Second Class Brownie

To become a Second Class Brownie you must:

I.	Intelligence.	Describe the flag of the United States.
I.	Intelligence.	Tie the following knots: Reef, Sheet, Bend, Clove hitch and Fisherman’s.

II.	Handcraft.	Hem a duster or darn a stocking.
		Do up a parcel.
		Set a table for two for dinner.

III.	Service.	Bind up a cut finger or grazed knee.

IV.	Health.	Perform two physical exercises (which should be selected by the Captain).
		Know how and why you should keep your nails cut and clean; why you should keep your teeth clean and why breathe through the nose.
		Bowl a hoop or hop around a figure 8 course.
		Throw a ball ten yards with right hand and then with left hand.
		Throw a ball so that a girl 6 yards away catches it 4 times out of six.

Tying up a Parcel

The first duty of a parcel is to be neatly and strongly tied up so that it does not come unfastened, but, poor thing, it cannot do this for itself, so you have to do it a good turn by tying it up. Wrap it neatly in strong paper.

Just as you tuck in the corners of the blankets on your bed to keep you warm and snug, so the corners of the paper should be tidily folded at the ends of a parcel and doubled over flat.

The string should be drawn quite tight, and have only small knots which won’t slip. It is therefore most important that you should learn, as Scouts do, how to tie knots properly.

When a parcel is going by post it gets thrown around a good deal and has to stand a lot of banging about, so bear that in mind when you are tying it up.

It is always wisest to write the name and address of the person to whom you are sending the parcel on the parcel itself. Very often people write this only on labels which they tie on, and then if this label gets torn off at all, away goes the parcel to the dead letter office or gets quite lost.

Hemming a Handkerchief

Double the edges twice, so that the rough edge of the square of linen or muslin are well inside the turning. Then baste all around so as to hold the turned edges in place, and so that they are the same width all round.

Then hem it with neat, small stitches.

Darning Stockings

You can do many a good turn by darning.

Mind you get wool or thread the same color, and if possible of the same thickness as the threads of the stockings you are going to darn.

You should put in your needle about an inch from the actual hole, and push it up and down in straight lines, taking a thread and missing a thread.

Then repeat this again criss-cross, leaving loops of the wool where you turn, so that the new wool can shrink without tearing the stocking when washed.

Setting a Table

Spread the table-cloth smoothly and evenly.

Put the knives, spoons, forks, and other things also exactly in place, but before putting them there see that there is not a speck of dirt on them, no finger marks or dust.

Although there is a regular way of setting a table, and all tables look much alike when set, there is a great difference between one by a Scout and set by any other girl. The Scout thinks for herself what things will be needed for the meal, how many courses there will be, and therefore how many knives, forks, and spoons, whether pepper will be wanted or sugar, and puts them on the table accordingly. She uses her wits as well as her hands.

Binding up a Finger or Knee

A cut on the hand. If anybody cuts his hand, and it is your job to render first aid, the first thing to think about is how to stop the bleeding. Remember, that just as important as stopping the bleeding is the keeping of any sort of dirt from getting near the wound. Now dirt here does not mean what you generally call dirt—mud and dust: it means anything containing germs. Germs are tiny little insects, so small that your eye can’t see them; if they get into a cut they may poison it so that it festers and becomes really dangerous, ending, possibly, in the loss of a finger or hand. The worst kind of germs are those that come out of earth—such as garden mold, or mud from the road. They cause a terrible disease known as lock-jaw, so great care should be taken if any one gets a deep cut while gardening, for instance. But any dust, or any soiled object may, and does, contain germs. So if you are about to bandage a cut, find the very cleanest thing you can think of to put next to the wound. The inside part of a clean, folded handkerchief would probably be the best you could do, or failing this the inside of a clean sheet of notepaper, or the inside of an envelope. Having put something clean over the wound, you must add padding of some sort—several handkerchiefs or pieces of rag. Then bind up very firmly with tight, even pressure so as to stop the bleeding.

You can do this with strips of rag or a large, folded handkerchief. Make the patient keep his hand raised, or put it in a sling, which you can make from a scarf if you have one. Remember that your help is only first aid: so take the patient to a grown-up person who will attend to the wound more thoroughly, or take him to a doctor to be stitched up.

A graze. A graze is a bad scrape which has taken the skin off, and is usually covered with dirt—grit off the road, and so on. It will not be bleeding much, as a rule. The treatment should be to wash it well with clean warm water, soaking it till the dirt comes away, and clean it with little swabs of wool or cloth. When all the grit is removed cover the graze with a clean piece of rag. Bandage firmly, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable.