LITMIR.BIZ

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066230371

Table of Contents

       FOREWORD

       YOUNG KNIGHTS OF THE EMPIRE

       THE SCOUT LAW

       TRAVELS ABROAD

       FOREIGN BOY SCOUTS

       ON AN ORIENT STEAMSHIP

       SEA SCOUTING

       HOW TO BECOME A BACKWOODSMAN

       TRAINING AND TRACKING

       CONCLUSION

       INDEX

FOREWORD

       Table of Contents

      TO BOY-MEN—

      In offering this collection of yarns, I do not suggest that these are anything more than further illustrations of the steps already schemed in Scouting for Boys for self-education in character and good citizenship.

      But illustrations by themselves are of comparatively little value unless the theories and ideas conveyed by them are also put into actual and habitual practice.

      It is in this that the boy needs your encouragement.

      ROBERT BADEN-POWELL

      YOUNG KNIGHTS OF THE EMPIRE

       Table of Contents

THE SCOUT LAW

       Table of Contents

      Perhaps you wonder what is a Young Knight of the Empire.

      Well, you know what a knight is—or rather, used to be in the old days—a gallant fellow who was always ready to defend weaker people when they were being bullied; he was brave and honourable, and ready to risk his life in doing his duty according to the code or law of Chivalry.

      Well, nowadays there are thousands of boys all over the British Empire carrying out the same idea, and making themselves into fine, reliable men, ready to take the place of those who have gone away to fight and who have fallen at the Front. These are the Boy Scouts. Their code is the Scout Law—that is, a set of ten rules which they carry out in their daily life.

      I will explain these Laws, and will give you some other yarns of camp life and adventure such as the Scouts go in for.

      HONOUR

      Law 1. A SCOUT'S HONOUR IS TO BE TRUSTED.

       If a Scout says "On my honour it is so," that means it is so, just as if he had taken a most solemn oath.

       Similarly if a Scout officer says to a Scout, "I trust you on your honour to do this," the Scout is bound to carry out the order to the very best of his ability, and to let nothing interfere with his doing so.

      If a Scout were to break his honour by telling a lie, or_ by not carrying out an order exactly when trusted on his honour to do so, he may be directed to hand over his Scout badge and never wear it again. He may also be directed to cease to be a Scout._

      People of a civilised country, just like boys in a school, are bound to conduct themselves in a proper manner, because of the law which causes them to be punished if they misbehave. There is a code of laws drawn up for this purpose.

      But there is another kind of law which binds people just as much as their written laws, though this one is neither written nor published.

      This unwritten law is Honour.

      A boy who has clambered over the school wall to go out of bounds and smoke secretly has committed an offence against the published law of the school. If next day the master asks in school, "Who has broken out of bounds?" the boy is not bound by the law to confess that he did; he can remain silent and thus escape punishment; but he is a poor-spirited creature if he does so, and has no sense of honour. If he is honourable he will manfully and honestly tell the master that he broke out and will stand whatever punishment comes of it. By so doing he will have proved to the master and to the other boys that he is manly and not afraid to tell the truth, and is to be relied upon because he puts his honour before all.

      So the first training that the Boy Scout gets is to understand that Honour is his own private law which is guided by his conscience, and that once he is a Scout he must be guided in all his doings by his sense of Honour.

      LOYALTY

      Law 2. A SCOUT IS LOYAL to the King, and to his officers, and to his parents, his Country, his employers, and to those under his orders. He must stick to them through thick and thin against anyone who is their enemy or who even talks badly of them.

      There was a Scoutmaster in the East End of London who when the war broke out felt it his duty to give up the splendid work he was doing amongst the poor boys of the East End in order to take up service for his Country.

      Scoutmaster Lukis—for that is his name—felt bound, by his sense of loyalty to his King and his Country, to give up the life he was then living and face the dangers of soldiering on active service.

      But the example which he set in loyalty was promptly followed by some eighty young fellows who were his Scouts or Old Scouts.

      Their loyalty to him made them wish to follow their leader wherever his duty led him. So they became soldiers like himself and all went together to the Front.

      A day came when the trenches which they were holding were heavily shelled. The danger was great and the losses were heavy, and finally a piece of shrapnel struck Captain Lukis in the leg and shattered his thigh. Two of his East London Boy Scout's sprang to his assistance and tended him with devoted care. They waited for a lull in the firing and finally between them they carried him, although exposed to a deadly fire, to a place of safety. While so doing one of them was hit and severely wounded.

      But the spirit of the lads was splendid. They cared nothing for their own safety so that they got their beloved Scoutmaster out of danger. That was loyalty.

      Loyalty

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