a very simple thing and yet there are right and wrong ways of doing it, and Scouts ought to know the right way. For sometimes even lives depend on a knot being properly tied, as with sailors or men in building trades, and in case of fire-rescue.

The right kind of a knot is one which you can tie easily and be certain it will hold under any normal strain, and which you can easily undo.

A bad knot called a “granny” is one which slips when you pull hard, or which gets jammed so tight that you cannot untie it.

Of course there are several ways of tying the same knot, and so if your sailor uncle can show you a good way to make a bowline don’t tell him the one in this book is the only way.

The End.

The Bight or Loop, formed by turning the rope back on itself.

The Standing Part, or long portion of the rope.

Rope ends that ravel are annoying and before working your scout rope too hard in practicing all these knots it is a good plan to whip the ends.

This is how you do it. Hold the rope end in your right hand. Take about 10 inches of twine, make a loop and lay it parallel on the rope so that the end of the twine extends about two inches beyond the end of the rope. Hold it firmly and with your left hand wind the standing part of your twine around your rope neatly up toward your right thumb. When you have bound the twine loop on to the rope for say an inch, then tuck your winding end through the loop, pull both ends of the twine, and cut them off close to the rope.

Now you are ready to work. There are two simple devices which will help you to learn the knots in the Tenderfoot test more easily, so it is well to master them first.

One is the

which is the very easiest of all to make. It is the first half of the square knot, and is a part of many other knots.

Back the end around the standing part and through the bight and draw tight.

The other is the

If you hang out some clothes on the line when there is a thunderstorm in the air, it will be well to tie up your clothes line with a slip knot at each end, as clothes and all can be taken down in a hurry. A slip knot made in one end of your cord, can be useful when you want to tie up a big parcel, for you can get a good “purchase” on the cord; it is also good in hitching a horse to a post.

Make a bight. Put your thumb and finger through it and pull up a loop of the free end of the rope.

The square knot (or reef knot) is the best simple all round knot, as it will not slip or jam and is easily untied. It is the safest knot to tie your parcels with when mailing them. It is also used to join two ropes, mend the clothes line, and for a hundred other uses. It is called a reef knot because it is used to reduce the size of a sail on a boat. As it is flat it is much used in First Aid, for tying a sling or triangular bandage.

Take an end of rope in each hand. Cross right end over the left and twist; then the same end (which is now in your left hand) over the other end, and twist again. Then pull the standing parts.

If you are left-handed, of course you would naturally first put your left end over your right. The thing to remember in tying a square knot is that the ends must alternate; otherwise you get a “granny,” or “lubber’s” knot.

The Sheet Bend (or Weaver’s knot) is good to use when you want to join a thick line to a thin one, or attach a rope to a loop or ring. They use this knot on steamboats when the big hawser can’t be thrown on shore, but a light line can be attached and easily thrown to the dock. It is a good knot for Scouts to use when making a guard line to keep back crowds, at a rally for instance. With this knot you can join your wool when knitting, and it is an excellent way to attach a fly to a fishing line.

Make a loop AB with one rope; pass the end, C, of your other rope through this loop, round both sides of the loop and down under its own standing part. Pull firmly.

The clove hitch is used when fastening two poles together as in scaffolding, as either end will stand a strain without slipping either lengthwise or downwards. It is also used to tie a boat to a stake, or in First Aid to tie on a splint.

Pass the end around the post, below the standing part; around the post again, over the standing part, and tuck it down between the standing part and the turn.

The half hitch is a very useful thing to know. It is not really a knot, but a loop used in tying many of the harder knots. A double half hitch is needed to make a secure knot and is used for fastening awning ropes, flag rope, etc. The more it is strained the faster it holds. It is a simple way of making a rope fast in a hurry, where a long continued strain is not expected, thus it is used in tying a boat’s painter, which is not a man but a rope fastened to the bow of a small boat.

A Bowline makes a noose that is permanent, neither jamming nor slipping. It is useful in hoisting and lowering, as in case of fire, rescuing from drowning, a painter’s chair, etc. It is also used in a guard line, as a halter for animals, or wherever a safe loop is needed.

Take end in right hand: measure with your left sufficient rope for the loop you want; make a bight in your left hand and hold it. Now take the end of the rope in your right hand, put it up through the bight, round the standing part, and down through the bight again: pulling the end and both sides of your permanent loop with the right hand against the standing part in your left hand; (three against one).

A scout would not waste a rope by cutting it but would shorten it by making a sheepshank. This will stand a great strain without slipping, but will loosen when held slack.

Lay the rope out straight. Cross your hands and take hold of the rope. Take up the slack by drawing your hands past each other. Hold the three parts of the rope between the loop and the end, and put it over the loop, leaving sufficient loop sticking out so the half hitch won’t slip off it; then pull. Do the same at the other end, and put it over the loop, leaving sufficient loop sticking out so the half hitch won’t slip off it; then pull. It can be untied by a quick jerk of the outside ropes forming the bights. To shorten a rope permanently this way, pass the ends through the loops, and the knot will hold for any length of time.

This knot is used to tie two unequal thicknesses of rope. It gets its name from the fact that it is always employed in joining silkworm gut for fishing purposes.

Lay the two ropes parallel, the ends pointing different ways. Tie an overhand knot on rope one with the end of rope two, and then tie an overhand knot on rope two with the end of rope one. Now pull the standing parts and the knots will jam against each other and remain firm. To untie, pull the short ends apart, and then loosen.

When a girl has passed her Tenderfoot test, she is ready to become a full-fledged Scout. She pays to Headquarters her registration fee, 25 cents, and receives the registration card which is a sort of certificate of membership and shows that her name is registered at Headquarters. Now she is entitled to wear the uniform. And more than all, she makes her Scout promise solemnly before the troop, and thus becomes one of the Scout sisterhood. This is not an appropriate occasion on which to admit the public, or to make any great show or fuss.

Scouts learn drill to enable them to be moved quickly from one point to another in good order. Drill also sets them up, and makes them smart and quick.

It strengthens the muscles which support the body, and by keeping the body upright the lungs and heart get plenty of room to work, and the inside organs are kept in the proper position for good digestion of food, and so on. A slouching position, on the other hand, depresses all the organs, and prevents them doing their work properly, so that a stooping person is generally weak and often ill. Growing girls are very apt to slouch, and should therefore do all they can to get out of the habit by plenty of physical exercises and drill.

Stand upright when you are standing, and when you are sitting down sit upright, with your back well into the back part of the chair.

On the word “Alert,” the Scout stands upright with both feet together, hands hanging naturally at the sides, fingers straight, and looking straight to her front.

A Scout will never build up a healthy, sound body if she is not prudent about her health. Elder girls can easily help the younger ones by leading them to tell of their state, and should urge them not to go long marches if they are not fit, or allow their feet to remain damp or cold at such times, as it is very bad for them. They may not feel it at the time, but it may lead to illnesses years afterwards. It is their duty to promote their health and to nurse it into a good sound condition, which will make them hardy in after life.

1. Standing: Feet parallel, few inches apart. Stand erect, top of head high (note: top of head is above ears. Forehead is not the top), chin parallel with floor, arms easy at side. The ears, shoulders, hips and ankles should be in a straight line, weight over ankles.

2. Sitting: Keep back straight in sitting, lower back against the back of the chair, and feet on the floor. Note: Arm stretch positions named in exercises

When doing exercises, remember always to keep good standing position. Execute the exercises in brisk rhythm, without jerks. Repeat each several times, but not so much that it tires you.

1. Arms from downward through forward, to upward stretch counting “one.” Arms down counting “two.” Take deep breath as arms go up, and breathe out as arms come down.

2. Arms from downward through forward, to upward, counting “one,” to side stretch, counting “two,” taking full breath, accenting “two” with side stretch. Down to side counting “three.”

Count while doing these exercises, accent on “one.”

1. From downward to side stretch counting “one,” return to downward counting “two.”

2. From side to upward stretch counting “one” (look up), return to side, counting “two.”

3. From downward to forward stretch, counting “one” (don’t slump), return to down, counting “two.”

4. From arms easy, at side, to down stretch, counting “one” (don’t hump), return to arms easy, counting “two.”

5. Arms easy, turn palms out, expanding chest and flattening shoulder blades, stretching down, counting “one,” return to arms easy, counting “two.”

6. Elbows, on shoulder line, and bent, palms horizontal, tips of middle fingers together, thumb touching chest. Move elbows back, flattening shoulder blades, finger tips separating (thumbs make a line outward on chest), counting “one,” return, counting “two.”

7. From last position, elbows bent, stretch arms, sideways, backwards, counting “one,” return, counting “two.”

8. Arms upward stretch, close to ear, body bent continuously side to side. (Do not twist.)

(These exercises cannot be done in stiff shoes.)

1. From good standing position, roll feet outward, weight on outside of feet, toes curled in, counting “one,” return counting “two.”

2. Alternate foot stretch. Foot stretch is done by raising the heel, bending the knee, the toes and ball of foot remaining on floor. Count “one,” “two,” one count for each foot.

3. Alternate foot stretch, at same time bending the knee, of weight bearing leg, count as in ex. 2. Keep body straight, hips steady.

4. Double knee bend (bend both knees, raising heels, keeping back straight). The knees should bend straight forward over the feet. Count “one” on bend, “two” on return.

5. Alternate backward kick, bending at knee only, counting as in ex. 2.

6. Same as exercise 5 in double quick time. (This is running in place.)

7. Alternate front high knee bend, raising foot from floor. Count as in ex. 2. Keep body straight.

8. Same as exercise 7, in double quick time.

9. Deep double knee bend, raising heels from floor, bringing arms from downward to side stretch with the bend. (This helps to keep balance.)

10. Arms upward stretch, body bent front, hands touching floor.

1. Legs alternately upward stretch, making right angle with the body.

2. Same exercise both legs together.

3. Same as exercise 2, letting feet go back over head.

A New England farmer’s wife was baking several kinds of pies for Thanksgiving. To distinguish them she marked some T. M. for “’tis mince” and the rest she marked T. M. for “’tain’t mince.” When you are reading this book you will now and then see two mysterious letters which you will promptly obey whether you are sitting or standing. They are the letters S. T. and they mean Sit Tall and Stand Tall.

The Captain calls “Fall in.” The troop is formed in a horse shoe, with the Captain and the Lieutenant in the gap. When ordered to come forward by the Captain the Patrol Leader brings the Tenderfoot to be invested to the center, where they stand facing the Captain.

The Captain then asks: “Do you know what your honor means?” The Tenderfoot replies: “Yes, it means that I can be trusted to be truthful and honest” (or words to that effect).

Captain: “Can I trust you on your honor to do your duty to God and to your country, to help other people at all times, and to obey the Scout Law.”

Tenderfoot: “On my honor I will try to do my duty to God and to my country, to help other people at all times, and to obey the Scout Law.”

The Captain then says: “I trust you, on your honor, to keep this promise.”

While the recruit is making her promises aloud, all the Scouts remember their own promises, and vow anew to keep them.

The Captain orders: “Invest,”—and pins on her trefoil badge, explaining that it is her Scout’s life. If, for misbehavior her trefoil or life has to be taken from her, she becomes a dead Scout for the time the Captain orders—a day or a week—and is in disgrace. The badge may be worn at all times, but the uniform is worn only when the patrol meets.

The new Scout is then initiated into the mysteries of the secret passwords, “Be Prepared” (said backwards), or “Little Friend of all the World.”

The Scout should salute the Captain, when she gives her her badge.

The lieutenant hands the new Tenderfoot her registration card, and her hat. (This part of the ceremony may be omitted if desired.)

Captain orders: “About Face”—“Salute”—

Tenderfoot faces the troop, who give her the full salute to welcome her into the troop, and then she and her Patrol Leader march back to their places.

Now the Scout is a regular member of one of the Patrols in the troop. A Patrol is a group of six or eight Scouts who work together as comrades under a girl who is the Patrol Leader. The Leader has an assistant called a Corporal. All Scouts must obey the Leader and Corporal.

Each troop is called after a bird or flower. When the Scouts first started troops they were only called after flowers but there were many girls who felt that though a flower is very pretty and gives out a sweet influence round it, it doesn’t last long, nor does it “hustle around and do things”; they wanted something more active as their emblem. So now a troop can choose which it likes, a bird, or a flower, or tree or shrub.

The troop may have a flag, which has the number of the troop on it, and besides this each Patrol Leader may have a small flag, ten inches deep, on a staff, with the crest of her troop in cloth stitched on to it on both sides.

Each member of the troop wears an emblem badge sewn over her left pocket flap, and a shoulder knot of the colors chosen by her troop.

Every Scout is expected to know all about the life history of the emblem of her troop. If it is a flower, she should know what it looks like, when and where it blooms, and she should if possible grow it herself. If the emblem is a bird the Scout should know what it looks like, its call or song, its food, where to look for its nest, the color of its eggs and time of migration.

• Sunflower.
• Red Rose.
• White Rose (Cherokee).
• Oak.
• Pansy.
• Fuchsia.
• Poppy.
• Narcissus.
• Jonquil.
• Holly Leaf and Berries.
• Red Clover.
• Lily-of-the-Valley.
• Daisy.
• Goldenrod.
• Forget-me-not.
• Lilac.
• Violet.
• Iris.
• Pink Carnation.
• Morning Glory.
• Pink Wild Rose.
• Thistle.
• Nasturtium.
• Daffodil.
• Dogwood.
• Holly.

A jay is a showy, gaudy kind of bird and, like her bigger friend the peacock, has a rasping, raucous voice, and she eats other birds’ eggs, and generally does more harm than good in the world. There are human jays and peacocks, but you won’t find them among the Scouts. The English cuckoo is a curious bird of another kind. She makes herself out to look somewhat like a hawk, and somewhat like a dove, you don’t know whether she is very bold or very peaceful; at any rate she lets you know that she’s there. She uses her voice freely. But she’s a lazy creature, does not bother to make a nest of her own, but goes and puts her eggs in other birds’ nests—rather deceitful, because she often makes her eggs match those in the nest she is using—gives them all the trouble of bringing up her young ones. She leaves them and goes off South in July, before her offspring can fly with her. In fact, she is a fraud, she imitates others and blusters about a lot for a short time, but she does not do any real work.

Sometimes there have been imitation Girl Scouts, who dressed themselves up in our uniform, gave themselves similar badges, made themselves unpleasantly conspicuous, but never really grasped the Scout spirit nor did the Scout work, and so they won for themselves the name of cuckoo. So don’t belong to a cuckoo patrol.

If you are the Scout you ought to be, you will start to work to make your own patrol the best in the troop and to make yourself the best Scout in the patrol—for smartness, for efficiency, and for happiness.

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The Second Class badge is a green trefoil embroidered on a tan background, and is worn on the left sleeve above the elbow.

The occasion of awarding Second Class badges gives Scouts an opportunity to arrange a ceremony for themselves following more or less the lines of the Tenderfoot investiture.

The General Service Code, also called the Continental and the International Morse Code, is the code used by the Army and Navy, cables, wireless telegraphy, and all commercial communications except short distance telegraphing, within the United States. Avoid the term International Morse as both these names apply to other codes. The International code is made up of flags each one of which stands for a letter or other signal, and the Morse is used of the American Morse or telegraph alphabet. There is Visual signalling by hand flag torches, lanterns, etc.; and Sound signalling with buzzer, whistle, drum, etc.

The flag used is square with a smaller square of another color in the center. It may be either white with the smaller square red, or red with white. A good size for Girl Scouts to use is 24 inches square with the center 8 inches square, and the pole 42 inches long.

There are but three motions to make with the flag, and all start from POSITION, which means that the signaller stands erect facing the person with whom she is communicating holding the flag perpendicularly in front of her.

Dot.—To make a dot, swing the flag down to the right and bring it back to Position.

Dash.—To make a dash, swing the flag down to the left, and bring it back again to Position.

Front.—The third motion is front, made by swinging the flag down directly in front and returning to Position.

In order to keep the flag from “fouling” when making the motions, make, by a turn of the wrist, a sort of figure 8 with the end of the staff, as shown in the picture.

In learning signalling try to master these motions first; then it is easy to put them together in letters. Make no pause between dots or dashes in a single letter, but have a continuous motion.

Indicate the end of a Letter by a distinct pause at Position.

Indicate the end of a Word by one Front.

Indicate the end of a Sentence by two Fronts.

Indicate the end of a Message by three Fronts.

Many Scouts have found it easier to learn the motions required in flag signalling with a light stick about 18 or 24 inches long; you will be surprised to see how simple it is to handle a flag, when the motions have been mastered with a stick.

Don’t try for speed. Accuracy is the most important thing, for unless the letters are accurately made they may be confused and your message will be read as something quite different from what you intended. Fall into a regular easy rhythm. Speed will come with practice. When signalling a message go slowly enough for the receiver to read it.

The “Semaphore” is really a machine, with two arms which may be moved into various positions to indicate letters. It is especially used on railroads. The semaphore code may also be employed by a person using two flags. It is the quickest method of flag signalling but is only available for comparatively short distances, seldom over a mile, unless extra large flags are used, or there are some extraordinary conditions of backgrounds, atmosphere, etcetera.

The semaphore code is not adapted to all sorts of uses as is the general service code, but for very quick communications over short distances it is most useful.

The regulation Semaphore flag is 18 inches square, divided diagonally into two triangles, a red and a white, with the red one fastened to a staff which is 24 inches long. The staff must be carefully held, to move in one piece with the arm, as a “break” at the wrist would make an entirely different angle.

Pass the arms smoothly from one letter to another. Don’t let them “flop” about between letters. Hold each letter long enough so that it is distinct. At the end of a word make “Interval” hands crossed downward in front of body, right over left. Indicate the end of the sentence by one “chop-chop”—made by placing both arms at the right, horizontal, and moving them up and down in cutting motion. Indicate end of the message by three “chop-chops.” While signalling maintain fixed position, head upright.

Be accurate in making the letters. It is the angle between your arms that counts. Speed will soon come with practice. Don’t look in a mirror, or you will get it all backwards.

The motions used in signalling with a lantern are very like those with the single flag. For Position, hold a lantern directly in front of you; for a dot swing it to the right and back; for a dash swing it to the left and back; and for Front move it up and down in a vertical line, directly in front of you. You should have a stationary light, in front of your feet, as a point of reference for the various motions.

Use a short flash for a dot, and a long steady flash for dash. Pause between letters, longer pause between words, still longer at end of sentence.

Whistle:—Use a short blast for a dot, and a long steady blast for a dash. Indicate the end of a letter by a short pause, end of word by a longer pause, and the end of a sentence by a still longer pause.

On the telegraph instrument the dot makes one distinct click. The dash a double click. Try and you will see. Practice tapping with a pencil, a stick or even your fingers, to make the ear familiar with the sound; single tap for a dot, double for a dash.

The code must be absolutely mastered so that you know a letter the minute you see it. Counting off dots and dashes, is a sign of a beginner who doesn’t yet know her code. It is a bad plan to try to learn code by writing it out. You never use it written, and you should learn it as you are going to use it with flags, lights or sounds.

From the very first, practice reading as well as sending. It is harder to do, and requires more practice.

If another Scout facing you will signal the same letter at the same time you are signalling to her, then you read and send that letter simultaneously and thus recognize the letter when receiving a message.

You will find it a curious fact that it is easier to learn the letters by signalling them in words and messages, than by trying to master them singly, in their order in the alphabet.

A good way to learn the general service code is this. Learn first the four letters made all of dots, and then the three made all of dashes.

Fix these in your mind by using them in words like—to, she, some, time, etc. Then take the words “Girl Scouts” and learn them. With the new letters in these added to the dot and dash letters you can make any number of words,—stone, lost, curl, etc. To these add “Be Prepared,” “Come quickly,” “Joyful Scouts never are lazy” and now you can signal all the Scout laws, and you know all the letters of the alphabet except w, x and z. You may learn these separately or in “Buzzing bees make wax.”

The semaphore code may be learned in the same way, and Scouts can easily make up other sentences on the same principle, to suit the semaphore code.

Games.—There are a great many games which will give practice in the signalling tests and the signs. Perhaps a simple one to start with is “Follow the Trail.”

A party of cowboys are to start off for a long journey across the prairie. They are expecting a party of their mates to follow them in a week’s time. So they agree to make scout signs and leave messages all the way. The Scouts, having divided into two parties, one starts away across the fields and woods—preferably along a path or track. They make arrows pointing in the direction they are following, either on the ground or on fences or stones. They hide messages, written on paper or on white stones or pieces of wood, saying how they are getting on; where water may be found; or warning their pals of various dangers. “Don’t follow this road,” (X) is also made when necessary. Meanwhile the second party of Scouts start (having given the cowboys ten minutes’ start) not as the expected friends, but as a party of Indians, who have picked up the trail and are hot on the track of the “palefaces.” They follow, destroying all the cowboys’ tracks and signs, and reading their messages. Indian scouts may be sent on, singly (fast runners) to reconnoitre, and report on the number and deportment of the cowboys. But the Indian scout does this at her own peril. If she is seen by the palefaces she becomes their prisoner, and must go on with them. (Any cowboy seeing an enemy scout calls out her name, whereupon the Indian must play fair and surrender.) The palefaces eventually run short of provisions, at the end of a half a mile (or more) and are obliged to halt. Believing Indians to be following them, they take cover. The Indians, finding that the trail has come to an end, search for the cowboys (seeing and calling out the name being equal to killing), but any paleface who manages to creep out of her cover and touch an Indian before she is seen herself kills her (puts her out of action). The game is won by the party having the largest number of survivors when the Captain blows her whistle.

