A. THE GIRL SCOUT’S LAW
1. A Girl Scout’s Honor is to be Trusted.
If a Scout says “On my honour it is so,” that means that it is so just as if she had taken a most solemn oath.
Similarly, if a captain says to a Scout, “I trust you on your honor to do this,” the Scout is bound to carry out the order to the very best of her ability, and to let nothing interfere with her doing so.
If a Scout were to break her honor by telling a lie, or by not carrying out an order exactly when trusted on her honor to do so, she would cease to be a Scout, for the time being, and she may be required to hand over her Scout badge.
2. A Scout is Loyal
to the President and to her officers, to her mother and father, to her employers, to those who may be under her, and to her friends. She must stick to them through thick and thin against any one who is their enemy, or who even talks badly of them. A Scout will not talk ill of them herself.
3. A Scout’s Duty is to be Useful and to Help Others.
She is to do her duty before anything else, even though she gives up her own pleasure, or comfort, or safety to do it. When in difficulty to know which of two things to do, she must ask herself, “Which is my duty?”—that is, “Which is best for other people?”—and do that one. She must Be Prepared at any time to save life and to help injured persons. And she should do at least one good turn to somebody every day.
4. A Scout is a Friend to All, and a Sister to Every Other Scout.
Thus, if a Scout meets another Scout, even though a stranger to her, she may speak to her, and help her in any way that she can, either to carry out the duty she is then doing, or by giving her food, or, as far as possible, anything that she may be in want of. A Scout must never be a SNOB. A snob is one who looks down upon another because she is poorer, or who is poor and resents another because she is rich. A Scout is like Kim—“Little friend to all the world.”
5. A Scout is Courteous—
that is, she is polite to all—but especially to old people and invalids, cripples, etc. And she must not take any reward for being helpful or courteous.
6. A Girl Scout Keeps Herself Pure. She is Clean in Word, in Thought, in Deed.
She is strong enough in her mind to be above talking or listening to dirty subjects. She keeps herself pure, clean-minded, and womanly.
7. A Scout is a Friend to Animals.
She should save them as far as possible from pain, and should not kill any animal unnecessarily, not even the smallest of God’s creatures.
8. A Scout Obeys Orders
of her parents, patrol leader, or Captain without question. Even if she gets an order she does not like she must do as soldiers and sailors do—she must carry it out all the same because it is her duty. After she has done it she can come and state any reasons against it; but she must carry out the order at once. That is discipline.
9. A Girl Scout is Cheerful
under all difficulties. When she gets an order she should obey it cheerily and readily, not in a slow, hang-dog sort of way, and should sing even if she dislikes it.
When she is in trouble or in pain it will at once relieve her if she forces herself to smile—to “grin and bear it.”
Scouts never grumble at hardships, nor whine at each other, nor frown when put out.
A Scout goes about with a smile and singing. It cheers her and cheers other people, especially in time of danger, for she keeps it up then all the same.
10. A Scout is Thrifty—
that is, she saves every penny she can, and puts it into the bank, so that she may have money to keep herself when out of work, and thus not make herself a burden to others; or that she may have money to give away to others when they need it.
How Camping Teaches the Scout Law
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.
“He went just as he was!”
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.
“You have not a whole cooking range.”
Nature Study
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.
Green Caterpillar.
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.
Pupa.
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.
Cabbage Butterfly.
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.
S.T.
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.