Outdoor Sports and Games | Page 7

oath thus:
"On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, 1. To do my duty to
God and my country. 2. To help other people at all times. 3. To obey
the scout law."
When taking this oath the scout will stand holding his right hand raised
level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of
the little finger, and the other three fingers upright pointing upward.
This the scouts' salute and secret sign.
When the hand is raised shoulder high it is called "the half salute."
When raised to the forehead it is called "the full salute."
The three fingers held up (like the three points on the scouts' badge)
remind him of his three promises in the scouts' oath.
There are three classes of scouts. A boy on joining the Boy Scouts must
pass a test in the following points before taking the oath:
Know the scouts' laws and signs and the salute.
Know the composition of the national flag and the right way to fly it.
Tie four of the following knots: Reef, sheet bend, clove hitch, bowline,
middleman's, fisherman's, sheep-shank.

He then takes the scouts' oath and is enrolled as a tenderfoot and is
entitled to wear the buttonhole badge.
A SECOND-CLASS SCOUT
Before being awarded a second-class scout's badge, a boy must pass the
following tests:
1. Have at least one month's service as a tenderfoot.
2. Elementary first aid bandaging.
3. Signalling. Elementary knowledge of semaphore or Morse alphabet.
4. Track half a mile in twenty-five minutes, or if in a town describe
satisfactorily the contents of one store window out of four, observed for
one minute each.
5. Go a mile in twelve minutes at "scouts' pace."
6. Lay and light a fire using not more than two matches.
7. Cook a quarter of a pound of meat and two potatoes without cooking
utensils other than the regulation billy.
8. Have at least twenty-five cents in the savings bank.
9. Know the sixteen principal points of the compass.
FIRST-CLASS SCOUT
Before being awarded a first-class scout's badge, a scout must pass the
following test in addition to the tests laid down for a second-class
scout:
1. Swim fifty yards. (This may be omitted where the doctor certifies
that bathing is dangerous to the boy's health).
2. Must have at least fifty cents in the savings bank.

3. Signalling. Send and receive a message either in semaphore or Morse,
sixteen letters per minute.
4. Go on foot or row a boat alone to a point seven miles away and
return again, or if conveyed by any vehicle or animal go a distance of
fifteen miles and back and write a short report on it. It is preferable that
he should take two days over it.
5. Describe or show the proper means for saving life in case of two of
the following accidents: Fire, drowning, runaway carriage, sewer gas,
ice breaking, or bandage an injured patient or revive an apparently
drowned person.
6. Cook satisfactorily two of the following dishes as may be directed:
Porridge, bacon, hunter's stew; or skin and cook a rabbit or pluck and
cook a bird. Also "make a damper" of half a pound of flour or a "twist"
baked on a thick stick.
7. Read a map correctly and draw an intelligent rough sketch map.
Point out a compass direction without the help of a compass.
8. Use an axe for felling or trimming light timber: or as an alternative
produce an article of carpentry or joinery or metal work, made by
himself satisfactorily.
9. Judge distance, size, numbers and height within 25 per cent. error.
10. Bring a tenderfoot trained by himself in the points required of a
tenderfoot.
THE SCOUTS' LAW
1. A scout's honour is to be trusted. 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 scouts' badge
and never to wear it again. He may also be directed to cease to be a
scout.

2. A scout is loyal to his country, his officers, his parents and his
employers. He must stick to them through thick and thin against any
one who is their enemy or who even talks badly about them.
3. A scout's duty is to be useful and to help others. He must be prepared
at any time to save life or to help injured persons, and he must try his
best to do a good turn to somebody every day.
4. A scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout, no matter
to what social class the other belongs.
5. A scout is