A game by which reading Morse may be practised is as follows:

About twelve Scouts can play at it. The Scouts each choose a letter of the alphabet. This (printed large in ink on a card) is pinned on her chest. Each then is allotted a place to stand, in a field or open space (her distance away can be arranged by the Captain to suit the capability of the Scout). The Captain stands so that the Scouts are before her in a large semicircle, and all can see her. Her object is to signal in Morse and move the Scouts—two changing places (as in the game of “General Post”). If she sends A, P,—A and P each start forward, and run across the field, taking up each other’s positions. This means that every Scout must have her eyes fixed very attentively on the Captain. Each Scout has five “lives.” If she starts forward when her letter has not been sent she loses one “life”: if she fails to start before the Captain has counted six from signalling the second letter, she loses a life. At the end of a given time, Scouts who have lost least lives are considered the winners. Of course all speaking must be strictly forbidden during this game. The Captain must arrange to give each Scout an equal number of chances to move. It should not be played too long at a time. More than twelve should not play, or the letters cannot each be sent often enough to keep up the interest. This game teaches the Scouts to read Semaphore, and also absolute concentration and alertness. (Notice that this concentration is not an undue strain, as it is relaxed while the two Scouts are running across to change places.) If the Leaders are sufficiently good signallers they may be allowed to do the sending, the Captain acting as umpire and scorer.

It is difficult to describe any actual games which will incorporate signals by smoke, sound, movement, etc. But picnics and outings in the country may be treated as one great “make believe.” The party becomes a band of marooned sailors, an exploring expedition, survivors from a torpedoed ship, or nurses on the battlefield, and the picnic turns into a bivouac, the fire being used to send smoke signals (either to another pack or to a party sent out for this purpose). All communications with this party should be carried on by signal—flag, whistle, etc.

For simple practice of the sound and movement signals the Scouts should be scattered over a field, while the Captain gives the signal, which is to be obeyed promptly. She should watch carefully, and might call out the name (or number) of the Scout last in obeying the order. This will make for alertness. It would be a good plan to arrange some “as you were” signal, to give after each command has been obeyed (say, two sharp notes).

Habits of Animals.—If you live in the country it is, of course quite easy to observe and watch the habits of all sorts of animals great and small. But if you are in a town there are many difficulties to be met with. But at the same time if you can keep pets of any kind, rabbits, rats, mice, dogs or ponies you can observe and watch their habits and learn to understand them well; but generally for Scouts it is more easy to watch birds, because you see them both in town and country; and especially when you go into camp or on walking tours you can observe and watch their habits, especially in the spring-time.

Then it is that you see the old birds making their nests, hatching out their eggs and bringing up their young; and that is of course the most interesting time for watching them. A good observant scout will get to know the different kinds of birds by their cry, by their appearance, and by their way of flying. She will also get to know where their nests are to be found, what sort of nests they are, what are the colors of the eggs and so on. And also how the young appear. Some of them come out fluffy, others covered with feathers, others with very little on at all. The young pigeon, for instance, has not feathers at all, whereas a young moorhen can swim about as soon as it comes out of the egg; while chickens run about and hunt flies within a few minutes; and yet a sparrow is quite useless for some days and is blind, and has to be fed and coddled by his parents.

Then it is an interesting sight to see the old birds training their young ones to fly by getting up above them and flapping their wings a few times until all the young ones imitate them. Then they hop from one twig to another, still flapping their wings, and the young ones follow suit and begin to find that their wings help them to balance; and finally they jump from one branch to another for some distance so that the wings support them in their effort. The young ones very soon find that they are able to use their wings for flying, but it is all done by degrees and by careful instruction.

If you think there is no natural history or observation of bird life possible in the city, get hold of that delightful book “Lives of the Hunted,” by Ernest Seton Thompson. There you will find a ripping story of Randy and Biddy, the two sparrows, who built a nest between them after wonderful differences of opinion. Randy started to make it of sticks, and Biddy almost declined to live with him in consequence, so he carefully pulled every stick out and dropped them on the pavement and gave in to her preferring for hay and straw. Then they used string. But when she brought feathers he drew the line and argued the point. However, the story should be read to be enjoyed as it stands in that book.

Then a large number of our birds do not live all the year round in England, but they go off to Southern climes such as Africa when the winter comes on. In September you will see the migrating birds collecting to go away, the starlings in their crowds and the swallows for the South, and the warblers, the flycatchers, and the swifts. And yet about the same time the large are arriving, so there is a good deal of travelling to and from among the birds in the air at all times of the year.

How to draw.—By the way, talking of birds, every Scout ought to be able to draw one.

First, of course, you lay the egg. Then put a watch on it, with the second dial to show the time. But before you put in the hands it becomes a bird. Then you add the outline, thus:—

Try it yourself. It is quite easy.

Reptiles.—There is a lot of interest to be got out of watching reptiles, such as frogs, which begin as tadpoles, eating weeds, and gradually lose their tails and gills, which they begin with, and end up as frogs, eating worms and slugs as food.

Insects.—Insects, too, are very interesting little people when you get to know their ways and habits. Among them you can generally find moths, ants, gnats, butterflies, bees, beetles, ladybirds, and all such. Though most girls do not care very much about them, Scouts who have studied them get to like them, even spiders and daddy-longlegs, and to take a close interest in them.

Caddis worms, for instance, build the most beautiful houses of mosaic work, all formed of tiny stones and bits of shell glued on to a silken lining which the caddis worms make themselves.

The caddis worm has extraordinary jaws which he can fold up when they are in the way, and he can also push himself along in the water by squirting out a strong jet of water all round him. A caddis worm is really only the larva of a large sort of dragon fly; so when he wants to change into a winged insect, he cleverly spins a silken door across each end of his tubular house, and fixes it on to the stalk of a plant near the water. Then he waits till his wings have grown, and at last he crawls out and runs up the plant out of the water, and flies away into the sunshine.

Butterfly-hunting is a most exciting pastime. You go out with your net and your box, and chase the pretty creatures over field and swamp, and hedge and ditch. If possible, try not to spoil the wings, and then keep them alive in a cage or a greenhouse. You can keep the eggs they lay, and bring up a large family for next year. You can make your own net if you buy a yard of stout wire, and bend it round, and bind the ends tightly and neatly to a cane or stick.

Make your net long enough to hang across the wire, when your butterfly is caught, thus:—

Examine the wings carefully with a magnifying glass, as the tiny scarlet and yellow feathers are easily rubbed off and spoilt, especially if the creature flutter about.

Personally I don’t use a net; I catch them by drawing their portraits in my sketch-book. It saves a lot of trouble to them and to me.

Trees.—Then Scouts should know all about the different trees in their country and know their names by their appearance in summer and also in winter; and what they are good for, and what their leaves are like and their flower or their fruit as the case may be. It helps you very much in camp to know what kind of wood burns well, such as pine wood or sugar bush or gum tree. Also which kinds of wood are best for carving, for making walking sticks, for painting on.

The common trees which a Scout should know by sight are:

• Oak
• Elm
• Plane
• Cedar
• Fir
• Poplar
• Pine
• Sycamore
• Larch
• Willow
• Holly
• Horse Chestnut
• Ash
• Lime
• Beech
• Birch
• Spanish Chestnut
• Walnut

Flowers.—Flowers, of course, interest girls as much as any kind of plant, because they are easily cultivated, and every Scout ought to know the names of most of the common flowers and to understand how they live and how they ought to be treated; when to plant them and when to expect them coming up; and how they produce their seed and how they send it about and re-plant themselves in different parts near them.

For instance, if you have a magnifying glass you can examine a dandelion seed with it. Few things are more beautiful. It is much the same as a thistle seed, tucked away cleverly till it is ripe, and it all opens into a delicate feathery kind of parachute each carrying a seed. This blows about with the wind many miles before it actually falls to the ground and there sows itself.

Most flowers seem to have the wish to scatter their seed far away from them. Even the modest little violet sows its seed out of a little boat-shaped pod with great force and a loud report to a distance of some three feet; and so does the iris, the pansy, the wall-flower, and many others. Many flowers and plants produce berries and fruits which are good to eat, others produce those that are poisonous; and a Scout should know which are which, since when you are in camp some of them may come in very useful, whereas others which look tempting to eat may cause you a great deal of trouble and illness.

But especially you ought to know what kind of plants are useful to you in providing you with food. Supposing you were out in a jungle without any food, as very often happens; if you knew nothing about plants you would probably die of starvation, or of poisoning, from not knowing which fruit or roots were wholesome and which dangerous to eat.

There are numbers of berries, nuts, roots, barks, and leaves that are good to eat.

The same with crops of different kinds of corn and seed, vegetable roots, and even grasses and vetches. Seaweed is much eaten in Ireland and Scotland. Such as laver, sloke, dulse, ulva, etc.

No less than fifteen kinds of fungi (that’s the plural of fungus!), or mushrooms, are good to eat if you can only tell them from the poisonous kinds.

Dandelions, nettles, rose berries, bracken roots, lime buds, and many other common plants make useful foods.

But you have to know which is which when you see them, and then know how to cook or prepare them.

Woodland cooking is great fun when you care to do it.

Many people seem to think that you cannot get Nature study unless you are out in the fields or woods studying the animals or noticing the plants, but you can do a great deal in town and even in your own room with others, or even by yourself.

For one thing, just think of the wonder of your own eye if you study it in the glass, and the delicacy of its construction; how it is like a bubble which a very slight blow would destroy altogether. Then from the eye go the nerves carrying back what it has seen of visible things to the brain, where the thoughts which are invisible take it over, the thought then gives the desire or the power to move. That is to say, your eyes show you something on the table and the invisible thought comes in your mind that you would like to catch hold of it, and the thought then makes the material sinews of your arm get to work and grasp it.

You cannot see your thought, but you know it is there, and you see the result of your thought when you grasp the thing. In the same way God is not visible, but all the same he is there, and you see the result when you do a good act. Sometimes you don’t do that good act, or you may do one that is not suggested by God. You may well feel ashamed when this happens and refuse to let yourself do it again. Therefore, try and think before doing a thing and ask yourself the question “Does God want me to do this?” If the reply in your mind says “Yes,” then do it; and if it says “No,” then don’t do it. It is not a difficult thing to live a straight and clean life if you only REMEMBER to think first and do after.

How to Hide Yourself.—When you want to observe wild animals you have to stalk them, that is, creep up to them without their seeing or smelling you.

A hunter when he is stalking wild animals keeps himself entirely hidden, so does the war scout when watching or looking for the enemy; a policeman does not catch pickpockets by standing about in uniform watching for them; he dresses like one of the crowd, and as often as not gazes into a shop window and sees all that goes on behind him reflected as if in a looking-glass.

If a guilty person finds himself being watched, it puts him on his guard, while an innocent person becomes annoyed. So, when you are observing people, don’t do so by openly staring at them, but notice the details you want to at one glance or two, and if you want to study them more, walk behind them; you can learn just as much from a back view, in fact more than you can from a front view, and, unless they are scouts and look round frequently, they do not know that you are observing them.

War scouts and hunters stalking game always carry out two important things when they don’t want to be seen.

Background.—One is—they take care that the ground behind them, or trees, or buildings, etc., are of the same color as their clothes.

And the other is—if an enemy or a deer is seen looking for them, they remain perfectly still without moving so long as he is there.

“Freezing.”—In that way a scout, even though he is out in the open, will often escape being noticed. This is called by scouts “Freezing.”

“Sign” is the word used by Scouts to mean any little details, such as footprints, broken twigs, trampled grass, scraps of food, old matches, etc.

Any one of you might win the reward of $100 for tracing the writer of a typewritten paper which nearly caused the ruin of a large bank. It was noticed by signs that the writer must have used a Remington machine No. 7, because of the shape of the letters. The type was much worn, therefore it is supposed the machine was four or five years old. Now, who bought one at that time? Then you could see that the letter “o” had a bent bar, the letter “r” had a faulty spring, and the top of the capital letter “C” was worn away. So you see that if you found a machine with all these faults you could trace the person who used it, from even such very small signs.

Some native Indian trackers were following up the footprints of a panther that had killed and carried off a young kid. He had crossed a wide bare slab of rock, which, of course, gave no mark of his soft feet. The tracker went at once to the far side of the rock where it came to a sharp edge; he wetted his finger, and just passed it along the edge till he found a few kid’s hairs sticking to it. This showed him where the panther had passed down off the rock, dragging the kid with him. Those few hairs were what Scouts call “sign.”

This tracker also found bears by noticing small “sign.” On one occasion he noticed a fresh scratch in the bark of a tree, evidently made by a bear’s claw, and on the other he found a single black hair sticking to the bark of a tree, which told him that a bear had rubbed against it.

One of the most important things that a Scout has to learn is to let nothing escape her attention; she must notice small points and signs, and then make out the meaning of them; but it takes a good deal of practice before a tenderfoot can get into the habit of really noting everything and letting nothing escape her eye. It can be learnt just as well in a town as in the country, provided that your head is screwed on the right way.

And in the same way you should notice any strange sound or any peculiar smell, and think for yourself what it may mean. Unless you learn to notice “sign” you will have very little of “this and that” to put together, and so you will be of no use as a Girl Scout. It comes by practice. Remember a Scout always considers it a great disgrace if an outsider discovers a thing before she herself does, whether that thing is far away or close by.

Don’t only look at the path before you, but frequently turn and look back. Notice the features of the country behind you, to see what your road will look like in coming back again.

In the streets of a strange town a Girl Scout will mark her way by the principal buildings and side-streets, and in any case she will notice what shops she passes and what is in their windows; also what vehicles pass her, and such details as whether the horses’ harness and shoes are all right; and most especially what people she passes, what their faces are like, their dress, their boots, and their way of walking, so that if, for instance, she should be asked by a policeman, “Have you seen a man with dark overhanging eyebrows, dressed in a blue suit, going down this street?” she should be able to give some such answer as “Yes; he was walking a little lame with the right foot, wore foreign-looking boots, was carrying a parcel in his hand; he turned down Gold Street, the second turning on the left from here, about three minutes ago.”

Information of that kind has often been of the greatest value in tracing out a criminal, but so many people go along with their eyes shut and never notice things.

Wheel tracks should also be studied till you can tell the difference between the track of a gun, a carriage, a country car, motor-car or a bicycle, and the direction they were going in.

In the story of Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, there is an account of two boys being taught “observation,” in order to become detectives by means of a game in which a trayful of small objects was shown to them for a minute and was then covered over, and they had to describe all the things on it from memory.

We will have that game, as it is excellent practice for Scouts.

Details of People.—It is of interest when you are travelling by train or tram to notice little things about your fellow-travellers—their faces, dress, way of talking, and so on—so that you could describe them each pretty accurately afterwards; and also try and make out from their appearance and behavior whether they are rich or poor (which you can generally tell from their boots), and what is their probable business, whether they are happy, or ill, or in want of help.

But in doing this you must not let them see you are watching them, else it puts them on their guard.

Reading a Meaning in Sign.—It is said that you can tell a man’s character from the way he wears his hat. If it is slightly on one side, the wearer is good-natured; if it is worn very much on one side, he is a swaggerer; if on the back of his head, he is bad at paying his debts; if worn straight on the top, he is probably honest but very dull.

The way a man (or a woman) walks is often a good guide to his character—witness the fussy, swaggering little man paddling along with short steps and much arm-action; the nervous man’s hurried, jerky stride; the slow slouch of the loafer; the smooth, quick, and silent step of the Scout, and so on.

With a little practice in observation you can tell pretty accurately a man’s character from his dress.

How would you recognize that a gentleman was fond of fishing? If you see his left cuff with little tufts of cloth sticking up, you may be sure he fishes. When he takes his flies off the line he will either stick them into his cap to dry, or hook them into his sleeve. When dry he pulls them out, which often tears a thread or two of the cloth.

It is surprising how much of the sole of the shoes you can see when behind a person walking—and it is equally surprising how much meaning you can read from that shoe. It is said that to wear out soles and heels equally is to give evidence of business capacity and honesty; to wear your heels down on the outside means that you are a person of imagination and love of adventure; but heels worn down on the inside signify weakness and indecision of character, and this last sign is more infallible in the case of man than in that of woman.

Remember how “Sherlock Holmes” met a stranger and noticed that he was looking fairly well-to-do, in new clothes with a mourning band on his sleeve, with a soldierly bearing and a sailor’s way of walking, sunburns, with tattoo marks on his hands, and he was carrying some children’s toys in his hand. What would you have supposed that man to be? Well, Sherlock Holmes guessed correctly that he had lately retired from the Marines as a sergeant, that his wife had died, and that he had some small children at home.

Details in the Country.—If you are in the country, you should notice landmarks—that is, objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost—such as distant hills and church towers; and nearer objects, such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc.

And remember in noticing such landmarks that you may want to use your knowledge of them some day for telling some one else how to find his way, so you must notice them pretty closely so as to be able to describe them unmistakably and in their proper order. You must notice and remember every by-road and footpath.

Remembrance of these things will help you to find your way by night or in fog when other people are losing themselves.

Using your Eyes.—Let nothing be too small for your notice—a button, a match, a hair, a cigar ash, a feather, or a leaf might be of great importance, even a fingerprint which is almost invisible to the naked eye has often been the means of detecting a crime.

Not long ago a lady reported to the police that she was sitting in her room reading quietly in the corner when a ragged-looking man crept in at the open window, seized hold of a silver vase, and was in the act of making off with it when a sound outside disturbed him.

He put down the vase again, ran away across the lawn, jumped a low hedge, and got away.

Detectives came and examined the ground, but could find no footmarks even at the spot where the man had landed from his jump. Then they inspected the vase very carefully, and examined the fingers of the different people in the house.

They then reported that nobody except the maid had handled the vase and that nobody had gone across the lawn or jumped the hedge.

It was afterwards found that the lady was subject to delusions, and had imagined the whole thing, but the detectives had arrived at the same conclusion through examining the fingermarks and signs.

When out in the country you must keep your eyes about you and not merely notice small signs close to you, but other signs far away as well—such as dust flying, birds startled, unnatural movements of bush or grass, and also keep your ears open for sounds such as cracking of a twig, dogs suddenly barking and so on.

The battle of Boomplatz, fought by the British against the Boers, was successful for us partly because Sir Harry Smith, the Commander, noticed some buck in the distance suddenly startled and running for no apparent reason, but his suspicions being aroused he sent scouts to investigate, and they found a Boer force trying to form an ambush for him, and he was able to defeat their aims in consequence.

By night of course you must use your ears instead of your eyes and practice at this helps to make perfect.

A trained Scout will see little signs and tracks, she puts them together in her mind, and quickly reads a meaning from them such as an untrained woman would never arrive at.

And from frequent practice she gets to read the meaning at a glance, just as you do a book, without the delay of spelling out each word, letter by letter.

I was one day, during the Matabele War [show on map] with a native out scouting near to the Matopo Hills over a wide grassy plain. Suddenly we crossed a track freshly made in grass, where the blades of grass were still green and damp, though pressed down; all were bending one way, which showed the direction in which the people had been travelling. Following up the track for a bit it got on to a patch of sand, and we then saw that it was the spoor of several women (small feet with straight edge, and short steps) and boys (small feet, curved edge, and longer strides), walking, not running, towards the hills, about five miles away, where we believed the enemy to be hiding.

Then we saw a leaf lying about ten yards off the track. There were no trees for miles, but we knew that trees having this kind of leaf grew at a village fifteen miles away, in the direction from which the footmarks were coming. It seemed likely therefore that the women had come from that village, bringing the leaf with them, and had gone to the hills.

On picking up the leaf we found it was damp, and smelled of native beer. The short steps showed that the women were carrying loads. So we guessed that according to the custom they had been carrying pots of native beer on their heads, the mouths of the pots being stopped up with bunches of leaves. One of these leaves had fallen out; but we found it ten yards off the track, which showed that at the time it fell a wind was blowing. There was no wind now, i. e., seven o’clock, but there had been some about five o’clock.

So we guessed from all these little signs that a party of women and boys had brought beer during the night from the village 15 miles away, and had taken it to the enemy on the hills, arriving there soon after six o’clock.

The men would probably start to drink the beer at once (as it goes sour in a few hours), and would, by the time we could get there, be getting sleepy and keeping a bad look-out, so we should have a favourable chance of looking at their position.

We accordingly followed the women’s track, found the enemy, made our observations, and got away with our information without any difficulty.

And it was chiefly done on the evidence of that one leaf. So you see the importance of noticing even a little thing like that.

