Perseverance: Frogs in the cream.
Well, it is sticking to it which is so tremendously valuable, not only in the game, but also for getting on as a Scout, and afterwards in getting on in life.
Two frogs, out for a walk one day, came upon a bowl of cream, into which they fell. Thinking it a new kind of water and that it was hopeless trying to swim, one was drowned through having no pluck. The other struggled hard to keep afloat. Just when he felt he must give up a curious thing happened. In his struggles he had churned up the cream so much that he found himself standing safe on a pat of butter!
If you learnt nothing else from Scouting than this little story of the frogs, try, at any rate, to remember that; and when you feel you are failing at your job just think of it; remind yourself of the frogs—and stick to it.
Happy Housemaids Singing Hymns
Someone asked me the other day why it is that housemaids, when they are at work, are always droning most dreary hymn tunes. Well, I couldn’t say exactly why they do it, but I like to hear it, because people who sing at their work evidently don’t find it a drudgery or irksome.
I was at a great aeroplane factory the other day, where the manager had encouraged his men in their spare time to form a band, and he supplied the funds for helping them to get instruments, music, etc.
When they began to get rather good at it they, like all amateur musicians, began to fancy themselves, and said that they would like to get some high-class classical music to play.
But he said: “Not a bit of it, I want you to play all the tunes that you can get, provided that they are jolly ones.”
Then he used to make the men march to their workshops with their band playing, and for the rest of the morning, instead of working sullenly and grudgingly at their machines, the men were whistling and singing the tunes that were running in their heads, and the work consequently was better done and more of it was got through than would otherwise have been possible.