PREFACE
No movement of recent years has so swiftly and so completely won the love of boys as the Boy-Scout movement founded by Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell. It has done so because it touches at once both heart and imagination. In its dress, its drill, its games, its objects, it jumps perfectly with the feelings of the boy who adores Robinson Crusoe, Chingachcook the Last of the Mohicans, Jim Hawkins, who sailed to Treasure Island, buccaneers, trappers of the backwoods, and all who sit about camp fires in lonely places of the earth. It is a movement which aims at making all boys brothers and friends, and its end is good citizenship; it is a foe to none save the snob, the sneak, and the toady.
Amid the general chorus of congratulation on the success of the movement, only one dissentient whisper has been heard, and that has gathered about the word 'militarism.' But the Boy-Scout movement is no friend of militarism in any shape or form, and the murmur is only heard on the lips of people who have never looked into the matter, and never read the Scout Law. The movement is a peace movement pure and simple, and its only object is to make a boy hardy and strong, honest and brave, a better man, and a better citizen of a great Empire.
Of this story it is perhaps permissible to say that it has been read by General Baden-Powell, who has been so kind as to express his warm approval. Writing to the author, the founder of the movement says: 'Wishing you all success for this so excellent a work.'
THE SCOUT LAW*
I. A Scout's honour is to be trusted.
II. A Scout is loyal to the King, and to his officers, and to his country, and to his employers.
III. A Scout's duty is to be useful and to help others. He must do a good turn to somebody every day.
IV. A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other Scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs.
V. A Scout is courteous, and he must not take any reward for being helpful and courteous.
VI. A Scout is a friend to animals.
VII. A Scout obeys orders of his patrol-leader or scout-master without question.
VIII. A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances. When he gets an order he should obey it cheerily and readily, not in a slow, hang-dog sort of way.
IX. A Scout is thrifty—that is, he saves every penny he can, and puts it into the bank, so that he may have money to keep himself when out of work, and thus not make himself a burden to others, or that he may have money to give away to others when they need it.
*Quoted by kind permission of General Baden-Powell from 'Scouting for Boys.'