Girl Scout Hunting.—One Scout is given time to go out and hide herself, the remainder then start to find her; she wins if she is not found, or if she can get back to the starting-point within a given time without being touched.

Dispatch Running.—A Scout is told to bring a note to a certain spot or house from a distance within a given time: other hostile Scouts are told to prevent any message getting to this place, and to hide themselves at different points to stop the dispatch carrier getting in with it.

To count as a capture, two Scouts must touch the dispatch runner before she reaches the spot for delivering the message.

Relay Race.—One patrol pitted against another to see who can get a message sent a long distance in shortest time by means of relays of runners or cyclists. The patrol is ordered out to send in three successive notes or tokens (such as sprigs of certain plants), from a point, say, two miles distant or more. The leader in taking her patrol out to the spot, drops Scouts at convenient distances, who will then act as runners from one post to the next and back. If relays are posted in pairs, messages can be passed both ways.

Stalking.—Captain acts as a deer—not hiding, but standing, moving a little now and then if she likes.

Scouts go out to find, and each in her own way tries to get up to her unseen.

Directly the Captain sees a Scout she directs her to stand up as having failed. After a certain time the Captain calls “Time,” all stand up at the spot which they have reached, and the nearest wins.

The same game may be played to test the Scouts in stepping lightly—the umpire being blindfolded. The practice should preferably be carried out where there are dry twigs lying about, and gravel, etc. The Scout may start to stalk the blind enemy at 100 yards’ distance, and she must do it fairly fast—say, in one minute and a half—to touch the blind man before she hears her.

Stalking and Reporting.—The umpire places herself out in the open and sends each Scout or pair of Scouts away in different directions about half a mile off. When she waves a flag, which is the signal to begin, they all hide, and then proceed to stalk her, creeping up and watching all she does. When she waves the flag again, they rise, come in, and report each in turn all that she did, either by handing in a written report or verbally, as may be ordered. The umpire meantime has kept a look-out in each direction, and, every time she sees a Scout, she takes two points off that Scout’s score. She, on her part, performs small actions, such as sitting down, kneeling up, looking through glasses, using handkerchief, taking hat off for a bit, walking round in a circle a few times, to give Scouts something to note and report about her. Scouts are given three points for each act reported correctly. It saves time if the umpire makes out a scoring card beforehand, giving the name of each Scout, and a number of columns showing each act of her, and what mark that Scout wins, also a column of deducted marks for exposing themselves.

The “Spider and Fly” game as described in the English book “Scouting for Boys” is also a proper one and useful for training in observation.

Plant Race.—The Scouts start off either cycling or on foot, to go in any direction they like to get a specimen of any ordered plants, a horseshoe mark from a chestnut tree, a briar rose or something of the kind, whichever the Captain may order, such as will tax their knowledge of plants and will test their memory as to where they noticed one of the kind required, and will also make them quick in getting there and back.

Leaf Trail.—It is supposed that a crime has been done, and in the search for the culprits who have hidden themselves, the police were helped in tracing the track by articles left behind them. The fugitives leave behind a dozen of certain leaves, such as oak, or chestnut or fir, laid in the order in which those trees come on the track. The trackers take note of these during the fifteen minutes start. The trackers must then follow wherever these trees are to be found, in the right order, until they can find the fugitives. Should they not be successful another day may be spent over it.

It is an interesting thing to take as the object of a walk the selection of a house where you would like to live. Notice the position, estimate the cost of rent, rates, taxes, etc., notice its garden and how you would utilise it, and, inside, what kind of wall-paper, etc., you would select so it would be homely and not merely for show, in good taste and not tawdry, airy and not stuffy with too many hangings, which will clean, and so on. Proximity to the necessary supply shops, doctor, telephone, post office, and so on should all be taken into consideration, and it is rather amusing to compare notes with the rest of your Patrol at the end of your expedition, and see how many got on the same house.

Practices in Observation.—Instructor can take the finger-marks of each girl. Lightly rub the thumb on blacklead or on paper that is blackened with pencil, then press the thumb on paper and examine with magnifying glass. Show that no two people’s prints are alike.

In Towns.—Practice your girls first in walking down a street to notice the different kinds of shops as they pass, and to remember them in their proper sequence at the end.

Then to notice and remember the names of the shops.

Then to notice and remember the contents of a shop window after two minutes’ gaze. Finally, to notice the contents of several shop windows in succession with half a minute at each. Give marks for the fullest list.

The Scouts must also notice prominent buildings as landmarks, and the number of turnings off the street they are using.

In the Country.—Take the patrol out for a walk and teach the girls to notice distant prominent features such as hills, church steeples, and so on; and as nearer landmarks such things as peculiar buildings, trees, rocks, gates, by-roads or paths, nature of fences, crops, different kinds of trees, birds, animals, tracks, people, vehicles, etc. Also any peculiar smells of plants, animals, manure, etc.; whether gates or doors were open or shut, whether any smoke from chimney, etc.

Send Scouts out in pairs.

It adds to the value of the practice if the instructor makes a certain number of small marks in the ground beforehand, or leaves buttons or matches, etc., for the girls to notice or to pick up and bring in (as a means of making them examine the ground close to them as well as distant objects.)

Practices in Natural History.—Take out Scouts to get specimens of leaves, fruits, or blossoms of various trees, shrubs, etc., and observe the shape and nature of the tree both in summer and in winter.

Collect leaves of different trees; let Scouts make tracings of them and write the name of the tree on each.

In the country make Scouts examine crops in all stages of their growth, so that they know pretty well by sight what kind of crop is coming up.

Start gardens if possible; either a patrol garden or individual Scout gardens. Let them grow flowers and vegetables for profit to pay for their equipment, etc. Show all the wild plants which may be made use of for food. Find yew trees; report if any good branches to make archers’ bows of.

Encourage the keeping of live pets, whether birds, animals, reptiles, insects. Show how to keep illustrated diary-records of plants, insects, birds, etc., giving dates when seen for comparison following year and showing their peculiar markings, form, etc.

If in a town take your Scouts to the Zoological Gardens, menagerie, or Natural History Museum, and show them particular animals on which you are prepared to lecture. Not more than half a dozen for one visit.

If in the country get farmer or shepherd to help with information on the habits of farm animals, e.g., how a cow lies down and when. How to milk, stalk rabbits, water voles, trout, birds, etc., and watch their habits.

The aim in your Nature study is to develop a realisation of God the Creator, and to infuse a sense of the beauty of Nature.

How to make a Fire.—You should learn how to lay and light a fire out of doors.

Remember the usual fault of a “tender-pad” or beginner, is to try to make too big a fire. You will never see a backwoodsman do that—he uses the smallest possible amount of wood for his fire.

First collect your firewood. Green, fresh-cut wood is no good, nor is dead wood that has lain long on the ground. Get permission to break off dead branches for it.

To make your fire you put a few sticks flat on the ground, especially if the ground be damp. On this flooring lay your “punk”—that is, paper, shavings, inner skin of the bark of the tree, splinters, or any other material that will easily catch fire from your match.

On this you pile, in pyramid fashion, thin twigs, splinters, and slithers of dry wood, leaning on the “punk” and against each other. These are called kindling. A few stouter sticks are added over them to make the fire.

A good kind of kindling can easily be made by slitting a stick into several slices or shavings, as shown. This is called a firestick.

If stood up, with the shavings downwards towards the ground, it quickly catches light and flares up.

Set light to this, putting your match under the bottom of the “punk.” When the wood has really got on fire, add more and larger sticks, and finally logs, which should be placed star-shape, like spokes of a wheel.

For a cooking fire you want to make lots of red-hot embers, so use sticks about half or three-quarters of an inch thick.

For a signalling fire to make a flare at night use dry gorse, straw, or dry twigs in large quantities.

For a smoke signalling fire use plenty of thin dry sticks and twigs to give burning flame, and add leaves and grass to make the smoke.

One of the ripping things about Girl Scout work is the camp life. You go out either to live in farm buildings, or in an empty house, or in tents.

People talk of “roughing it” in tents, but those people are generally Tenderfoots. A wise Scout does not “rough it”; she knows how to look after herself and how to make herself comfortable by a hundred little dodges.

For instance, if the tents have not turned up she doesn’t sit down to shiver and grumble, but at once sets to work to rig up a shelter or hut for herself. She chooses a good spot for it where she is not likely to be flooded out if a rainstorm comes.

Then she lights up a camp fire, cooks her food, and makes herself comfortable on her mattress of ferns or straw.

But to do this she must, of course, have first learnt how to light a fire, how to prepare and cook her food, and how to weave a camp mattress, and so on, all of which she learns in her ordinary training as a Girl Scout.

In camp you learn to make all the different things you want, because there is not always a shop round the corner where you can go and buy them.

The following are a few out of the many things that Scouts learn to do for themselves.

In the Tent.—Scouts are always tidy, whether in camp or not, as a matter of habit. If you are not tidy at home, you won’t be tidy in camp; and if you’re not tidy in camp, you will never be a thorough Scout.

A Scout is tidy alike in her tent, bunk, or room, because she may be suddenly called upon to go off on an alarm, or something unexpected; and if she does not know exactly where to lay her hand on her things, she will be a long time in turning out, especially if called up in the middle of the night. So on going to bed, even when at home, practise the habit of folding up your clothes and putting them where you can at once find them in the dark, and get into them quickly.

Cleaning Camp Ground.—Never forget also that the state of an old camp ground after the camp has finished, tells exactly whether the patrol or troop which has used it was a smart one or not. No Scouts who are any good ever leave a camp ground dirty; they sweep up and bury or burn every scrap of rubbish.

It is important to get into this habit of cleaning up your camp ground before leaving it, as then farmers don’t have the trouble of having to clean their ground after you leave, and they are, therefore, all the more willing to let you use it.

The Woodpecker.—When you find that the ground round a tree is strewn with tiny chips of wood you may know at a glance that a woodpecker is making her nest there. The woodpecker chips away the bark and makes a deep hollow in the trunk. But she has sense enough to know that the chips which fall are telltales, so you may see her making efforts to tidy up the place, and in the end she will go to the trouble of flying away with every little chip and scrap in her beak to a distance, so that no enemy can see that she has been cutting a hole in that tree.

Bathing.—When in camp, bathing will be one of your joys and one of your duties, a joy because it is such fun, a duty because no Scout can consider herself a full-blown Scout until she is able to swim and to save life in the water.

But there are dangers about bathing for which every sensible Scout will be prepared.

First, there is the danger of cramp. This comes very often from staying in the water too long. Ten minutes is ample time as a rule for a girl to be in the water, five minutes is safer.

If you bathe within an hour and a half of taking a meal, that is before your food is digested, you are very likely to get cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs, and down you go and drown.

When bathing is going on there should always be one or two good swimmers on duty as “life savers.” They should not bathe themselves till the others are out of the water, but should be in bathing-dress, ready to jump in at any moment to help any one that they see in difficulties.

This plan is always strictly carried out by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in camp, and has already been the means of saving many lives and from changing a joy-camp into a camp of mourning.

Water Supply.—A Tenderfoot drinks any kind of water that she finds handy, and consequently gets ill after the first day camping out, and has to go home again.

The old campaigner is very careful indeed about getting clean drinking water, and if she is not certain that it is wholesome she will take care to boil it well before drinking it, as this kills all the little germs of disease which exist more or less in all water, however clear it may be.

Cleanliness.—Take special care to keep your kitchen clean, and it will make you more comfortable and more healthy in camp. More comfortable because flies will not infest the place unless they find dirt and scraps to feed upon.

More healthy because if there are flies they always bring poison on to your food. So keep the camp kitchen and ground round it very clean at all times. Dig a small pit a couple of feet deep near the kitchen and throw all refuse that won’t burn into this, and fill in the pit with earth every night.

Tidy up as neatly as the woodpecker does.

Drains.—Also do not neglect to dig a long trench to serve as a latrine. Every camp, even if only for one night, should have a sewer trench two or three feet deep, quite narrow, not more than one foot wide, with screens of canvas or branches on all sides.

Earth should always be thrown in after use, and the trench must be filled up before leaving the place. Even away from camp a small pit should always be dug and filled in with earth after use. It is a cleanly habit for the sake of other people, and also makes the camp healthier.

Neglect of this not only makes a place unhealthy, but it also makes farmers and landowners disinclined to give the use of their ground for Scouts to camp on or to work over. So don’t forget it.

Tidiness.—Tidiness in camp means tidiness in the home and also tidiness in the streets or parks or when out picnicing. Scouts have got a splendid name for cleaning up their camp ground when they leave, although it is not a pleasant duty. They do it because a dirty littered bit of ground is not pleasant for other people to look on or use. Therefore out in the streets or parks or country don’t throw away the bit of paper that held your candy or cake. It not only makes the place look untidy, but it means work for someone else to clear it up. Therefore, carry your paper to the waste-paper bin, or burn or bury it.

How to make a Bed.—To manufacture a bed in camp is a different thing from “making your bed” in a house. To make a bed for camp use the following is the dodge:—

To make a Camp Loom.—Plant a row (1) of five stakes, 2 ft. 6 in. long, firmly in the ground; opposite to them at a distance of 6 ft. to 7 ft., drive in a row of two and a crossbar (2). Fasten a cord or gardener’s twine to the head of each stake in No. 1 row and stretch it to the crossbar in No. 2 and make it fast there, then carry the continuation of it back over No. 1 row for some 5 ft. extra, and fasten it to a loose crossbar or “beam” at exactly the same distance apart from the next cord as it stands at the stakes. This beam is then moved up and down at slow intervals by one Scout, while the others lay bundles of fern, straw, or heather, etc., alternately under and over the stretched strings, which are thus bound in by the rising or falling on to them.

Bleeding.—When a man is bleeding badly from a wound, press the wound or the flesh just above it—that is between the wound and the heart—press it hard with your thumb to try and stop the blood running in the artery. Then make a pad with something like a flat rounded pebble, and bind it over the wound. If bleeding violently, tie a handkerchief loosely round the limb above the wound, and twist it tight with a stick. [Demonstrate this.] Keep the wounded part raised above the rest of the body if possible. Apply cold water, or ice, if possible, wet rags, etc.

Bleeding from the ears and insensibility after a fall mean injury to the skull. The patient should not be moved at all if possible. It is best even to keep him lying on the spot, and put cold water or ice to his head and keep him quiet till a doctor comes.

Spitting or throwing up blood means internal injury or bursting of a small blood-vessel inside the patient. The case often looks more serious than it really is. If the blood is light red in colour and mixed with froth it means injury to the lungs. In either case keep the patient quiet and give ice to suck or cold water to sip.

Don’t be alarmed at the amount of blood that flows from a patient. It used to be a common thing for the barber to bleed a man to the extent of five or six cupfuls of blood, and the patient feels all the better for it.

In addition to the exercises for your body which are given earlier in this book you should understand what they do for you and why you are advised to practise them. It is not for MY amusement! It is for your own health and happiness. And here are a few more tips that will help you to be healthy, and possible wealthy, and certainly wise—if you carry them out.

To make yourself strong and healthy it is necessary to begin with your inside and to get the blood into good order and the heart to work well; that is the secret of the whole thing, physical exercises should be taken with that intention. This is the way to do it:—

(a) Make the heart strong in order to pump the blood properly to every part of the body, and so to build up flesh, bone, and muscle. Exercise: “Swimming” and “Wrist Pushing.”

(b) Make the lungs strong in order to provide the blood with fresh air. Exercise: “Deep breathing.”

(c) Make the skin perspire to get rid of the dirt from the blood. Exercise: Bath, or rub with a damp towel every day.

(d) Make the stomach work to feed the blood. Exercise: “Body bending.”

(e) Make the bowels active to remove the remains of food and dirt from the body. Exercise: “Body bending” and “Kneading the abdomen.” Drink plenty of good water. Punctual daily move of bowels.

(f) Work muscles in each part of the body to make the blood circulate to that part, and so increase your strength. Exercise: Walking and special exercises of special muscles.

The blood thrives on simple good food, plenty of exercise, plenty of fresh air, cleanliness of the body both inside and out, and proper rest of body and mind at intervals.

The Japs are particularly strong and healthy. They eat very plain food, chiefly rice and fruit, and not much of it. They drink plenty of water, but no spirits. They take lots of exercise. They make themselves good-tempered. They live in fresh air as much as possible day and night. Their particular exercise is “Ju-Jitsu,” which is more of a game than drill, and is generally played in pairs. By Ju-Jitsu, the muscles and body are developed in a natural way, in the open air as a rule. It requires no apparatus.

Always breathe through the nose. Shut your Mouth and Save your Life. Indians for a long time adopted that method with their children to the extent of tying up their jaws at night, to ensure their breathing only through their nose.

Breathing through the nose prevents germs of disease getting from the air into the throat and stomach; it also prevents a growth in the back of the throat called “adenoids,” which are apt to stop the breathing power of the nostrils, and also to cause deafness.

For a Scout nose-breathing is also specially useful.

By keeping the mouth shut you prevent yourself from getting thirsty when you are doing hard work. And also at night, if you are in the habit of breathing through the nose, it prevents snoring. Therefore practise keeping your mouth shut and breathing through your nose.

A Scout must be able to hear well. Generally the ears are very delicate, and once damaged are apt to become incurably deaf. People are too apt to fiddle about with their ears in cleaning them by using things which are dangerous with such a sensitive organ as the ear, the drum of the ear being a very delicate, tightly-stretched skin which is easily damaged. Very many children have had the drums of their ears permanently injured by getting a box on the ear, or cleaning them out roughly with the hard corner of a towel.

A Scout, of course, must have particularly good eye-sight; she must be able to see anything very quickly, and to see at a long way off. By practising your eyes in looking at things at a great distance they will grow stronger. While you are young you should save your eyes as much as possible, or they will not be strong when you get older; therefore avoid reading by lamp-light or in the dusk, and also sit with your back or side to the light when doing any work during the day; if you sit facing the light it strains your eyes.

The strain of the eyes is a very common failure with growing girls, although very often they do not know it, and headaches come most frequently from the eyes being strained; frowning on the part of a girl is very generally a sign that her eyes are being strained. Reading in bed brings headaches.

Bad teeth are troublesome, and are often the cause of neuralgia, indigestion, abscesses, and sleepless nights. During the Boer war over three thousand of our soldiers had to be sent away, unfit to fight, because their teeth were so bad that they could not eat the food out there. Good teeth depend greatly on how you look after them when you are young. Attention to the first set of teeth keeps the mouth healthy for the second teeth, which begin to come when a child is seven, and these are meant to last you to the end of your life if you keep them in order.

If one tooth is allowed to decay, it will spread decay in all the others, and this arises from scraps of feed remaining between the teeth and decaying there.

A thorough Scout always brushes her teeth inside and outside and between all, just the last thing at night as well as other times, so that no food remains about them to rot. Scouts in camps or in the wilds of the jungle cannot always buy tooth-brushes, but should a tiger or a crocodile have borrowed yours, you can make your teeth just as bright and white as his are by means of a frayed-out, dry, clean, stick.

The troop forms in horseshoe formation, as in the case of Tenderfoot ceremony, the Captain and Lieutenant standing facing the troop.

Captain: “The Scouts (calling the list of names) have satisfactorily passed all the tests required for a Second Class badge, and are duly qualified to receive that badge.”

The Captain then calls forward, one by one, the girls who are to receive the badge. If there is more than one in a patrol, call all those in the same patrol together with their patrol leader, but go through the form with each individual girl.

Captain: “——————————— (name of girl), do you now pledge yourself to renew your Scout promise, and to fulfill the Scout Law?”

Scout: “On my honor, I now pledge myself to renew the Scout promise and to fulfill the Scout law.”

Captain: “Invest.”

The Scout comes forward and stands at salute while the Captain pins on her sleeve (where it is afterwards to be sewed) the Second Class badge.

Then the Scout salutes and is saluted by the rest of the troop, and returns to her place.

It is of paramount importance to teach the young citizen to assume responsibility for her own development and health.

Physical drill is all very well as a disciplinary means of development, but it does not give the girl any responsibility in the matter.

It is therefore deemed preferable to tell each girl, according to her age, what ought to be her height, weight, and various measurements (such as chest, waist, arm, leg, etc.). She is then measured and learns in which points she fails to come up to the standard. She can then be shown which exercises to practise for herself in order to develop those particular points. Encouragement must afterwards be given by periodical measurements, say, every three months or so.

Cards can be obtained from the “Girl Scouts” Headquarters, which, besides giving the standard measurements for the various ages, give columns to be filled in periodically, showing the girl’s remeasurements and progress in development. If each girl has her card it is a great incentive to her to develop herself at odd times when she has a few minutes to spare.

Skipping, rowing, fencing, swimming, tennis, and hand-ball are all valuable aids to developing strength.

Remember that sitting still is one form of exercise. How can that be? Well, if you remember how you ought to sit and keep yourself up to it you will gradually strengthen the muscles of your back so that in a few weeks you will sit upright naturally without any effort or thought.

You may ask why shouldn’t I sit like that if it is more comfortable. Well, do it if you like, but remember that a large part of your time is spent sitting, sitting at lessons, at meals, when reading or talking, and so on. Nearly one-third of each day you are sitting, and therefore forming yourself into one shape or the other. The thing is to form yourself into the right one.

