But you need not wait for war in order to be useful as a scout. As a peace scout there is lots for you to do any day, wherever you may be.
SCOUTS' WORK.
I suppose every British boy wants to help his country in some way or other.
There is a way, by which he can do so easily, and that is by becoming a scout.
A scout, as you know, is generally a soldier who is chosen for his cleverness and pluck to go out in front of an army in war to find out where the enemy are, and report to the commander all about them.
But, besides war scouts, there are also peace scouts, i.e., men who in peace time carry out work which requires the same kind of abilities. These are the frontiersmen of all parts of our Empire. The "trappers" of North America, hunters of Central Africa, the British pioneers, explorers, and missionaries over Asia and all the wild parts of the world, the bushmen and drovers of Australia, the constabulary of North-West Canada and of South Africa—all are peace scouts, real men in every sense of the word, and thoroughly up in scout craft, i.e., they understand living out in the jungles, and they can find their way anywhere, are able to read meaning from the smallest signs and foot-tracks; they know how to look after their health when far away from any doctors, are strong and plucky, and ready to face any danger, and always keen to help each other. They are accustomed to take their lives in their hands, and to fling them down without hesitation if they can help their country by doing so.
They give up everything, their personal comforts and desires, in order to get their work done. They do not do all this for their own amusement, but because it is their duty to their King, fellow-countrymen, or employers.
The History of the Empire has been made by British adventurers and explorers, the scouts of the nation, for hundreds of years past up to the present time.
The Knights of King Arthur, Richard Coeur de Lion, and the Crusaders, carried British chivalry into distant parts of the earth.
Raleigh, Drake, and Capt. John Smith, soldiers and sailors of Queen Elizabeth's time, faced unknown dangers of strange seas, as well as the known dangers of powerful enemies, to take and hold new lands for the expansion of our small kingdom.