Outdoor Sports and Games | Page 7

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 courteous, especially to women, children, old people, invalids, and cripples. And he must never take a reward for being courteous.
6. A scout is a friend to animals. Killing an animal for food is allowable.
7. A scout obeys orders of his parents, patrol leader, or scout master without question.
8. A scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.
9. A scout is thrifty and saves every penny he can and puts it into the bank.
The scout master is the adult leader of a troop. A troop consists of three or more patrols. The scout master may begin with one patrol. He must have a deep interest in boys, be genuine in his own life, have the ability to lead and command the boys' respect and obedience, and possess some knowledge of a boy's ways. He need not be an expert on scoutcraft. The good scout master will discover experts