The wrong one makes you look pretty dowdy and sloppy when you are going about, but worse than that it lets your lungs slack down and the muscles of the stomach relax, so that instead of drawing the full breath of air into your chest for renewing your blood you are only breathing in a little driblet almost down in your stomach.

So buck up: correct your position while your muscles are still young and forming themselves; later on, when they are “set” you won’t be able to alter them. So it just depends on you yourself whether you are going to be a fine upstanding healthy woman or a sloppy old thing.

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Why is a Second-Class Scout like an advertisement of Pears’ Soap? Because she sees the First Class Badge within her reach if she only tries for it and “she won’t be happy till she get it.”

At any rate I hope she won’t, because a Scout who is content to sit down and be a Second Class Scout is only a third class girl.

It is true that when she has got her Second Class, she can go in for Proficiency Badges and cover her arm with them, but I would much rather see a Scout with the one Badge of First Class on her left arm than one with a dozen on her right.

After all the First Class tests are not so very hard. They look a lot, but like many other difficulties in this world they are not so bad as they look when you smile at them and tackle them.

Here are the tests that you have to go through for becoming First Class Scouts:—

To become a First Class Girl Scout, she must have been a Second Class Scout.

I. Intelligence.

II. Handicraft and Skill.

III. Service.

IV. Health.

Once I paid a Boer five pounds for a map which he drew for me with a stub of a pencil on a bit of brown paper. He had never learnt drawing or mapping, but he was able to jot down a map that was of great value to me in a campaign against the Zulus.

Almost any savage can draw you a map in the sand with the point of his stick: so I am sure that any Scout could do it on paper with a pencil—especially after a little practice.

You know how useful it is to be able to read a map. Well, it is still more useful to be able to draw one for helping other people to find their way. You would not be a real Scout unless you could do this.

The above signs are the conventional signs used in map-making. Contouring is most easily explained by cutting an apple in half and placing the halves face downwards, to represent a hill. You can then slice the pieces horizontally at regular distances to illustrate heights, as shown on a map.

Every Scout must be able to judge distance from an inch up to a mile and more. You ought, first of all, to know exactly what is the span of your hand and the breadth of your thumb, and the length from your elbow to your wrist, and the length from one hand to the other with your arms stretched out to either side, and also the length of your feet and of your stride; if you remember these accurately, they are a great help to you in measuring things.

Judging the distance of objects from you is only gained by practice, and judging the distance of a journey is generally estimated by seeing how long you have been travelling, and at what rate; that is to say, supposing you walk at the rate of four miles an hour, if you have been walking for an hour and a half you know that you have done about six miles.

Distance can also be judged by sound; that is to say, if you see a gun fired in the distance, and you count the number of seconds between the flash and the sound of the explosion reaching you, you will be able to tell how far off you are from the gun.

Sound travels at the rate of 365 yards in a second; that is, as many yards as there are days in the year.

A Scout must also be able to estimate heights, from a few inches up to three thousand feet or more.

The way to estimate the distance across a river is to take an object X, such as a tree or rock on the opposite bank; start off at right angles to it from A, and pace, say, ninety yards along your bank; on arriving at sixty yards, plant a stick or stone, B; on arriving at C, thirty yards beyond that, that is ninety from the start, turn at right angles and walk inland, counting your paces until you bring the stick and the distant tree in line; the number of paces that you have taken from the bank C D will then give you the half distance across A X.

To find the height of an object such as a tree (A X), or a house, pace a distance of, say, eight yards away from it, and there at B plant a stick, say, six feet high; then pass on until you arrive at a point where the top of the stick comes in line C with the top of the tree; then the whole distance A C from the foot is to A X, the height of the tree, the same as the distance B C, from the stick, is to the height of the stick; that is, if the whole distance A C is thirty-three feet, and the distance B C from the stick is nine (the stick being six feet high), the tree is twenty-two feet high.

Learn how to recognize the Great Bear and the Pole Star and Orion; to judge time by the sun; find the south by the watch. Practise map reading and finding the way by the map; and mark off roads by blazing, broken branches, and signs drawn on the ground.

Captain takes a patrol in patrolling formation into a strange town or into an intricate piece of strange country, with a cycling map. She then gives instructions as to where she wants to go to, makes each Scout in turn lead the patrol, say, for seven minutes if cycling, fifteen minutes if walking. This Scout is to find the way entirely by the map, and points are given for ability in reading.

To be a first-class Scout you have to have at least a shilling (or a dollar or a rupee) in the Savings Bank. To do this you apply at your post office to start a deposit. The postmaster will take your money and keep it for you, and whenever you can get a few more pennies or dimes go and hand them in to be added to your account. As these sums mount up you will begin to be paid back a little “interest” by the postmaster. This you can spend on candy—if you are foolish; but being a Scout you will add it to the money already in the bank and so increase your pile.

You know the things that you had to do as a Tenderfoot. It is now your business to do a good turn to another girl by showing her how to become a Scout. Mind you, it is all done by kindness and example. Perhaps you will find your pupil very shy or slow or stupid. Well, Be Prepared, for that and—smile. Be jolly with her. Don’t try and teach her everything all at once. Show her generally all that she has to do and then begin with one thing and do it for her—then repeat it with her—and finally let her do it for herself. Let her make her mistakes at first and show her afterwards where she went wrong. She will soon get the hang of it all.

Then your own example is what will influence her a lot. If you get impatient and short-tempered so will she. If you laugh and enjoy the lesson so will she, and between you, you will get along like a house on fire.

Cooking is great fun—sometimes quite exciting, when you try inventing new dishes.

You can only become a cook by practice under the help of an experienced cook. But here are a few practical hints that will be helpful.

Eggs.—Is an egg lighter or heavier when cooked? An experienced cook is experienced in eggs. There are “new laid” eggs which are fresh and “fresh” eggs which are not; there are “cooking” eggs which are liable to squeak. Eggs are safe in their shells, and think you don’t know whether they are fresh or not, or whether they are raw. Any egg can be thrown out of a first-floor window on to the lawn without the shell breaking, it falls like a cat, right end upwards, and this is not a boiled egg, either! You can tell that because it will not spin on the table, so it must have been a raw egg. A cooked egg would spin.

To tell a stale egg, you will see it is more transparent at the thick end when you hold it up to the light.

Fresh eggs are more transparent in the middle. Very bad eggs will float in a pan of water.

Poached Eggs.—Break each egg separately into a cup. When your water is boiling fast, drop in an egg sharply. Use a large deep pan, with salt and vinegar in the water. Lift the egg very carefully in a ladle before it is set too hard. Place the eggs all round a soup plate, pour over them a nice sauce, made with flour and butter, a little milk, and some grated cheese and salt.

Meat.—Examine the meat before you accept it. If you do not know the looks of good meat, you should go to a butcher’s shop and ask him to show you how to know it. Much gristle is a sign of old age. You can easily tell if meat smells disagreeable. Beef should be of a bright red color, and juicy and elastic. The fat should be firm and of a pale straw color. Mutton should feel dryish and the fat look white. All papers must be taken off at once. The feet of fowls should be soft and flexible, not dry, and the skin of the back should not be discolored.

Beef and mutton, when underdone, are more easily digested than when cooked through.

Roasting and grilling of meat is done to so heat the outside that the juices are kept in. The meat has to be frequently turned to prevent it burning, but allow plenty of salt to melt into the meat with the dripping, or it will taste just as good as a sole of a boot.

As Mr. Holding said: “The only method I know of for properly making your meat thoroughly indigestible” is to hurry a stew.

To stew or braise any meat or fowl you must leave it long and keep it slow. The flavor is improved if the meat be fried first. Then put in flavoring vegetables, bacon, herbs, and a little stock, and by the time you have done a day’s work you will find a dish fit for a king. Even tough meat can be made delicious in this way, so long as it never gets near boiling and is closely covered. This is a case of “Sow hurry, and you reap indigestion.”

Fish.—A most unwholesome food is stale fish. The gills, if fresh, should be bright red. Canned fish is often poisonous. Fish is a food which you can get more good from, considering the price, than if you bought meat, and the most nourishing fish and the cheapest are the herring mackerel. Pieces of fish, buttered, can be deliciously steamed or baked if laid between two plates over a saucepan of water.

Oatmeal.—Oats, too, are full of value; a pound and a half a day will keep a hard-working man, for oatmeal increases the power of the muscles, and is rich in bone and flesh-forming materials. What you can get out of oats for 5 cents would cost you 75 cents in lean beef. Oats give increased mental vigour and vitality, as they have so much nerve and brain nourishment in them.

Oatmeal should be kept fresh in a shut case or package.

If you think your brain requires a fillip, eat plenty of beans, but they must be very much cooked, and should be well buttered.

Vegetables.—Of vegetables I should like to say they can scarcely be too much cooked. Wash well in salted water; let leafy ones have a swim to get rid of grasshoppers and caterpillars and sand, then put them into boiling salted water and take off the lid. Roots may be allowed covers.

Peel and slice your onions under water or at a tap.

I once watched a grand chef cooking potatoes, and he told me that the best of the potato lies next the skin, so he never cuts it, but he peels his potatoes on a fork after boiling. The cunning cook boils a bunch of mint with the potatoes.

Excellent food for workers are parsnips, beetroots, or onions.

Boiling Meat.—If you want the meat and not the juice, you should have your pot boiling fast when the meat is put in. But if you want gravy or beef-tea (not meat), put your meat into cold water and bring it slowly to the boil.

Stock Pot.—Keep a pot going all day, into which you can put any broken-up bones or scraps left over, to make nourishing broth. Clean turnips, carrots, and onions improve it. Before using let it get cold, so as to skim off the fat.

Barley, rice, or tapioca may be added, and for flavoring add salt, pepper, chopped parsley, celery, a clove, or mace.

Milk.—Milk will take the flavor of any strong smell near it. Stale milk added to fresh will turn the whole of it sour. Sour milk need not be wasted. You can use it for baking or cooking, by adding bicarbonate of soda. Sour milk will clean ink or fruit stains, and in washing it bleaches linen. Yellowed linen should soak in it, so should spoons and forks. Sour milk cleanses oil-cloth as well as women’s faces and hands. Chickens and turkeys get fat and lay better for being fed on it.

To weigh roughly, tie a loop of string to your package of tea, sugar, etc., and pass it on to your first finger. I find three pounds is as much as I can hold on my nail. If the loop is shifted to the root of the nail, four pounds is all one can hold. If the string is placed on the first joint, I find the parcel weighs seven pounds. Each person will be different, but you can find out your own power of lifting, and then you will know exactly for the future.

A jolly useful thing for saving coal, saving time, and saving money is a Fireless Cooker.

The Fireless Cooker is a very valuable help to you in your enjoyment of camp, because once you have started the food cooking you shove it in the Fireless Cooker, you press the lid, and the Fireless Cooker does the rest!

And you can leave the dinner to cook itself while you go out and play camp games.

And so, too, in your own home, once you have started the food cooking you can put out the fire, and thus save fuel or gas, and let the Fireless Cooker finish the job for you.

Obtain a large wooden box, such as a soap box. Line with double newspaper. Fill the box to within two or three inches of the top with very tightly packed hay, scoop out of the centre of the hay a cavity large enough to hold the cooking utensil. Make a cushion of house flannel to fit the top of the box exactly and stuff it tightly with hay.

Use saucepans with tightly fitting lids and short handles. Those made of aluminum or earthenware are preferable. Jam jars or large tins tightly covered may be used.

Bring the food to boiling point on the gas cooker or kitchen range and while boiling place it at once in the box. Some foods require a certain amount of cooking previous to being placed in the Fireless Cooker. (See table below.)

Wrap the cooking utensil in newspaper, and place in the prepared nest in the Fireless Cooker.

Over this place the hay cushion and close the lid firmly. There must be no space between the cushion and the lid.

Note.—To obtain satisfactory results, pack the stew-pan as quickly and firmly as possible; this is to prevent loss of heat.

Meat.—Cook for about half the usual time on the gas or kitchen range, and about four to six hours in the Fireless Cooker.

Dried Beans.—Soak overnight. Boil for 30 minutes. Allow three to four hours in the cooker.

Fresh Fruit.—Bring to boiling point and place in the cooker at once. Allow one or two hours, according to the firmness of the fruit.

Dried Fruit.—Soak overnight, bring to boiling point and put in the cooker for three to five hours.

Oatmeal.—Boil for five minutes and leave in the cooker all night.

Quaker Oats.—Bring to boiling point and leave in the cooker two hours.

Other foods, such as vegetables, bacon, etc., can be cooked by this method.

In the preparation and cooking of food there should be very little for the garbage can, and only cabbage or egg water for the drain.

Thick stems of cabbage or cauliflower leaves may be served with the vegetables or separately, if given sufficient time to cook.

Water from boiled cauliflower makes a good soup.

Apple skins—stones from jam—the surplus water from bottled fruit—boiled with a little sugar and water make a very good fruit syrup to serve with milk or suet puddings.

The sugar from candied peel will sweeten and flavor a rice pudding.

Water from boiled rice makes a thin stock for soups, or can be used to stiffen articles of clothing in place of starch.

The grease-proof paper from margarine, etc., will cover steamed puddings.

Salt removes stains from enamel.

Tissue paper cut into rounds and dipped in warm milk will make air-tight covers for jam-pots, or can be used for polishing glass or metal.

Newspapers can be used for lining the fireless cooker, wiping greasy saucepans or knives before washing, making fire lighters, rubbing over the stoves—the dirty pieces can be soaked in water, made into balls and put on the fire to keep it at a steady heat.

Dried orange skins, nutshells, used matches, matchboxes, empty reels, fruit stones, are useful for fire lighting.

Vegetable parings not fit for food should be dried and used as fuel unless animals are kept.

The stove and utensils should be kept clean.

Shallow flat-bottomed vessels should be used.

A compartment steamer cooks three or four different foods on one burner.

A pudding in a basin can be raised out of water by a meat stand placed at the bottom of an ordinary saucepan—and vegetables cooked in a perforated steam pan above.

Where possible arrange a meal to be cooked all on the top of the stove, or all in the oven.

Avoid heating the oven to cook a single dish.

Utilise all space when the oven is heated—food may be partly or wholly cooked for following day.

In a gas oven three or four small tins are better than one large tin which fills the shelf. By the former method free circulation of heat is not prevented, and cooking is more efficient. If a large tin is used, have holes drilled in it to allow passage of heat.

Fill the kettle before lighting the gas, and turn out the gas before emptying the kettle.

Don’t fill the kettle if only a pint of water is wanted.

Tips for Cleaning.—Directly your cooking pot is empty pour cold water into it and put it on the fire to prevent the leavings getting hard, it will then be quite easy to clean later on.

Personally I like washing up, though some people don’t, but the main thing is to keep the greasy things to the last. Wash the cleaner things first in hot water with a clean dishcloth, then add hotter water and deal with the greasy things.

Dry the utensils with a dry towel, then dry further in warm air, and finally polish with a soft cloth.

Needlework.—“A stitch in time saves nine.” I cannot agree with this favorite saying, because I feel sure it saves so many more than nine, besides saving time and preventing looking untidy.

I will tell you another thing I don’t believe in. Tailors, who are such neat workers, will say that they never pin their work first. If you are not a tailor, it is much better to place your work before you begin, with plenty of pins. You will never get straight lines or smooth corners if you do not plan and place it all first, just as it has got to be, and tack it there.

Have you noticed that thread is very fond of tying itself into a bow; but this can be prevented by threading the needle before you cut the thread off the spool, making your knot at the end you cut.

Rough measures may be said to be one inch across a 25 cent piece, and a yard from nose to thumb as far as you can reach. Needle-work is good for all of us; it rests and calms the mind. You can think peacefully over all the worries of Europe whilst you are stitching. Sewing generally solves all the toughest problems, chiefly other people’s.

The Scouts’ Patch.—I don’t know whether you ever did such a thing as burn a hole in your dress, but I have, and if it is in the front, oh, dear! what will mother say? Now, there is a very good way that Scouts have of making it all right and serviceable; they put in a piece and darn it in all round. If possible, get a piece of the same stuff, then it will not fade a different tint, and will wear the same as the rest. You may undo the hem and cut out a bit, or perhaps you may have some scraps over from cutting out your dress.

The piece must be cut three or four inches larger than the hole and frayed out on all four sides. Trim the hole with your scissors neatly all round quite square with the thread. Then lay your piece over the hole—of course, on the back or “wrong side”—and tack it there with cotton. Now take a darning needle, and thread each thread in turn and darn each one into the stuff. If the ends of stuff are very short, it is best to run your needle in and out where you are going to darn, and then, before pulling it through, thread it with the wool. This patching is excellent for table-linen.

I once had an aunt who was a thorough old Scout, and was rather proud of her mending, and she always said that she didn’t mind what colored cotton you gave her to sew with, because her stitches hardly ever showed, they were so small, and also she put them inside the stuff. If she was putting on a patch to blue stuff, she could do it with red cotton, and you would never have noticed it on the right side; her stitches were all under the edge. Or else she sewed it at the back, on the “wrong” side, so that it looked perfectly neat.

If you are not able to match the wool for a darn, it is a good plan to use the ravellings of the stuff itself. Sometimes, away in the country, you can’t go to shop and you have nothing like the piece you want to mend. A Scout would turn it inside out and undo a little of the hem and ravel out the edge. Suppose you were to cut a hole in the front of your blue serge skirt; if you darn it with the ravellings of the turnings of the seam or the hem, that will be exactly the same color and the same thickness as your dress. No wool you could buy would match as well. Or if you want to mend a jersey or knitted gloves, you never could buy such a good match—the same sized wools and the tints.

Fire.—If you discover a house on fire you should—

1st—Alarm the people inside.

2nd—Warn the nearest policeman or fire-brigade station.

3rd—Rouse neighbours to bring ladders, mattresses, carpets, to catch people jumping.

After arrival of fire engines the best thing girls can do is to help the police in keeping back the crowd out of the way of the firemen, hose, etc.

If it is necessary to go into a house to search for feeble insensible people, the thing is to place a wet handkerchief or worsted stocking over your nose and mouth and walk in a stooping position, or crawl along on your hands and knees quite near the floor, as it is here that there is least smoke or gas. Also, for passing through fire and sparks, if you can, get hold of a blanket, and wet it, and cut a hole in the middle through which to put your head; it forms a kind of fireproof mantle, with which you can push through flames and sparks. [Practice this.]

If you find a person with his clothes on fire, you should throw him flat on the floor, because flames only burn upwards, then roll him up in the hearthrug or carpet, coat or blanket, and take care in doing so that you don’t catch fire yourself. The reason for doing this is that fire cannot continue to burn where it has no air.

When you find an insensible person (and very often in their fright they will have hidden themselves under beds and tables, etc.), you should either carry him out on your shoulder, or, what is often more practicable in the case of heavy smoke, gas fumes, or in battle when under heavy fire, etc., harness yourself on to him with sheets or cords and drag him out of the room along the floor, crawling on all fours yourself.

A soldier was recently awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for thus getting his wounded officer into safety while being fired at by the enemy.

To do this you lay the patient on his back, make a bowline at each end of your rope, one you put over the patient’s chest and under his arms, and the other over your own neck, then with your back to his head you start on “all fours” to pull him along, head first. If the bowline is the right length it will keep his head up off the ground, as the picture shows.

Burns.—In treating a man who has been burnt, remove his clothes, not by peeling them off, but by cutting them with a SHARP knife or scissors. If any part of the dress sticks to the skin from having been burnt there do not tear it away, but cut the cloth round it, then as quickly as possible protect the burnt parts from the air, which causes intense pain. The best way to protect them is by dusting them with powdered chalk or flour, or by laying strips of lint well soaked in sweet oil or linseed oil, and covering the whole with cotton wool, or by pouring on oil. Keep the patient warm, and give warm drinks, such as hot tea, hot milk, or salomonia and water.

Major John Garroway, M.D., strongly recommends, instead of flour or oil to stop the pain of a burn, to put a piece of paper firmly over the wound, and the pain will be relieved in a few seconds.

Quite a large number of Scouts have saved lives in the water through knowing how to swim and what to do. Several Scouts have also saved life in fire, and have received medals for saving life.

Saving Life from Drowning.—A moderate swimmer can save a drowning man if she knows how, and has practised it a few times with her friends. The popular idea that a drowning person rises three times before he finally sinks is all nonsense. He often drowns at once, unless someone is quick to help him. The important point is not to let the drowning person catch hold of you, or he will probably drown you too. Keep behind him always. If you find yourself clutched by the wrist, turn your wrist against his thumb and force yourself free. Your best way in helping a drowning man is to keep behind and hold him up by the elbows, or by the back of the neck, or by putting your arms under his armpits and your hands across his chest, and telling him to keep quiet and not to struggle. If he obeys, you can easily keep him afloat; but otherwise be careful that in his terror he does not turn over and catch hold of you. If he should seize you by the neck, Holbein says, “Scrag him, and scrag him quickly. Place your arm round his waist, and the other hand, palm upwards, under his chin, with your fingertips under his nose. Pull and push with all your might, and he must perforce let go.” But you will never remember this unless you practise it frequently with other people first, each taking it in turns to be the drowning man or rescuer.

