Young Knights of the Empire | Page 8

first, but she soon found the difference between "Scouts" and
"boys." These were "Scouts," and they at once helped the ladies and their baggage into
the carriage, and then made plenty of room for them by sitting on each other's knees, and
kept order and behaved so nicely that she fell in love with all of them, and talked with
them and found them "quite charming and gentlemanly."
Another lady told me that some Scouts had asked leave to camp in her grounds, and as
she has allowed boys to do this for some years past, she did not like to refuse them: at the
same time she was not very glad to have them, because she had found it expensive and
troublesome every year to have to get the camping-ground cleaned up and set right after
they had gone.
The day after the Scouts had finished their camp, she sent as usual some men to work on
the camp-ground, when to her astonishment, they came back and said there was no work
to be done there, the ground was all clean, rubbish and ashes removed, and turf replaced.
And then she remembered that these were "Scouts," not ordinary boys, who had been
camping there--and she will be glad to see them there again whenever they like to come!
The weather this morning was beautifully hot and fine, but in the afternoon it suddenly
changed to cold, windy, and steady rain. Numbers of ladies and children had gone out for
a day on the beach or in the country. In one case a woman and her two children had to
come back part of the way in an open boat, and then in a steam-launch, in their summer
clothes, without umbrellas or waterproofs.
A Scout who was there seemed to have foreseen bad weather, as he had two waterproof
coats, and he gave up one and offered it to cover the children.
"Well!" you would say, "that is easy enough, and he kept himself dry and snug in the
other."
No, he didn't, he put that on the woman, and went and did the best he could for himself
on the lee side of the deck; he put a smile on and pretended that a cold trickle down the

back is a good thing for the complexion; and that is what any other Scout would have
done in the circumstances.
* * * * *
GALLANTRY OF BOY SCOUTS IN HELPING THE POLICE.
On different occasions I have had the pleasure of issuing Silver Medals to Scouts for
gallantry in saving life or assisting the police.
Scoutmaster Crowther, of the Huddersfield Boy Scouts, went to the assistance of a police
constable who was being violently assaulted by some roughs in a slum. Although he was
knocked about himself in doing so, Crowther managed to help the officer, and, by
blowing his whistle, to get more police on to the scene. The principal offenders were
arrested, and ultimately got six months' imprisonment from the magistrate, who at the
same time highly complimented Mr. Crowther on his plucky action.
Scout P. L. G. Brown, of the 7th (All Saints) Southampton Troop, did much the same
thing. He saw a police constable struggling with four violent roughs, and, although there
was a hostile crowd round them, Brown remembered his duty and dashed in to help the
officer. Although he got a kick on the knee, he was able to get hold of the policeman's
whistle and to blow it, and in this way brought more police upon the scene, so that the
four men were arrested and punished.
Brown himself went away without giving his name or making any fuss about what he had
done, but he was discovered and later on received the Silver Medal.
Then, when I was reviewing the Gateshead Scouts, I heard of the case of two Boy Scouts
being rewarded by the magistrate for their gallantry in assisting the police.
The Scouts of Newton Abbot were at hand when a motor-car dashed into a cart, smashing
it up and injuring the two occupants. The Scouts detained the car; and although the
motorists endeavoured to drive off, they put their staves between the spokes of the wheels
and hung on and prevented the car getting away until the police came up and took charge.
It was splendid how these Scouts showed such pluck and readiness in helping the King's
officers. They got knocked about in doing so, but what are a few bruises? They wore off
in a few days; but the thing that won't wear off is the satisfaction that each one of those
Scouts will feel for the rest of his life--namely, that he did his duty.
* * * * *
THE SCOUT OF LABRADOR.
Dr. Wilfred