[Practice this.]

If you see a person fall into the water and begin to drown, and you yourself are unable to swim, you must throw a rope, or an oar, or plank right over him, so that when he comes up again he may clutch at it and hold it.

Drowning.—To restore any one who is apparently drowned, it is necessary at once to clear the water out of his lungs, for which purpose, therefore, you should incline him face downwards and head downwards, so that the water may run out of his mouth, and to help it you should open his mouth and pull forward his tongue. After running the water out of the patient, place him on his side with his body slightly hanging down, and keep the tongue hanging out. If he is breathing, let him rest; if he is not breathing, you must at once endeavour to restore breathing artificially.

There are several ways of reviving persons apparently drowned. You may find one person eager to do exactly the opposite of another, but do not fight over it; the best thing is to do quickly whatever you can. Probably “Schäfer’s system” is the simplest. Lay the patient down with his bent arm to support the forehead.

Place your hands on the small of the patient’s back, one on each side, with thumbs parallel and nearly touching, and the fingers reaching only to the lowest ribs.

Bend forward with the arms straight, so as to allow the weight of your body to fall on your wrists, and then make a firm, steady downward pressure on the loins of the patient, while you count slowly, one—two—three, to press the patient’s stomach against the ground and to force the air from his chest.

Then swing your body backwards so as to relieve the pressure, and without removing your hands, while you count slowly, one—two.

Continue this backward and forward movement, alternately relieving and pressing the patient’s stomach against the ground in order to drive the air out of his chest and mouth, and allowing it to suck itself in again, until gradually the patient begins to do it for himself.

The proper pace for the movement should be about twelve pressures to the minute.

As soon as the patient is breathing, you can leave off the pressure; but watch him, and if he fails you must start again or get some one to take your place till he can breath for himself.

Then let him lie in a natural position, and set to work to get him warm by putting hot flannels or bottles of hot water between his thighs, and under the arms, and against the soles of his feet, but not before he is breathing. Wet clothing should be taken off and hot blankets rolled round him. The patient should be disturbed as little as possible, and encouraged to sleep, while carefully watched for at least an hour afterwards.

This is called the Schäfer method, and can be used equally well for drowned people or for those overcome with smoke or gas fumes.

Now just practise this with another Scout a few times, so that you understand exactly how to do it, and so Be Prepared to do it to some poor fellow, maybe, really in need of it one day.

Make the Scouts, in pairs, practise above.

Wounded: taking off clothes. Pull off from the well or uninjured side first, then when all is loose, carefully uncover the injured part. Try not to move it, cut the sleeve or trouser up the seam with the rounded end of scissors inside the cloth. If clothes have to be put on again, sew pairs of tapes to edges.

Electric Shock.—Men frequently get knocked insensible by touching an electric cable or rail. The patient should be moved from the rail, but you have to be careful in doing this that you don’t get the electric shock also. In the first place put glass, if possible, for yourself to stand upon, or dry wood if glass is not obtainable, or put on india-rubber boots. Also put on india-rubber gloves before touching the patient. If you have none, wrap your hands in several thicknesses of dry cloth, and pull the patient away with a stick.

A boy was hunting butterflies at St. Ouen, in France, the other day, when he fell on the “live” rail of the electric railway and was instantly killed by the shock. A passer-by, in trying to lift him off, fell dead beside him. A brickmaker ran up and tried to rescue them, and was himself struck dead in the same way. The two would-be rescuers were killed through not having learned beforehand what was the right thing to do.

Gas, Smoke, or Fumes.—Accidents are continually occurring from escapes of gas in mines, sewers, and houses.

In endeavoring to rescue a person, keep your nose and mouth well covered with a wet handkerchief, and get your head as close to the floor as possible, and drag the insensible person out as I have suggested in case of a fire. Drag your patient as quickly as possible into the fresh air—(I say as quickly as possible, because if you delay about it you are very apt to be overcome by the noxious gas yourself)—then loosen all his clothing about the neck and chest, dash cold water in his face. If you find that he is no longer breathing, then treat him as you would a drowned person, and try and work back the breath into his body.

Ice Accidents.—If a person falls through ice, and is unable to get out again because of the edges breaking, throw him a rope and tell him not to struggle. This may give him confidence until you can get a long ladder or pole ACROSS the hole, which will enable him to crawl out, or will allow you to crawl out to catch hold of him.

When you see an accident in the street or people injured, the sight of the torn limbs, the blood, the broken bones, and the sound of the groans and sobbing all make you feel sick and horrified and anxious to get away from it—if you’re not a Girl Scout. But that is cowardice: your business as a Scout is to steel yourself to face it and to help the poor victim. As a matter of fact, after a trial or two you really get to like such jobs, because with coolheadedness and knowledge of what to do you feel you give the much-needed help.

Every Scout should not only know how, but should from frequent practice be able to do the right thing in every kind of accidental injury.

In an accident when you are alone with the injured person, if he is unconscious lay him on his back with his head a little raised and on one side so that he does not choke, and so that any vomit or water, etc., can run out of his mouth. Loosen the clothing about his neck and chest. See where he is injured, and treat him according to what you are taught in learn “First Aid.”

If you have found the man lying insensible you should carefully examine the ground round him for any “sign,” and take note of it and of his position, etc., in case it should be afterwards appear that he had been attacked by others.

[Practise above, one girl as patient, the other to find her. Make “sign” round the patient.]

If you are out with a patrol and an accident happens, or you find an injured man, the patrol leader should direct one scout to go for a doctor; she herself will attend to the patient with one Scout to help her. The second will use the other Scouts in assisting by getting water or blankets, or making a stretcher, or keeping the crowd back by forming a fence with their ropes.

As a rule it is best to keep the patient quite quiet at first; unless it is necessary, do not try to move him; and don’t bother him with questions until he recovers a bit.

Broken Limbs.—How to tell when a limb is broken.

There is generally a swelling and pain about the place where the bone has broken, and sometimes the limb is bent in an unnatural way and the patient cannot use it.

The broken limb should not be moved about at all, but should be straightened and bound to something stiff that will keep it stiff and straight while the patient is being moved to hospital or home.

Splints.—The stiff thing that you tie to the injured limb is called a splint. This may be anything such as a wooden batten, Scout’s staff, tightly rolled newspaper, etc.

Splints should be long enough to go beyond the joints above and below the break. You should put a splint on each side of the limb if possible.

Then bind the splints firmly from end to end with handkerchiefs or strips of linen or cloths, but not so tightly as to stop the blood circulating or to press into the swelling.

[Practise this.]

Bandage.—For binding a broken limb you want a good large three-cornered bandage. Its two sides should be each about forty inches long.

To make a sling for broken arm or collarbone, hang the bandage round the patient’s neck, tying the two ends together in a reef-knot with the point of the bandage towards the damaged arm. Rest the arm in this sling and bring the point round the back of the arm and pin it to hold the elbow in the sling.

Fishhook in the Skin.—I got a fishhook into my finger the other day. I got a knife and cut off all the fly which was on the hook, then pushed the hook farther into my finger till the point began to push against the skin from inside. With a sharp knife I cut a little slit in the skin so that the point came easily through, and I was then able to get hold of it and to pull the whole hook through. Of course you cannot get a hook out backwards, as the barb holds tight in the flesh all the time. Such fun!

Frost-bite.—In Arctic countries or extreme cold men are liable to get frost-bitten. That is, their ears, or nose, or fingers, or toes get killed by the cold. The patient does not feel any pain; the part becomes numb and turns very white and waxy, and afterwards purple.

Directly this is noticed the part should be rubbed with snow or with the hand until the blood comes back to it. On no account should it be warmed by putting the patient in a warm room or near a fire; that would kill the part at once.

Hysterics.—Nervous people, especially women, get hysterics when excited, crying, laughing, and screaming. The best treatment is to shut the patient into a room and leave her entirely alone till she gets over it. Don’t try and soothe her, it only makes her worse.

Fainting.—If your patient faints and is pale—fainting comes from too little blood in the head—make him sit down, and push his head down between his knees. Pressure on a nerve (for instance, in top of eye socket) will often revive. If his face is flushed raise the head—there is too much blood in it, as in apoplexy or sunstroke.

Toothache.—This is not mentioned in most first aid instructions, and yet you can earn many blessings by knowing how to relieve it. Here is a simple way that is generally successful, especially if the offending tooth is in the upper jaw. Steep a little bit of cotton-wool in spirits of camphor. Stuff the wool into one nostril—hold the other nostril tight shut and make the patient draw in the air through the wool. The spirit is thus sucked in on to the nerve, which lies near the back of the nose, and it very quickly relieves the pain.

Fits.—A man cries out and falls, and twitches and jerks his limbs about, froths at the mouth: he is in a fit. It is no good to do anything to him before the doctor comes except to put a bit of wood or cork between his jaws, so that he does not bite his tongue. Let him sleep well after a fit.

Poisoning.—If a person suddenly falls very ill after taking food, or is known to have taken poison, the first thing to do is to make him swallow some milk or raw eggs. These seem to collect all the poison that is otherwise spread about inside him. Then, if the mouth is not stained or burnt by the poison, make him vomit if possible by giving him salt and warm water, and try tickling the inside of his throat with a feather. Then more eggs and milk, and weak tea. If the poison is an acid that burns, the patient should not be made to vomit, but milk or salad oil should be given. The patient should be kept awake if he gets drowsy.

Blood-Poisoning.—This results from dirt being allowed to get into a wound. Swelling, pain, red veins appear. Fomenting with hot water is the best relief.

Choking.—Loosen collar; hold the patient’s nose with one hand and with the forefinger of the other, or with the handle of a spoon try and pull out whatever is stuck in his throat. By pressing down the root of the tongue you may make him vomit and throw out the obstruction. For slight choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of bread, and sip water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do him good.

Choking sometimes comes from a sudden swelling inside the throat. In this case put hot steaming flannel fomentations to the neck and give the patient ice to suck or cold water to sip.

Quinsy.—When I was in the Andes Mountains in South America recently, I heard of two Englishmen who had died there not long before from choking by quinsy, simply because there was no one by who knew what to do in such a case. Everybody ought to Be Prepared to deal with quinsy if away from the help of doctors.

Most people suffer from tonsillitis at one time or another in their lives—that is a swelling of the tonsils—the round lumps of flesh on each side of the back of the throat. And sometimes, on rare occasions, the swelling becomes so great that the patient cannot breathe, the throat becomes completely blocked up. This is quinsy.

Very hot fomentations is the best step towards easing the pain and reducing the swelling.

The extreme measure is to lance the patient’s tonsils.

Acid Burning.—A case occurred only the other day of a woman throwing vitriol over a man’s face. This is an awful acid, which burns and eats away the flesh wherever it touches. Fortunately a policeman happened to be on the spot at the time, and knew what to do. He at once applied half warm water to which some soda had been added to wash off the acid, and then applied flour or whitening to protect the wound from the air and ease the pain as you would do for a burn.

Snake Bite.—Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon. If you go abroad you may come across them, and you ought always to know how to deal with bites from them. The same treatment does also for wounds from poisoned arrows, mad dogs, etc. Remember the poison from a bite gets into your blood, and goes all through your body in a very few beats of your pulse. Therefore, whatever you do must be done immediately. The great thing is to stop the poison rushing up the veins into the body. To do this bind a cord or handkerchief immediately round the limb above the place where the patient has been bitten, so as to stop the blood flying back to the heart with the poison. Then try and suck the poison out of the wound, and, if possible, cut the wound still more, to make it bleed, and run the poison out. The poison, when sucked into the mouth, does no harm unless you have a wound in your mouth. The patient should also be given stimulants, such as coffee or spirits, to a very big extent, and not allowed to become drowsy, but should be walked about and pricked and smacked in order to keep his senses alive.

[Practise this process in make-believe.]

Grit in the Eye.—Do not let your patient rub the eye; it will only cause inflammation and swelling, and so make the difficulty of removing the grit all the greater.

If the grit is in the lower eyelid, draw down the lid as far as you can, and gently brush it out with the corner of a moistened handkerchief, or with a paint brush, or feather.

If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball and push the under lid up underneath the upper one. In this way the eyelashes of the lower lid will generally clean the inside of the upper one.

Another way, which every Scout must practise, is to seat your patient and stand behind him yourself with the back of his head against your chest. Lay a card, match, or any flat substance under your own thumb on the upper part of the upper eyelid, and then catch hold of the edge of the eyelid and draw it upwards over the match so that it turns inside out; gently remove the grit with a feather or wet handkerchief, and roll the eyelid down again.

If the eye is much inflamed, bathe it with luke-warm weak tea.

If the grit is firmly imbedded in the eye, drop a little oil (olive or castor oil) into the lower lid; close the eye, and bandage it with a soft wet pad and bandage, and get a doctor to see it.

[Practise above.]

How to make eye-tweezers for removing a piece of grit from eye. Fold a piece of paper in two. With a sharp knife cut it to a point of an angle of 30°, and slightly moisten the point. Then bring it straight down over the eyeball of the patient, so that it can nip the obstruction, which is generally removed at the first attempt.

Stretchers may be arranged in some of the following ways:

(a) A hurdle, shutter, door, gate, covered well with straw, hay, clothing, sacking.

(b) A piece of carpet, blanket, sacking, tarpaulin or Girl Scout skirts, spread out, and two stout poles rolled up in the sides. Put clothes for a pillow.

(c) Two coats, with the sleeves turned inside out; pass two poles through the sleeves; button the coats over them.

(d) Two poles passed through a couple of sacks, through holes at the bottom corners of each.

In carrying a patient on a stretcher be careful that he is made quite comfortable before you start. Let both bearers rise together; they must walk out of step, and take short paces. It should be the duty of the hinder bearer to keep a careful watch on the patient.

If the poles are short four bearers will be necessary, one at each corner of the stretcher.

[Practice these different methods.]

In practising First Aid it is a great thing to bespatter the patient with blood and mud to accustom the rescuer to the sight of it, otherwise it will often unnerve him in a real accident. Sheep’s blood can be got from the butcher’s shop.

Prepare a heavy smoke fire in a neighbouring room or building (if possible on the first floor), while you are lecturing in the club room. Secretly arrange with two or three Scouts that if an alarm of fire is given they should run about frightened and try and start a panic.

Have the alarm given either by getting some one to rush in and tell you of the fire, or by having some explosive bombs fired. Then let a patrol, or two patrols, tackle the fire under direction of their patrol leaders. They should shut windows and doors. Send Scouts into different parts of the building to see if the fire is spreading, and to search for people in need of rescue.

These Scouts should have wet handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses. “Insensible” people (or sack dummies) should be hidden under tables, etc.

Scouts rescue them by shouldering or dragging them out and getting them down to the ground. Use jumping sheet, chute, etc.

Other parties lay and connect the hose, or make lines for passing fire buckets.

Another party revive the rescued by restoring animation. Another party form “fence” to help the police and fire brigade by keeping the crowd back.

“Dragging Race.”—A line of patients of one patrol are laid out at fifty yards distance from start. Another patrol, each carrying a rope, run out, tie ropes to the patients, and drag them in. Time taken of last in. Patrols change places. The one which completes in shortest time wins. Knots must be correctly tied.

The simple physical exercises given in the earlier chapters will give you all the movements needed to keep you well and to help your growth IF you only practise them. That is the secret. Set apart certain minutes in the day, especially in the early morning, and make it your habit to go through these exercises and you will make for yourself a wonderful difference in your health.

But alongside this giving health to your body, you must see to it that your surroundings, your home, the air, your food, and your clothing are also health-giving, otherwise all the exercise in the world will not help you.

Scouts should do everything in their power to make and keep their homes healthy as well as happy.

Most of you cannot choose your own dwelling, but whether you live in a house, a cottage, a flat, in rooms, or even in one room of a house, you can do a very great deal to keep it healthy and pure.

Fresh air is your great friend; it will help you to fight disease better than anything else. Open all your windows as often as you can, so that the air may get into every nook and corner. Never keep an unused room shut up. Disease germs, poisonous gases, mildew, insects, dust, and dirt have it all their own way in stale, used-up air. Air does not flow in and flow out of the same opening at the same time any more than water does, so you want two openings in a room—an open window to let the good air in, and a fireplace and chimney to let the stale air out, or whether there is no fireplace, a window open both at top and bottom. The night air in large towns is purer than the day air, and both in town and country you should sleep with your window open if you want to be healthy. Draughts are not good, as they carry away the heat from your body too fast; so if your bed is too near the window, put up a shelter between it and the open window and cover yourself more. At least one window on a staircase or landing should always be kept open, and also the pantry and the closet windows.

Tidiness.—Half your time will be saved if little things are kept tidy. Have a place for everything, and have everything in its place. If you are not sure which is the right place for a thing, think “Where, if I wanted it, should I go to look for it?” That place is the right one. Get into the habit of always making a ball of any string you get and collect them.

War must be waged against rats and mice, or they will invade you and loot everything. If you have no mouse-traps, put a newspaper over a pail of water, break a hole slightly in the centre in the form of a star, and place a bit of cheese on the centre tips of star to entice the mouse. Let the paper reach to the floor, not too upright, for the mouse to climb up. Try putting broken camphor into their holes; they dislike the smell. Fly and wasp traps are made by tying paper over a tumbler half-filled with water and beer or molasses. Break a hole in the paper, and fit in a tube of rolled paper about one inch long and one inch across.

Damp is never healthy, and you can prevent it to a great extent by letting plenty of fresh air go through your house and rooms which have been shut up.

When you see signs of damp, try to find out the cause; it may be put right. A pipe or gutter may have got blocked, or there may be a loose shingle, or the water pipes may be leaking.

In countries where there are mosquitoes people are very careful not to allow any water to lie near their houses, for the poisonous mosquito breeds in stagnant water. Sunflowers planted near a house help to keep the soil dry; also low bushes and plants. Consumption and other deadly disease germs flourish in damp, ill-aired houses.

Sunlight is a great health-giver and disinfectant, and the more of it you have in your house the better. Long ago people used to shut out the sun and air for fear their curtains and carpets would fade, but it is far better that the sun should fade your curtains than that the darkness should fade you. Cases of consumption are rare in dry, sunny houses.

Nurseries and bedrooms should have plenty of morning and mid-day sun.

Motto: “Tidy as you go.”

Cleanliness in every part of the house is most necessary, especially kitchen and refrigerators. Do not let dust or rubbish collect anywhere, behind furniture or pictures, under beds, or in cupboards. If we realised what horrid things we may collect from pavement or street dust on our skirts and shoes, we should be much more careful about the dusting of our rooms.

Do not allow dogs, cats, or birds to be where they can touch your food or your cooking utensils; animals have diseases too. Flies, gnats, and fleas are most dangerous pests; they feed on decayed and diseased things, and may carry poison on their feet and leave it on your food. Keep them out of your house, and especially chase them out of your kitchen and larder. Any bad smell in a house is a danger signal; find out its cause, and get rid of it.

Be sure your drinking water is pure. If you are at all doubtful about it, boil it well—that is, for not less than fifteen minutes. Water cisterns should be often cleaned out. See that all drains, sinks, and closets are in good order. A very poisonous gas called sewer gas comes from bad drains, and typhoid, diphtheria, etc., are caused by drinking bad water and bad drainage. The gas does not come up if there is a “trap” full of water in the pipe; that is a curve in the pipe where water collects. Let water run down all sinks once or twice a day to rinse the pipes. To sum up, “Remember that nearly all the dangers to health in a house or room begin with a D, and these dangers or destroyers are:

• “Darkness.
• “Damp.
• “Dust.
• “Dirt.
• “Doubtful drinking water.
• “Defective drains.”

Against these destroyers, which bring debility, disease and even death, the Scouts’ defences are:

• “Sunlight.
• “Fresh air.
• “Cleanliness.”

Housewifery.—Every Scout is as much a “housewife” as she is a girl. She is sure to have to “keep house” some day, and whatever house she finds herself in, it is certain that that place is the better for her being there.

Too many odds and ends and draperies about a room are only dust-traps, and rugs or carpet squares, which can be taken up easily, are better than nailed down carpets. Keep all the furniture clean and bright. Fresh air, soap, and water are the good housewife’s best allies. Bars of soap should be cut up in squares and kept for six weeks before being used. This hardens it and makes it last longer.

In scrubbing boarded floors, the secret is not to deluge the floor; change the water in the pail frequently.

In the work of cleaning think out your plan beforehand, so as not to dirty what has been cleaned. Plan out certain times for each kind of work and have your regular days for doing each thing.

Pasteboards and Deal Tables.—Scrub hard the way of the grain. Hot water makes boards and tables yellow. Rinse in cold water and dry well.

Saucepans.—New saucepans must not be used till they have first been filled with cold water and a little soda, and boiled for an hour or so, and must be well scoured. After bowls or saucepans have been used, fill them at once with cold water to the brim; this will prevent anything hardening on the saucepan and will make cleaning easier.

Swimming.—Every 1st Class Scout ought to be able to swim. It is not only for her own amusement that she should do so, but so that she will not cause other people to risk their lives in rescuing her when she gets into difficulties in the water, and that she may be able to help those in distress. British girls are behindhand in learning to swim—it is very different in Norway and Sweden, or in America, where nearly every girl can swim.

Where a doctor says swimming is bad for her, or there is no possible means for her learning, such other badges that she does not hold may be accepted instead towards qualifying the Scout for her 1st Class.

No Scout can be of real use till she can swim, and to learn swimming is no more difficult than to learn bicycling.

All you have to do is at first to try and swim like a dog, as if trying to crawl slowly along in the water; don’t try all at once to swim with the ordinary breast stroke that swimmers use, because this only lets your mouth go under water every time. When paddling along like a dog get a friend to support you at first with a pole or his hand under your belly.

Any of you who cannot swim as yet, and who fall into the water out of your depth, remember that you need not sink if you take care to do the following things. First, keep your mouth upwards by throwing the head well back. Secondly, keep your lungs full of air by taking in long breaths, but breathe out very little. Thirdly, keep your arms under water. To do this you should not begin to shout, which will only empty your lungs, and you should not throw your arms about or beckon for help, else you will sink. So the main thing of all is to keep cool and force yourself to remember and to carry out these things.

There always are and always will be children to be care of. Perhaps there is no better way for a girl to help her country than to fit herself to undertake the care of children. She should learn all she can about them, and take every opportunity of helping to look after these small Boy and Girl Scouts of the future. Many girls are already doing this and are realizing that the Child Welfare badge is one of the most important in the whole list for a Scout to win.

Children are trained to regular habits in three ways; first, by having meals at fixed hours; second, by having regular times for sleeping and waking; and third, by being taught when young to be clean and regular in their daily clear-out. They must have plenty of healthful, peaceful sleep and the earlier they go to bed the better for their brains and nerves in after life. The bedroom must be airy and quiet; the windows kept open.

Nobody can be healthy unless he is clean, and cleanliness is one of the first habits you want Baby to form. So he should have a daily bath. The temperature for his bath should range from 80° to 98° and you should be able to read the bath thermometer as well as the room thermometer. Before you undress Baby get together everything that you will need for the bath and dressing; your hand basin of warm water, soap, soft wash cloths and towels, comb and brush, etc., and his clothes laid out in the order in which you will put them on.

It is handier as well as safer to begin baby laid on a table or bed rather than on your lap. He should of course have under him a soft towel or canton flannel. First wash his head carefully and rub it dry gently. Do the outer parts of his ears and let no water get inside them. The nose may be cleaned with a bit of cotton rolled to a point and the nails should be carefully cleaned. Then put him gently in the tub. Some people soap the baby first, and a soapy little baby wiggles, so hold him very firmly and comfortably, supporting his head all the time he is kicking and splashing in the tub. After you lift him out be careful to dry all the creases in his little body. It is perfectly proper for a baby to cry as much as twenty minutes every day till he begins to talk, and he may take his bath time for doing it, so don’t scold him. A baby can be kept sweet and clean by a daily sponge bath.

The baby needs proper food to build up his body. Milk is his only food for the first months of his life and even up to three years he takes mostly milk.

For the first eight or nine months of a baby’s life mother’s milk is the best food for him, and if he is unfortunate enough to have to take his milk from a bottle you will have to learn the best kind of bottle to use and how to prepare it. Baby is very particular about his milk being fresh and good.

Punctual feeding makes good digestion and even if he wants that extra nap it is better to wake a healthy baby to give him his meal at regular hours, than to let his digestion get out of order. Some babies are very punctual and feel it keenly if you do not feed them at the fixed hour. They will very likely let you know it too, and woe betide you if they find you have not properly boiled the bottle after each meal to sterilize it. Between meals a little drink of water which has been boiled and cooled (sterile water) will wash out his mouth as well as refresh him. Do not give a baby too much food at a time, and keep him on plain food. This applies to you as well as to baby. When the digestion is not right the appetite will not be good. Digestion makes the food you eat ready to be turned into muscle and bone and brain, and indigestion means that you have not used up the food you ate and therefore you have those uncomfortable pains in the middle of the night. Eat only the foods you know you can digest comfortably.

By the time a child is two years old, he should have a well varied though simple bill of fare. This may include cereals such as well cooked oatmeal and cream of wheat, soft boiled eggs, fresh juice, (beef) milk puddings, milk toast, baked potatoes, apple sauce and chicken broth.

Children’s clothes should be warm but light, and where possible should hang from the shoulders. The legs, particularly the ankles, should be kept warm and the feet dry.

Give a baby plenty of fresh air, out of doors if you can, avoiding drafty places. It gives him a better appetite, makes him sleep sounder and also helps to give him rosy cheeks, a sign of good red blood.

Be careful that sheet and blankets do not get over a baby’s head; as this weight causes suffocation, so pin the covers to the side of the bed and let him have fresh air while he sleeps.

No self respecting baby would ever by himself contract the “pacifier” habit and he should never be given a pacifier. This article thrust into his mouth makes the upper jaw protrude, carries germs into a baby’s mouth, sometimes causes adenoids, is ugly to look at and finally doesn’t really pacify.

It does a baby good to lie down and kick about. Crawling and climbing exercise his muscles. Don’t let a baby walk too soon. Bow-legs come from standing and walking while the bones are soft; also from under-nourishment. But if a child wants to walk, let him make the effort; he will not pull himself up unless he wants to try his muscles. Childhood is a time to form the body; it cannot be altered much when you are grown up. Playtime should not come directly after feeding or before sleeptime.

What will you do when you suddenly find that baby is ill? To call in the doctor is the first thing, that is, if there is a doctor. But when there is no doctor! You will at once think of all the First Aid you have learned, and what you know of home nursing. Drugs are bad things. You may lay up trouble for a child by giving it soothing drugs and advertised medicines which sometimes make the baby stupid and may cause constipation. Never neglect the bowels if they become stopped up. This upsets digestion, poisons the baby and may help to bring on convulsions or other serious illnesses. If a child is suffering from a convulsion, lay him flat with his head on a pillow. Pat his head with cold water and put a hot bottle at his feet. If the convulsion continues put him in a warm bath of about 106° which is as hot as is comfortable for your bare elbow, but you must not keep cold cloths on his head. Use very gentle artificial respiration not trying to straighten the arms. Of course you will keep a baby away from anyone who has a contagious disease.

You can very easily train a young child to obey, but after three years old it becomes more difficult unless a good start has been made. Children expect you to be just. If you are good tempered and patient a child will stand a good deal of firmness, but slapping and scolding ruin young tempers. Answer a child’s question without ridicule. He is feeling his way in this great big world, and you once asked foolish questions, too.

Whenever I see a Scout coming along I feel at once a friendly interest in her, but when she comes nearer that interest either increases or goes off a bit when I look at her right arm and see on it badges—or no badges.

Every Scout, as soon as she has passed the Second Class tests, can go in for proficiency badges. These badges are not intended for swagger, but to show that you can do things. On the left arm you will wear those badges which mean that you are good at work that is useful to other people, and these are the important badges; while on the right arm the badges show the sort of Scout that you are, that is whether you are efficient or not in different branches of Scout work.

There are a very large number of badges on the list which you can go in for, but it does not mean that you are to try and get them all, but rather that you may look through the list and find out which are most likely to suit you and then to go in for one or two of those. The most important of all the badges are those for nursing. They are important to the Scout herself, because through practising this work she can most easily carry out the Scout law of doing good turns to other people, and these would be good turns which really are useful. Also by knowing how to nurse she can do good work for her country.

The Value of Nursing.—In the great war hundreds and hundreds of women have gone to act as nurses in the hospitals, for the wounded and have done splendid work They will no doubt be thankful all their lives that while they were yet girls they learnt how to nurse and how to do hospital work, so that they were useful when the call came for them. But there are thousands and thousands of others who wanted to do the work when the time came, but they had not like Scouts been Prepared, and they had never learnt how to nurse, and so they were perfectly useless and their services were not required in the different hospitals. So carry out your motto and Be Prepared and learn all you can about hospital and child nursing, sick nursing, and every kind, while you are yet a Scout and have people ready to instruct you and to help you in learning.

Child nursing is also very important, because so many girls are wanted now to help mothers in looking after their children. Such a large number of babies die every year from being nursed by girls who have never taken the trouble to learn what they ought to do with children. Babies are delicate little things, and a very little act of carelessness or want of knowledge of what to do often causes the death of one who might otherwise have grown up to be a valuable citizen for the country. On becoming a Scout you promise to Be Prepared to do your duty in every possible way, and one very important way is that of nursing children as well as grown ups; and therefore I hope that you will learn as quickly as possible how to carry out this duty and so to carry out your work as a Scout in the proper spirit. Therefore I recommend you to take as the most important ones, the Ambulance Badge, the Child Nurse Badge, and the Home Nursing; after which you can look through the list and pick out others for which you feel that you are particularly keen, or for which there are instruction classes for Scouts that you can attend. Set those badges up before you and do your best to win some of them.

Where to wear the Badges.—The First and Second Class Badge is worn on the left arm. It should be placed about half-way between the elbow and the shoulder strap, so as not to be covered by the shoulder knot.

The Ambulance, Home Nurse, and Child Nurse Badges are also worn on the left arm, just below the Second and First Class Badges. All the other Proficiency Badges are worn on the right arm. They are sewn on as they are won, starting at the bottom of the sleeve, just above the cuff, and growing upwards in couples as the Scout becomes more and more proficient.

The War Service Badge is worn above the right-hand breast pocket.

The Attendance Stars are worn in a horizontal row just above the left-hand breast pocket.

The War Service Badge.—Is granted to Scouts who have done special service for their country during the Great War. It is worn above the right breast pocket.

To secure this honor a Girl Scout must win the following badges: Ambulance and First Aid, Clerk, Cook, Child Nurse, Dairymaid, Matron, Musician, Needlewoman, Naturalist, Home Nurse, Pathfinder, Pioneer, Signaler, Swimmer, Athletics, Health or Civics. (In case a swimming badge is impossible two badges not already earned may be substituted.)

These are worn on the right breast and are awarded as follows:—

I should like to see everything that calls itself a girl playing it. Yet there are thousands and thousands of girls who have never yet even seen it played—much less played it themselves.

I should like all of them to play it, not only once but regularly, and this is why.

Because it gives them health and strength through active exertion in the open air; it gives them a jolly time and lots of excitement, happiness, and laughter; it makes them quick with eye, hand, and foot; it makes them all good pals together; it teaches them to take hard knocks without winking such as at other times would make them faint or swear.

It teaches them to play unselfishly and to pass the ball on. It gives them pluck, it gives them hope, for even when things look bad there is often the possibility of winning by an extra effort. They learn to stick to rules and to obey orders, to play fair and to stop sneaking, underhand play.

In a word, they learn to play the game for their side and not for themselves.

Well, that is just what our soldiers at the front are doing, playing the game nobly for their country at no matter what danger to their own life or limb.

It’s just what we want of all Americans in the future—women as well as men—to think of their country and other people first; to obey the laws and play the game for the good of others bravely and hopefully, without caring what hard knocks they get themselves.

Could not some of you who can afford to play hockey yourselves managed to help some other girls to play it too?

Think what joy it would bring into their lives, what health and brightness you could offer them and what good and friendly citizens you could make them.

What is a Lady?—This is what I saw the other day in the Subway. The seats were all crowded when a smart-looking girl got in. A wounded soldier with a bandaged foot and a walking stick stood up rather painfully and offered her his seat. The girl plumped herself down comfortably and she did not give him a look or even a word of thanks. A pale woman then rose and said to him, “I can stand better than you; you got hurt for me,” and made him take her place.

One of these two women was a lady. Can you guess which?

Oh, there is one more thing that hockey teaches. Often you lose a game, but you do not therefore lose your temper or lose your happiness for, as a Scout, you at once cheer the winners and forget to be put out by it.

But you don’t lose every game. Very often it will look as if it was going against you and there seems little chance of winning when, just near the end, the other side give out or get careless, and by sheer sticking to it you win a goal or two in the last few minutes and come out victorious in the end.

Well, it is sticking to it which is so tremendously valuable, not only in the game, but also for getting on as a Scout, and afterwards in getting on in life.

Two frogs, out for a walk one day, came upon a bowl of cream, into which they fell. Thinking it a new kind of water and that it was hopeless trying to swim, one was drowned through having no pluck. The other struggled hard to keep afloat. Just when he felt he must give up a curious thing happened. In his struggles he had churned up the cream so much that he found himself standing safe on a pat of butter!

If you learnt nothing else from Scouting than this little story of the frogs, try, at any rate, to remember that; and when you feel you are failing at your job just think of it; remind yourself of the frogs—and stick to it.

Someone asked me the other day why it is that housemaids, when they are at work, are always droning most dreary hymn tunes. Well, I couldn’t say exactly why they do it, but I like to hear it, because people who sing at their work evidently don’t find it a drudgery or irksome.

I was at a great aeroplane factory the other day, where the manager had encouraged his men in their spare time to form a band, and he supplied the funds for helping them to get instruments, music, etc.

When they began to get rather good at it they, like all amateur musicians, began to fancy themselves, and said that they would like to get some high-class classical music to play.

But he said: “Not a bit of it, I want you to play all the tunes that you can get, provided that they are jolly ones.”

Then he used to make the men march to their workshops with their band playing, and for the rest of the morning, instead of working sullenly and grudgingly at their machines, the men were whistling and singing the tunes that were running in their heads, and the work consequently was better done and more of it was got through than would otherwise have been possible.

So the wretched Girl Scouts, when they are forced to play these dull games and to do the terrible hard work of Scouting, need something to cheer them up. All they have to do is to learn a few jingles and to sing them, stamp, bang, or whistle them as they go along, and they are sure to feel the better for it.

When you come to be a Patrol Leader you must remember that you are really taking up a very responsible and important position, because you are going to be in charge of a number of girls under you, who will form their characters entirely under your example and guidance, and if you choose to be a slacker they will become slackers, if you choose to be a good Scout they will all become good Scouts, or nearly all of them. That is very much dependent on you yourself. So don’t become a Patrol Leader merely for the swagger of it or the sake of wearing an extra badge or two, but really think whether you are fitted to lead those girls, and take it up with the best of your ability to make good Scouts of them. You have got to command your Patrol; well, you can only command others if you have their confidence, and you can only have their confidence if you have confidence in yourself; you can only have confidence in yourself by knowing your work thoroughly and well. You should therefore study the handbook, learn all about Scouting, what it aims for, and then how you can carry out the instructions given; practise the things yourself that are shown you, know that you can do the different things well; and then you will be able to have confidence in yourself, your Scouts will obey your orders, and so you will be able to carry out the training of them and their discipline perfectly well. You lead entirely by your own personal example, don’t forget that; that is what tells, and that is the easy way to gain success; not only the easy way, but it is the only way.

As a Leader you must be the best at carrying out the Scout Law in your Patrol, the others will follow you in it; you must be the captain also in all the games; you must be the first in every venture; you must be the one to suggest good games, good ideas, good thoughts. If you are the first in every way like this your girls will follow your leads and you will have good discipline among them. Your aim should, of course, be to make your Patrol the best, and if every Patrol tries to be the best in the Troop, you may be sure that that Troop will be a very good one amongst other Troops.

You should take counsel among your Scouts as to what they fancy themselves at, and then challenge another Patrol to have a competition in that particular line, whatever it may be, whether Signalling, or Ambulance Work, or playing a game of Hockey, or baseball, or anything you like; but continually challenge other Patrols to beat you at your own game, and then practise your game well and make yourselves efficient at it, so as you do not get beaten. For every game the whole Patrol should form the team. Don’t have one or two good players and the rest no use at all; and don’t have individual competition, one girl against another, but always try and have your Patrol as a team, then the worst will try and make themselves better in order to play up the average of the lot, and so play for the good of the Patrol and not of themselves. If possible, give each of your Scouts her own job to do in the Patrol. You may find one good at one thing, another good at another; well, urge her to do her particular job, and to do it well for the benefit and honour of the Patrol. You will have one little difficult point that you must keep an eye on; when you are trying to lead the Patrol and at the same time to show them the way, don’t forget that you must not do the work of other girls. Give each one her job and see that she does it, but don’t do it for her, or else she will always be leaning on you and expecting you to do it.

A Patrol can specialise, that is, all members to take one special badge, or a bit of ribbon will do, that a Patrol may be a Despatch Riding Patrol, or a Signalling Patrol, First Aid Patrol, a Home Helping Patrol, or even an Entertaining Patrol. All the members of the Patrol win a certain Proficiency Badge, then that Patrol may be recommended by the Captain to have the honour of wearing that badge on its flag. I have known a great deal of good to come of a Patrol challenging a Patrol in another Troop to some sort of competition, and then going to visit the other Patrol or inviting them to visit themselves at their own headquarters and entertaining them and having their competition and making great friends with them; this leads to very good feeling between different Troops, and is very useful, because you can often pick up ideas from Patrols of another Troop better than you can from one of your own Troops. In camp a Patrol is a very useful unit because a whole Patrol can just pitch into one tent or probably into one room or barn, or wherever it may be, and there the Patrol Leader’s duties are very responsible, because she has to keep order in her own tent and see that it is properly kept clean and tidy.

A Scout Hostel.—Scene: Inside a Scout Headquarters, fitted with bed, stretcher table, cooking stove, cupboard, Scout Law, etc.

Patrol at right of stage learning electricity and telegraphy.

Patrol at left of stage bathing, dressing, and feeding model baby.

In centre Brownies learning a dance; all under their Patrol Leaders to demonstrate the method of instruction in the Scouts.

After short demonstration one of the telegraph Scouts stops all work by saying that she has intercepted a wireless message saying “Air raid coming on.”

Patrols immediately fall in under their leaders, one as stretcher party and the other as first-aiders, with haversacks, etc., and march out to render assistance to police, etc.

Brownies, meantime, clear up the place, make bed ready, get out lint and bandages, etc., from cupboards, boil up kettle, put away electrical apparatus, etc.

Re-enter Scout leading a fat old lady, telling her she will be quite safe here. Old lady very flustered and very grateful. Brownies take charge of her, giving her a chair, and make her comfortable. As the Scout goes out the old lady calls after her and tells her she has dropped her handbag somewhere in the street. Doesn’t know where, dare not go out to look for it, but hopes that the Scout will; which she does smilingly.

Wretched woman with baby and crying children brought in next by another Scout, and made comfortable by Brownies. Fussy old gentleman, cantankerous old woman also come hustling in, led by Scouts, some lost children are brought in howling, also any number of other characters can be devised among your actors, including one man who will insist on making speeches against the Government for not stopping these raids.

When the room becomes full of them they all keep talking at once of their various grievances, and the children howling; bombs are heard without (bang of a drum or box full of old tins dropped), at each side of which all shriek, are silent for a moment or two, and then recommence their jabber.

Finally, half the Scouts having returned, they set to work to prepare food and hand it round to the people, which very soon quiets them, except the speech-maker, who seizes the opportunity of the others becoming quiet to make his speech with greater fervor. The Scouts stop him by putting a sack over his head and bundling him into a corner.

Then the stretcher party bring in an injured person, who is bandaged and put to bed. Others have slight wounds bound up and treated, and the Scouts then set to work with rugs and blankets and make beds on the floor for the whole party.

They then all go to bed comfortably on the floor.

Two Scouts remain on duty, the others lying down to sleep also.

In going into camp it is essential to have a few “Standing Orders” published, which can be added to from time to time, if necessary. These should be carefully explained to patrol leaders, who should then be held fully responsible for their Scouts carrying them out exactly.

Such orders might point out that each patrol will camp separately from the others, and that there will be a comparison between the respective cleanliness and good order of tents and surrounding ground.

Patrol leaders to report on the good work or otherwise of their Captains, which will be recorded in the Captain’s books of marks.

Bathing under strict supervision to prevent non-swimmers getting into dangerous water. No girl must bathe when not well.>

Bathing picket of two good swimmers will be on duty while bathing is going on, and ready to help any girl in distress. This picket will be in the boat (undressed) with bathing costume and overcoat on. They may only bathe when the general bathing is over and the last of the bathers has left the water.

Orders as to what is to be done in case of fire alarm.

Orders as to boundaries, grounds to be worked over, damages to fences, property, good drinking water, etc.

No Scout allowed out of bounds without leave.

No boy allowed inside bounds without leave.

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Even before the war came girls had begun to find that there were better things in the world for them to do than merely spend half their time in getting up their dresses and the other half in showing them off: there was enjoyment to be got without playing tennis, reading novels and so on; some of them had supposed that going to dances or loafing on the pier or in the street was the only way to get enjoyment, but others saw that this was really a great waste of time that became very boring after a bit. A vast number of them had seen that they were capable of doing a great many of the things that their brothers could do: they could play in a lot of games and take part in activities and also could do a good deal in the direction of work and handcraft, also they found that they could do well in professions and industries; they found that careers were open to them. Girls found at last that they had the power to make some use of their lives instead of drifting through them aimlessly and getting only a very hollow enjoyment out of them.

One of the most notable English statesman said in the fourth year of the Great War:

“I am anxious to bear testimony to the tremendous part played by the women in England in this vital epoch of human history. They have not only borne their burden of sorrow and separation with unflinching fortitude and patience but they have an enormous share of the burdens necessary to the practical conduct of the war.

“To their ennobling influence we look not only for strength to win the war, but for inspiration during the great work of reconstruction we will have to undertake after victory is won.”

This is becoming true in American also. Never before have our national ideals been so clearly defined; never before have we realized the relative values of life.

One hundred years ago democracy was a masculine noun. Women worked loyally in the home for husband, son and brother. The war came and suddenly they found themselves working for all men who were holding high the ideals of the American home and the American nation. By assuming these responsibilities, women have entered unconsciously into active citizenship from which there is no retreat.

The great experiment is here. American girls are showing that they are made of the same stuff as their sturdy forefathers, and by thousands are entering untried and difficult fields and finding themselves capable of doing a great many things that their brothers and fathers have heretofore done. Handcraft, industries and professions have all been opened to young women. They are working in farm and field, factory and railway, bank and business office, hospital and camp, canteen and reconstruction. Girls and women with clear heads and adaptability are entering in amazing numbers into business and professional life, proving that their brains are not inferior to those of men. They have been keen to take up new tasks and quick to learn unfamiliar processes and their employers have been generous in acknowledging that skill comes only with practice.

But the authorities found on examining women for their new employments, that the lack was not entirely or fundamentally that of technical training but that a preliminary course was needed particularly in health knowledge and in discipline. These things would have been useful in any line of work, whether for war or for peace, and we are now awake to the necessity of such training. If a girl is to be equally efficient with her brother for work in the world, she must be given equal chances with him, equal chances for gaining character and skill discipline and bodily health, and equal chances for using these when she has got them.

Therefore the Citizen Scout was started, in order that girls with a sound body and disciplined mind should be able to help their country in many different ways after this tremendous world struggle.

Every Citizen Scout should have a vocation which she has chosen and by which she can support herself. If one can work at some congenial employment all the better, but even an apparently stupid occupation can be made interesting by a realization of the part it plays in the world of industry by which we all live, and one can get great pleasure out of work well done, even if it is only oiling a machine successfully. Wouldn’t it make the daily labor more interesting to combine head with hand? For instance to put heads on pins all day long in a factory sounds monotonous, but the people to whom pin making is interesting find out what pins are made of, where the metal is found, how many things pins are used for; what people used as substitutes before pins were made. Once in England, a man took so small a thing as a needle for the subject of a play which has been well known ever since; Gammer Gurton’s Needle. The machines which make the pins and needles are to-day marvels of skill developed through centuries of patient labor of head and hand. Farm labor is toilsome, but the life of the race depends on the products of field and pasture, and the Citizen Scout who works on the land is helping to feed the world.

But success in an industrial or professional career is neither the end nor the greatest joy of a girl’s life. Home making is after all the vocation which calls most naturally and most deeply to a woman and is most worthy of her best efforts. However independent and self reliant a girl may be, the finding of her life comrade, the settling of her own home and the bringing up of her little ones are the biggest happiness that can be had in this world. Nature never meant a man or woman to live alone, and though bachelors may think themselves happy and free, they cannot realize the intense delight that comes with the home, the married comradeship and the children. There a woman has her real opportunity and her kingdom, and at the same time her responsibility. She is the making or the marring of the house, and her influence will rule her children all through their after life. If she recognizes this and shoulders her duty with that idea in mind she can in forming her children’s character do a tremendous thing for each of them and a valuable service for the nation.

But to be the right sort of comrade to her husband and her children a girl must have known work herself. She must have gone through the struggle against failure and have enjoyed the triumph of success to be able fully to sympathize with her partner in his troubles and to be of use in helping him through them. A house mother is a money spender not a money getter, and her work is really much harder than his. A wise educator has said: “I will undertake to guarantee the stability of our American democratic institutions if you will see to it that American wives are taught how best to spend the money their husbands earn. Somewhere in that last ten per cent of a man’s income are hidden away his present happiness and future prospects,” and those of his children.

The women of America must see to it that as far as lies in their power the vast resources of this great country are carefully conserved and wisely expended.

To be a valuable citizen the first qualification is an understanding of the organization and administration of one’s government. With more knowledge of the principles for which our government really stands there will come to the thinking American girl a desire to help definitely in the administration of those principles. Real social service will develop every Citizen Scout, give her a broader vision of life, awaken her sympathy and clear her intellect so that when she casts her vote she will do it with intelligence and with civic pride.

To become a Citizen Scout a girl must be 17 years old, or over, and she must declare her belief in the civic ideals of:

1. Good health—by trying to attain the Girl Scout standard of physical health.

2. Vocational Skill—by being willing to perfect herself in some work by which she can earn her living.

3. Public Service—by pledging herself to some public service, either individually or in her troop.

Any Girl Scout over seventeen shall be eligible for promotion to “Citizen Scout.” When there are enough Citizen Scouts in any troop they may form a Citizen Scout patrol under their own patrol leader, in the same troop where they were formerly Scouts, or separate troops of Citizen Scouts may be formed if desired, either by ex-Scouts or by young women who have not been Scouts before. The number of members for Citizen Scout patrol or troop is not limited. One member will be elected Troop leader, and other officers may be elected as found desirable. A Troop may, if it likes, choose a member of the Local Committee or any woman in the community in whose sympathy and judgment they have confidence to act as “counsellor and friend.” Or they may refer to the local director or to the chairman of Girl Scout Captain Association when any difficulty arises, or they may be quite independent of any control outside of their own troop, except the Council and Local Committee.

A Citizen Scout troop may adopt any crest of the list authorized by Headquarters but a crest is not obligatory.

Each Citizen Scout must pay an annual registration fee of 25 cents to National Headquarters.

A Citizen Scout is expected to make the regular Girl Scout promise and in addition to accept for herself the three ideals of good citizenship.—Good Health, Vocational Skill, and Public Service.

Motto, “Be Prepared.”

Badge: The Trefoil. To the Citizen Scout the badge stands not only for the three parts of the Scout promise, but also for the three civic ideals.

Citizen Scouts use the regular Girl Scout Salute. (See p. 65.)

The uniform consists of:

• Khaki long coat (or Norfolk suit).
• Khaki hat.

G.S. (Girl Scout) on collar, or coat lapels.

Hat band with Tenderfoot badge on it.

Instead of the full uniform a Citizen Scout may wear a brassard of khaki with stencilled trefoil and letters G.S. to which she may add the crest of her troop. The Troop leader’s insignia is a ¼ inch red ribbon around the left arm above elbow. This may be put on uniform or brassard.

Citizen Scouts may work for the same proficiency badges as Girl Scouts. They are recommended to qualify for the progressive badge, especially if they have already won the Proficiency badges.

A Citizen Scout who has been a Girl Scout may continue wearing her badge or she may wear the stripes to indicate the number of badges secured. One stripe denotes five badges; two stripes denote ten, and three denote fifteen badges.

Under the three civic ideals of Good Health, Vocational Skill and Public Service certain activities are suggested from which the Citizen Scout may choose.

I. “I will make myself physically perfect.”

The Government requires that its employees shall pass a physical examination to determine their fitness for service. It is strongly recommended that every Citizen Scout shall determine her own physical fitness by a similar examination given by some competent physician. In this way she may discover any weakness or defect and remedy it by exercise, rest or medical care. An annual examination of one’s body is a strong asset for a long life.

The best body to have is one which is in such good health that its owner does not need to think about it. It serves her constantly and faithfully. The rules for keeping such a servant are:

• Absolute cleanliness in body and clothing.
• Daily exercise and rest in proper amounts.
• Sufficient good plain food at regular intervals.
• Plenty of fresh air and sunshine.

A Citizen Scout should have a definite knowledge of personal health and of her own physical constitution and powers; should know the dangers of disease, and the effects of the social evil.

A Citizen Scout should also understand the health conditions in her own neighborhood and have full information as to food, water, and milk supply, the ashes and garbage disposal, street cleaning and other matters relating to the public health in her community.

Gymnasium Exercises.

Organized sports and games, with teams for competitions against other Scout troops, Y. W. C. A. Jewish Alliance, schools, colleges or other organizations.

Troop hikes, indoor social games, and dancing.

Debates, talks by public health officers, readings on topics relating to household and civic sanitation. These should be linked up with some sort of actual community public health work such as milk or food inspection, school inspection, work of visiting nurse and school doctor, anti-tuberculosis campaigns, etc.

• Advanced First Aid.
• Advanced Home Nursing.
• Badges: Ambulance.
• Athletics.
• Public Health.
• Home Nursing.
• Special Health Award

Special Health Award

Citizen Scouts who attain to the Girl Scout standard of health shall be known as Super Scouts or Senior Scouts, and they shall be allowed to arrange the Girl Scout inter-troop athletic meets and competitions, calling upon the various captains of Girl Scout troops in the community and also Citizen Scouts to furnish girls to make up the teams. The Citizen Scouts may coach teams and shall act as umpires and referees in the games.

II. “I will be able to earn my own living.”

Among the subjects Citizen Scouts may take up are nursing, child nursing, wood working, metal working, design, interior decoration, stenographer, typewriting, journalism, telegraphy, dress-design, dressmaking, salesmanship, cooking, marketing, farming, gardening, and all varieties of trades.

Groups of Citizen Scouts would find much pleasure and profit, if they would undertake some quite different line from their daily occupation such as basket making, modeling, pottery, book-binding, upholstery, or any other branch of industrial or fine arts.

If a troop of Citizen Scouts wishes to study industrial problems in their own trade or trades where other girls are employed, meetings may be arranged between the groups of girls in the different occupations. A sympathetic understanding of others needs will tend to create a better social stability. Self perfection and vocational advancement need not necessarily lead to selfishness and fancied superiority. In these discussions or debates outsiders may be invited to take part. A successful business woman might come to give her experience and help in the discussion. A troop scrap book of clippings from newspapers and magazines showing what is going on in the industrial world will be of interest.

Badges

• Artist
• Automobiling
• Child nurse
• Clerk
• Cook
• Invalid
• Dairy
• Electricity
• Farmer
• Gardening
• Home nursing
• Housekeeper
• Interpreter
• Laundress
• Music
• Needlewoman
• Photography
• Scribe
• Telegraphy

Special Vocational Award

Home maker.—To win this a Citizen Scout must hold the cook, laundress, needlewoman, housekeeper, and home nurse’s badges, and must actually take charge of her home for a period of three months, keeping the accounts, and superintending all the housework that is done when she cannot do it all herself.

Industrial Worker.—To win this badge a Citizen Scout must support herself for at least three months, and bring a certificate from her employer to prove she has done this.

III. “I will serve my country.”

Each Citizen Scout troop should when possible, take up some definite form of public service. When such group work is not possible, each individual can find real public service opportunities open in any number of fields.

Scouting gets its “punch” from actual participation in doing things worth while. Therefore, use study clubs, lectures, books, etc.; as may be necessary but base your tests on actual deeds performed. First a follower (learner) and then a leader. A Citizen Scout can observe and study law-making in progress in a local board of supervisors of a county or city council or state legislature; or report on a session of court covering at least one full legal case. She might visit the freight terminal, and follow the milk delivery to the door of the consumer; or find a voluntary job in a creche, hospital or old ladies’ home, and do something worth while for thirty hours. She might attend a meeting of the School Board; help with school luncheons, and follow the work of the school nurse in the home. Any girl who will follow up any department of government and actually take part in it for a week—whether in street cleaning or reading to blind old ladies—will always thereafter have a different attitude toward civic affairs in that field.

Each Citizen Scout should find her own field and cultivate it: devote so many hours actual participation and report on it; develop qualities of leadership for her patrol; assist a captain of younger Girl Scout troop; take over the village park, the care of a public library, provide summer outings for poor children, conduct a camp, helping a teacher, etc. District nursing offers many chances for voluntary effort. Sunday school teaching, Y. W. C. A. work, Girl’s Friendly Societies, Big Sisters, all provide good opportunities. Red Cross and other patriotic organizations need helpers. No one should live to herself alone these days. Your country needs YOU now—not next week or when you have leisure, but NOW. The girl who doesn’t respond never will be worth what she might be. What are you going to do about it? Do it now!

• Public Health.
• Civics.

Special Civic Award.—Must hold a civics badge, and carry out some definite investigation of civic matters, and report on it in an article of 500 words or more, or must carry through some public service for a period of at least three months.

The Badges are similar to those for Girl Scouts with a red border round them.

Badges are also given to girls who qualify in technical or continuation schools, or in some cases in their now factories or workshops. These are grouped as follows:

Group 1. Nursing Service.

• Medical Student.
• Home Nursing.
• Convalescent Nursing.
• Child Nursing.
• Hospital Nursing.
• Masseuse.
• Physical Trainer.

Group 2. Arts and Crafts.

• Architects.
• Artists.
• Embroiderer and Lace Maker.
• Designer.
• Wood-worker.
• Sculptor and Modeller.
• Metal worker.
• Musician.
• Photographer.
• Acting and reciting.
• Dancing.

Group 3. Professional.

• Accountant.
• School Teacher.
• Secretary.
• Journalist.
• Motorist.
• Telegraphist.

Group 4. Manufacturer.

• Textile worker.
• Leather worker.
• Toy maker.
• Confectioner.
• Dressmaker.

Group 5. Commercial.

• Clerk.
• Saleswoman.
• Traveller.
• Foreign Correspondent.
• Manager.

Group 6. Housework.

• Cook.
• Domestic Science.
• Parlourmaid.
• Housemaid.

Group 7. Outdoor work.

• Agriculture.
• Dairy farming.
• Horticulture.
• Poultry farming.
• Bee keeping.
• Fruit growing.
• Market gardening.
• Naturalist.

The badge for these is a coloured Badge round the arm. When a Student passes a higher examination of the technical school, she obtains a further Badge of a crown to add to the stripe.

In many places the leaders of Scout troops have felt the need of more training for the work they were doing with their girls, and so Training Schools have been established, or classes have been organized under the auspices of a local Council. In some cases regular troops of older girls have been organized for the purpose of training them to be Girl Scout leaders. Such “Officers’ Training Troops” offer excellent opportunities for girls to learn all the Scout practices and activities, and at the same time how to manage troops, by the best possible method—that of actually doing it.

In training yourself to be an officer you will recognise that in order to command obedience you have yourself to understand how to obey. It is only by practising your own self-discipline that you will see how to develop it in others.

As an officer you will be a responsible person in authority. You will not have others to turn to for instruction, you will have to devise your own plans and to put them into action for yourself. You will be trusted and expected to do these things.>

In dealing with those under you you must have sympathy with each individual. Each one of them has a different mind and a different capacity; this you have to take into account, and you must remember that success will only come where you get their whole-hearted enthusiasm for the work. The successful officer never drives—she leads.

So the Scout officer leads her girls by her own example, whether it is in

her Character that is patience, good temper, keenness, and zeal,

or

her Skill at handcraft,

or

or

her Development of her own health and strength in order to fit her to carry out her life’s work.

Now after reading this don’t, for goodness’ sake, drop your jaw and think that “this is not the sort of thing you want to learn in becoming a Cadet.” There is no need to be downhearted because there is a serious side underlying all the jollity of Scout games. Quite the opposite. Scout games and practices are just as lively and exciting as any others, but they bring greater enjoyment in the end. Why? Because after all, when you have played your tennis or your golf, your hockey or even your humble hopscotch, you begin to think it was very jolly but there was something lacking; what good did it do to anyone? It was to some extent time wasted. The worst agony of death at the moment when the sands are running out and minutes are precious is the feeling that so many hours of life have been wasted on things that did not matter.

---

The Girl Scouts are a Sisterhood. This means that members of it, from top to bottom, are working together as sisters—elder and younger sisters—from joy of the work. It is not a small army composed of officers, non-commissioned officers and privates in their respective grades directing or directed under imposed instruction, therefore the title of Captain and Lieutenant, which, although adopted in the Association, does not exactly describe their rôle, so I shall in these notes refer to the seniors of all grades as I always think of them, viz. as the Captains—those who, like elder sisters, show the younger ones how “to turn to the right and keep straight on.” The secret of successful execution of a scheme or of an order is that those to whom it is imparted should not merely have the statement but understand the meaning that underlies it. So I would propose here—without any idea of instructing my grandchildren how to masticate hen products—to help them to understand some of the methods of our movement so that those who are interested may the more easily take up the work of guiding girls in this happy sisterhood.

That nation comes to the fore which has the most character in its citizens. It deserves its supremacy only when that character is a good character. The character of a nation is not merely that of a few leaders but of the majority of the people. Character is largely a matter of environment and training, and, later on, of experience. Undoubtedly the mother’s influence gives as a rule the first impetus to character. A mother cannot give that which she does not possess herself. Therefore it is all-important that the mothers of our country should possess character of a high quality in order to inculcate it in their children. Hitherto the girls, some of the future mothers of our race, have had little character training as a direct part of their education. Character includes self-reliance, self-discipline, cheerfulness, consideration for others, sense of duty, patriotism, and other such moral qualities. But there are other things besides character needed to make a citizen, especially:

• Skill in handicraft or other work.
• Sense of duty and service for others.
• Physical health and knowledge.

It is on these four lines therefore that the training of the Girl Scouts is carried out, through games and practices which appeal to the girls.

1. War has shown how valuable women can be to the country and to themselves if only trained.

2. Also peace has shown how far from happy life can be for some unless they are trained. From want of proper training preventable misery exists among a very large class. This is to be seen in the squalor in our great cities, in the poverty and unhappiness, the infant mortality, the preventable diseases and social diseases due to ignorance, carelessness, and generally to want of character.

No. Though it is very good and vastly improved of late years and probably better than that of any other nation, yet it cannot under existing conditions entirely prepare the girl for what is possible for her in the present day, much less for what will be required of her in the near future. The remedy largely needed is formation of character. Character is formed more by the environment outside the school walls than by the instruction within them; that environment may be for good and at the same time it may very easily be for bad.

Practical efficiency in homecraft or in mothercraft is essential, but efficiency is desirable in many other spheres for professions, and in the many fields in which woman has proved that she can shine.

The need of health for herself and knowledge of health for her children and for the service for others is essential on a far more general scale than has been heretofore possible through school training alone.

Though the war has brought a splendid exhibition of self-sacrifice and devotion on the part of women and a desire to be helpful and patriotic, the sense of service is one which requires further education in the rising generation. The results of such training can only mean a stronger patriotism and a sound practical Christianity instead of a mere profession.

The aim of the Girl Scout Movement is to assist parents and school teachers by supplying the desirable environment and healthy activities outside the school. The first thing is to attract the girls by happy comradeship, neat uniform, games and competitions which will appeal to them. Then through these to develop in them the four points which I have mentioned as “essential.” But please don’t think that we want to make a school of it. My harping on the “training” may lead you to think so. We do not want to trespass on the school teacher’s ground nor to adopt school curricula or examination systems. Quite the contrary. The weak point of modern education is that though it recognises the value of more up-to-date subjects it has not yet broken away from old methods in presenting them to the child. Till it does so it will remain Instruction instead of Education. Our object in the Scouts is to supply healthy play and recreation: but play when organised need not be waste of time. In these days we cannot afford, nor is it fair on them, to let children waste time and then to launch them “half-baked” into the sea of life-troubles. The Scout training offers them ideals and activities which supplement, without tiring them, the teaching of the school.

Results and experience of five years shows that the scheme is successful in attracting girls of every class in every part of the world. It can be applied equally well in town or country and it helps rather than interferes with every form of religion. Where properly handled it gives remarkable and satisfactory results in the directions looked for.

The National Council is the governing body of the Girl Scout organization. It is composed of delegates from Local Councils and of other elected members. It holds one meeting a year to elect officers and the members of the Executive Board, and to decide matters that concern the policy and welfare of the entire organization.

The duties of the National Council are to

These functions are carried out by an Executive Board between the annual meetings of the National Council. The National Headquarters and a staff of workers are employed to execute the orders of the National Council.

• The President.
• Two Vice-Presidents.
• The Treasurer.
• The Chairman of the Executive Board.

The Executive Board works through Committees, which act as advisers to the board in matters concerning Field, Standards, Uniforms, Business, Education, Editorial, Publicity, etc. Final action is in the hands of the Executive Board, which is responsible to the National Council.

National Headquarters is divided into departments for the more efficient handling of the work. The head of the office staff is the National Director.

The Director is appointed by the Executive Board, and serves as the Secretary of the National Council, the Executive Board and the various committees thereof. Under the authority of the Executive Board she acts as the administrating officer of the Girl Scouts and has general direction of the administrative work.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit.

Scout hat, gold and black hat cords (see Committee on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Insignia. Four bands of half-inch black braid all around left cuff (see Committee on Standards, May 7, 1918).

National Field Captains are employed by the organization and assigned to work in the field.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit.

Scout hat, gold and black hat cord (see Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Insignia. Three bands of half-inch black braid all around left cuff (see Com. on Standards, May 7, 1918).

Every Girl Scout, every officer and councilor, every troop and council has the right of direct communication with National Headquarters and in cases of dispute an appeal may be made to the Executive Board. It is, however, desirable that in all ordinary matters the lines of communication to Headquarters should be as follows:—

From a troop, through the Captain, or through the troop secretary giving name and number of troop, and name of captain.

Where a Local Council is established, it is the normal medium of communication between the captains (troop) under its jurisdiction and National Headquarters.

Where a Federation or State Organization is established it may serve as the medium of communication between the Local Councils and National Headquarters in matters that affect the general policy of all the Local Councils included in it.

Local Councils may also communicate direct with National Headquarters in matters that concern their own locality.

A number of Local Councils may join together to form a Federation for mutual support. Local Councils belonging to it may delegate their general policy to the Federation but retain their power to control their Councils in local matters.

The officers of the Federation may be elected as required.

Field Captains may be employed for organizing their work.

The presiding officer is the Commissioner.

Membership in such a Federation is voluntary.

Or instead of a Federation of Councils a State Organization may be formed. The area under control will coincide with the State of the United States.

In any community where there are Girl Scouts a Local Council may be organized. This is a body of representative citizens of the community (number varies according to size of the community) who are organized for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the Girl Scouts of that district. They determine the policies and direct the local work, following the rules and regulations laid down in the official Handbook and Manual subject to the general policies determined by the National Council or its Executive Board. Each Chartered Local Council may send one delegate to the National Council and one additional delegate for every 200 registered Scouts under its jurisdiction. The National Executive Board is the court of last resort and every member of the Girl Scout Organization has the right of appeal to that court. The Local Council’s officers recommend Captains and Lieutenants for commissions, and have the power to request their resignation when desirable, or they may appeal to National Headquarters to dismiss an undesirable captain. A Local Council may ask Headquarters for the assistance of a Field Captain.

Insignia for Local Councilors. Gray and black shoulder cord and fringe (see minutes Executive Board, April 11, 1918).

Gray and black hat cord.

The shoulder cords may be worn with any costume—the hat cords are generally worn only with the uniform hat.

Is the presiding officer of the Local Council. She is chairman of the Local Executive Board, she is elected by the Local Council and receives a commission from the National Headquarters.

Duties. Her duties are to secure the harmonious coöperation of the captains in her district, to inspect Scout patrols and troops and advise how to conduct them according to the principles found in the Handbook, to be the authority for recommending the issue or denial of captains’ certificates and foster the movement generally.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit. Scout hat with gray cord with gray acorns.

Insignia. Gray shoulder cord and fringe (may be worn with any costume if Commissioner prefers not to have a uniform) (see minutes Executive Board, April 11, 1918).

Of Local Councils will be elected according to the needs of the community.

Deputy Commissioner

Stands in the relation of vice-president to the commissioner.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk Suit. Scout hat with gray cord with black acorns.

Insignia. Gray shoulder cord with black and gray fringe and black center, may be worn with any costume if the Deputy Commissioner prefers not to have a uniform (see minutes Executive Board, April 11, 1918).

District Commissioner

In large communities it is possible to divide the territory into districts each with a District Commissioner who is responsible for the work in that district to the Commissioner.

Uniforms. Khaki Norfolk Suit. Scout hat with gray cord with gray acorns.

Insignia. Black shoulder cord with black and gray fringe with gray center. May be worn with any costume if the District Commissioner prefers not to have a uniform.

The Local Director

Is the title given to the executive officer of the local Council. (This officer was formerly called Secretary.)

Duties. She has charge of Headquarters and other property of the local organization, has general supervision of the Captains and instructs new captains in their duties, organizes new troops, receives and forwards to Headquarters all applications for captains’ certificates, keeps all records of the council and of the troops and such information concerning them as may be necessary for the work. She is secretary of the Committees, but her presence at each meeting is decided by the Local Council; it is her duty to attend public meetings connected with the organization and she represents Girl Scouts at the meetings of other organizations unless otherwise directed by the Council.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit. Scout hat with gold and black hat cord (see Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Insignia. Four bands one-fourth-inch black braid, all around left cuff (Com. on Standards, May 7, 1918).

Local Field Captains

May be employed by Local Councils for organizing their work.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit. Scout hat, gold and black hat cord (Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Troops

Insignia. Three bands of one-fourth-inch black braid all around left cuff (Com. on Standards, May 7, 1918).

Girl Scouts are organized in troops under the direct charge of a Captain who may or may not have one or more Lieutenants to assist her.

A troop may be of any size, although it is not advisable for a Captain to have a troop of more than thirty girls unless she is assisted by a capable Lieutenant.

The Captain

Must not be less than twenty-one years old, and must have a personal character and standing, a good moral influence over girls, and sufficient steadfastness of purpose to carry out the work with energy and perseverance. She should have a general knowledge of the Handbook, and should appreciate the underlying aim and principles of Girl Scout training. She must apply to National Headquarters for her commission. Application should be made on blanks supplied from National Headquarters and must be endorsed by three prominent citizens of the community. Where a Local Council is established the application must be sent through the Local Council. The Captain has the power to enroll Scouts, and to release a Scout from her promise, to suspend her for a certain period, or withdraw her badges and discharge her. A Scout who considers herself unjustly treated may appeal to the Local Council or even to National Council. The Captain directs the Scout training of the girls in her troop, and may examine them for the Tenderfoot and Second Class tests. Where no court of honor exists she may secure examiners for them for the special subjects of proficiency badges or this may be done by the Local Council.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit. Scout hat, gold and black hat cord (Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Insignia. Gold and black shoulder cord (Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918), two bands one-fourth-inch black braid all around left cuff (Com. on Standards, May 7, 1918).

Captain’s pin.

Lieutenant

Should not be less than 18 years of age. Her qualifications are the same as those for Captain and she receives her commission in the same way. She is chosen by the Captain, performs the duties of the Captain during her absence and such other duties as the Captain may assign to her.

Uniform. Khaki Norfolk suit. Scout hat, gold and black hat cord (Com. on Uniforms, Jan. 12, 1918).

Insignia. One braid one-fourth-inch black braid all around left cuff (Com. on Uniforms, May 7, 1918).

Lieutenant’s pin.

Captains and Lieutenants on making their application to enter the organization pay a small fee which covers the entire period of membership. Commissions are issued for one year and must be renewed at the end of the period.

Troops are divided into Patrols of about eight girls each, for convenience in work and play. One of the eight girls is chosen Patrol Leader and another the Corporal.

The Patrol Leader must be what her name implies, a leader, for she stands next to the Captain and Lieutenant and takes either’s place in their absence. She is responsible for her patrol. She may be elected by the girls themselves or appointed by the captain, with the consent of the girls. She holds office for six months or a year, and is eligible for reëlection. Her duties include calling the roll, keeping records of the attendance and dues of her patrol, and leaving the meeting place in order. Any of these duties may be delegated to the Corporal, or to some other member of the patrol, particularly as the Patrol Leader becomes capable of assuming heavier responsibilities, to relieve her of the routine duties.

Uniform. Regular Scout uniform.

Insignia. Chevron, two stripes, on left sleeve above elbow.

The Patrol Leader carries the patrol pennon.

The Corporal may be elected by the patrol, appointed by the captain or by the Patrol Leader. She takes the latter’s place when she is absent, and performs such other duties as may be assigned to her by the Patrol Leader or by the Captain.

Uniform. Regular Scout uniform.

Insignia. Chevron, one bar; on left sleeve above elbow.

Want of space in the present book prevents me from going into the details of the dress, administration, and discipline of the Movement, but these can all be found in the Book of Rules, which can be obtained from Headquarters price 6d.

All these rules may appear rather alarming to an outsider, but please remember that they are “rules” as for cricket and not “regulations” as for police purposes. They are merely intended as indications for “playing the game,” and that is the only form of discipline that we ask for in the sisterhood. Their object is to ensure that their policy is adhered to under which our Charter of Incorporation was granted, and also to guarantee to parents that reliable officers are in charge of their girls to ensure fairness of standard in awards, and to secure efficient training by having efficient Scouters.

Method.—Our method of training is to educate from within rather than to instruct from without; to offer games and activities which, while being attractive to the girl, will seriously educate her morally, mentally, and physically.

Our aim is to promote “not so much the acquisition of knowledge as the desire and capacity for acquiring knowledge.”

In other words, the Captain’s job is to enthuse the girl in the right direction. By acting on this principle she will save herself considerable trouble in reaching her goal and in producing smart, keen and capable girls.

It is the means by which the modern schoolmistress scores over her more old-fashioned sister, since she develops a girl to be efficient rather than scholarly, to have character rather than erudition—and that is what counts towards success in life nowadays.

By “efficiency” I don’t mean mere money-making skill, but a general intelligence and capability to live a free, prosperous and happy life.

To preach “don’t” is to incite the doing of wrong. Rather infuse the right spirit; as powder is to the shot, so is spirit to action.

Moral Instruction.—Direct moral instruction—like drill—produces a pleasing veneer, but unless there is properly seasoned character below this will not stand wear.

Wise old Plato long ago gave us the right lead in education, and one which only now is beginning to be followed, when he said that there was innate good in every child, and the aim of education should be to develop these natural “instincts of virtue” through suitable practices.

Active versus passive education.—No mention of reading, writing, and ’rithmetic as essentials, but of enlarging the natural instincts, i.e., character by practices not merely by precepts.

The average girl (if there is such a thing as an average girl) does not want to sit down and passively receive theoretical instruction. She wants to be up and actually doing things in practice, and this is a good lever to work upon if only the teacher will recognise it as the instrument ready to her hand.

Your first step then is to study the girl herself; to recognise her likes and dislikes, her good qualities and her bad, and to direct her training on these.

The scheme given in this book is little more than a suggestive outline. It is left to the ingenuity of the Captain to devise generally on these lines further activities such as will best suit her local conditions.

Games and practices selected or planned for the purpose can be made to teach, through the youthful enthusiasm of the girls, most of the moral attributes required, such as self-restraint, good temper, obedience to leaders and to rules, unselfishness, pluck, moral endurance, fairness, esprit de corps, etc., as well as physical hygiene. Further, they teach soberness in success, good humour in defeat, and repression of show-off and hysterics.

For example, if a girl faints on parade it should be a point of honour almost to take no notice of her beyond allowing her Corporal and one other Scout to look after her. The business of the moment should go on as if nothing untoward were happening.

There are two fundamental points to be considered in dealing with Scouts. The first is that the only woman who can hope for real success as a trainer of Scouts is the one who can be their elder sister. The “Commanding Officer” is no good and the “Schoolmistress” is doomed to failure (though in neither case probably would the woman recognise it herself nor admit it). This fact is being proved daily by the successful results already gained by our Captain. By the term “elder sister” I mean one who while commanding their respect can place herself on terms of comradeship with her girls, entering into their games and laughter, herself thereby winning their confidence and putting herself into that position which is essential for teaching, namely, where by her own example she leads them in the right direction instead of merely pointing the way.

The second item to recognise, although as a point it is of first importance, is that the girl of eight to ten is psychologically quite different from the girl of ten to fifteen. I don’t mean that the change comes about with a bang in the tenth year; but the younger girl is growing relatively in mind and body more rapidly than the elder one, and the transition gradually comes about approximately at those ages in the average girl. The age at which crime begins among the poorer class of children points to the age at which character begins to form itself, and it appears much earlier in life than is usually supposed; that is to say, the crime returns show a good deal of juvenile depravity at the early age of ten and eleven, and at twelve it has mounted to its highest point in the young generation up to twenty. Between the ages of eight and nine, therefore, seem to be the right time to get hold of the girl when the seeds of character may begin to sprout into pliant tendrils ready to trail off in the wrong direction, but easily taken in hand at that time and trained aright.

Under eleven the following are common attributes in the average child: make-believe, appreciation of fairy tales, eagerness for new experiences, collection of stamps and other curios, mental restlessness, physical restlessness, thoughtlessness, untruthfulness, etc. Over eleven the following attributes may be generally counted on: constructiveness, hero-worship, liking for team games, dawning conscience, sense of humour, of pathos and of sympathy.

In any case sense of honour, truth, self-control, fairness, discipline, responsibility and good humour have been too little inculcated among girls in the past, and this important omission we endeavour to make good in the practices and activities of the Scout work adapted to the psychology changes as they come.

I remember when we first started the Boy Scout and Girl Scout Movements in England, I received some valuable advice from a prominent business man with regard to organising the Headquarters Office.

He told me that women were far the best clerks to employ in preference to men, but he said the pity of it was that they only rose to a certain height in their work and they could not be made managers of departments because they could not take responsibility.

War conditions have since shown that if he meant this as a rule he was wrong. Women have risen splendidly to the occasion, and in very many cases have shown themselves perfectly qualified to take higher duties upon themselves.

At the same time there is no doubt that if more of them were prepared for it early in life, many more of them would be so employed in ordinary times of peace.

In the Girl Scout Movement, as in the Boy Scouts, we also have the small unit—the Patrol—commanded by its own girl Leader.

This in the first place conduces to the Patrol Spirit among its members, where each of them considers the honour of her unit to be always at stake, and that it is up to her among its other members constantly to uphold its reputation.

This brings the development of self-discipline, sense of duty and selflessness down to the individual. Emulation between Patrols in a Troop make for a higher standard of efficiency and collective discipline all round; and this is a great help to the Captain.

But also there is the Patrol Leader. She is the responsible officer for leading her Patrol to victory and for keeping each member of the unit up to the mark so that the Patrol as a whole does not fall behind any other.

To do this effectively she soon discovers, if it is not otherwise pointed out to her, that she has to be a Leader not only in name but in fact and in act.

She has to be an all-round efficient, and she has to use her brain and thought, her initiative and power of command to hold and lead those under her.

With a little practice this rôle becomes a habit. Having learnt how to obey and how to restrain herself she develops the power of command and her own sense of responsibility, thereby unconsciously preparing herself to take higher positions of trust in real life later on.

But above all this means for each individual the development of character. And that is our aim.

The Court of Honour formed by Patrol Leaders and their Assistants (“Corporals”) is also of untold value in founding and developing the strength of the Scout spirit and the sense of responsibility to a further degree among the girls.

For these reasons the Patrol System is the most important element in the Girl Scout Training, and it is, as far as I know, the only step so far made available towards educating girls practically in two points which have long been missing in their upbringing—namely, in the sense and practice of Self-discipline and Responsibility.

From the parents’ point of view Scout work gives character to the girls, also skill at handicrafts; thirdly, service and helpfulness to others; fourthly, physical health and development.

From the teacher’s point of view it provides a healthy environment outside the school, and activities which tend to develop in practice many of these attributes inculcated theoretically in the girls’ lessons.

From the girls’ point of view Scouting puts them into fraternity gangs among jolly comrades and it gives them a smart dress and equipment, it appeals to their imagination in results, and it engages them in an active open-air and healthy life.

Our aim is to give equal chances to all and to give the most help to the least fortunate.

The training applies equally well to girls of all classes and can be carried out in towns just as well as in the country.

Camping, which a few years ago was looked upon as impossible for girls, has now become an institution in very many centres—or one that has brought the very best results. It is what the girls look forward to with intense joy, and it gives the Captains their greatest opportunity.

Large camps are, for training purposes, a mistake: one troop of three or four patrols is as much as a Captain and Lieutenant can manage with due regard to the health and training of the girls. They may be carried out in tents or in barns and farm buildings, empty houses, etc.

Two authorities from very different points of view have gone so far as to describe Scouting and Scout work as “a new religion and a practical one.” One of these was a clergyman and a schoolmaster, and the other a statesman of strong human sympathies.

We have not ourselves pretended to claim any such standing for the teaching, but we do find from experience that where rightly handled it can put the right spirit and the right grounding into children for developing religion through their inner consciousness instead of having theology imposed upon them through surface instruction of morality taught them through fear of punishment.

To interest the child is our method of training in the Scout movement, whatever may be the subject taken up. It can equally be used in the development of the elements of religion without in any way trenching on the teaching of any particular denomination—indeed it is helpful to all.

We use, therefore, the study of Nature as a first step to the realisation of the Creator. The dissection of a plant or bird, the observation of the habits of an animal or an insect, or the study of the stars and planets all command the eager interest of the girl, and if properly applied, reveal to her with absorbing force the miracle laws of Nature; it gives her a sense of the beautiful; it gives her an uplifting instinct of reverence for the power of God.

Then, on the moral side, to be good is of little interest to the child; to do good is another matter. She has an innate predisposition to the active practice rather than to the passive reception, and the Scout encouragement to do the daily good turn meets her inclination and eventually leads her—bit by bit—to the practice of kindness and of self-sacrifice for others as her natural habit of mind and action. In other words, the germ of the Divine Love that is within her is developed along lines which appeal to her, till it blossoms out as an integral part of her life and character, as her soul. In this way the soul is educated, that is, self-expanded from within: it cannot be developed artificially by the application of book instruction and rules from without.

Nature study should not be the mere formal class teaching of the school, but should be the interested pursuit of each individual girl in that branch of it which particularly appeals to her, through practical handling and dealing with it.

Through such Nature investigation, and the consequent appreciation of God the Creator, the Captain can lead the girl on to a right understanding of biology and of her own position in the order of nature; to realise how she can be associated with the Creator in His work and how she can have her part in the romance of reproduction and the carrying on of the race; also that good motherhood is a wonderful gift of God, at once a sacred and a patriotic privilege and duty.

Many a girl has been ruined by ignorance on the subject, and by the wrong or debased views picked up haphazard. Parents to a great extent evade their duties in this direction, and yet they are apt to resent other people trying to remedy their neglect. So it is often desirable for a Captain to consult the mother before talking to a girl, but the girl should not be left to slide in ignorance. Then it is not a thing to deal with before a number of girls, but with the individual according to her psychology.

One of the objects in a Captain being “an elder sister rather than an officer” to her girls is precisely that she can talk to them intimately and naturally on this very vital topic.

Rallies are useful for bringing together a number of Troops to see each other and be seen by others whom it is desired to interest in the Movement. For either or both purposes it is a good thing to have displays of Scout activities by the different patrols and companies, and also to have competitions between them in various Scout practices.

A too common fault about Rallies is that the stage-managing is faulty—the way in which the thing is presented is as important as the thing presented, so far as the outside impression is concerned. The other fault is that generally the displays are chosen too much with a view to training the girls and too little with a view to interesting the onlookers. This is a bad fault if you are trying to spread the Movement and to get people keenly interested in it. The two points can perfectly well be combined. Let the programme err on the short side, and let it be full of variety, novelty, incident, and interest. Long signalling tests and bandaging exhibitions are intensely boring to the onlookers who don’t understand them. Whereas a realistic accident, a pretty dance, good acting, and graceful gymnastics, and exhibitions of work done, or girls at work, are pleasing and attractive.

Let it go with a snap—short, sharp and sweet.

Often the Rally includes inspection by a Commissioner or other officers.

There was in the early days of the Movement a tendency to look upon the inspection of a Troop rather in the light of a military parade or a social function, when in point of fact it should be neither.

A cursory review by a visiting officer is bound to induce training for outward effect and appearance, an entire perversion of our aims and methods.

I have seen it suggested, even quite recently, that the girls in the Troop should be ranged for inspection in order of size so that they may please the eye of the inspector!

The up-to-date inspecting officer is not likely to be taken in by eye-wash. Her aim is to ascertain to what extent results have been attained by the Captain among the girls in each Patrol in her Troop in the four main branches of our training.

• Character and Intelligence.
• Skill and Handicraft.
• Service for Others.
• Physical Health and Health Knowledge.

She will generally take each Patrol separately, or if there is not time for this, one Patrol selected at random from each Troop.

She will then, by questioning the Patrol Leader and some of the Scouts, judge for herself to what extent the leader is capable of responsibility and leadership, and to what extent the girls are efficient, keen, and smart.

She can, by a few simple tests, soon see whether they have really earned their badges, and she can offer them simple personal advice which will sink in and be valued.

The Scout Spirit and Scout proficiency are to her the important points to look for.

Accurate drill, neat bandaging, quick and legible signalling, smart uniform, are excellent steps, but they are only steps among others towards the attainment of womanly efficiency on the part of the individual girl.

That is the aim of our training.

Happy, smiling face, ready resourcefulness and quick intelligence in carrying out any job that may be given is the evidence of keen esprit de corps in the Patrol, are by far the best indications to the inspecting officer as to whether or not true Scout training is practised by the Captain in her Troop.

As Benjamin Kidd has written, let our cry be:——

“Oh! you wise men who would reconstruct the world! Give us the young. Give us the young. Do what you will with the world, only give us the young. It is the dreams which we teach them: it is the Utopias which we conceive for them: it is the thoughts which we think for them, which will rebuild the world. Give us the young before the evil has held them and we will create a new Heaven and a new Earth.”

 

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