The circle of girls listened with respectful and solemn interest. Well they realized that the vow being given was not an empty or idle one. They knew that it entailed hard work, self-denial, and many hardships. Yet they gloried in it, and silently renewed their own vows as they heard the Tenderfoot make her promises.
“Invest!” came the Captain’s next order.
Stepping forward, the Lieutenant gave Elise her staff, and put the hat, handkerchief and knot on her, and smiled as Elise said, “I thank you!” in her pretty way.
Then, at a whispered word, she marched up the line to the Captain who pinned on her trefoil badge and explained that it was an emblem of her Scout “life.” If for any misbehavior, the trefoil or “life” must be taken away from her, she would become a dead Scout for the time the Captain ordered and for that time in disgrace.
The new Scout was then initiated into all the secret passwords, a proceeding which filled Elise with despair; she felt that she would never be able to remember the queer words and phrases.
Then with the ceremony of marching back to their proper patrols the ceremony was over, and in a moment the formal meeting was dismissed.
The girls crowded around, all anxious to meet the new Tenderfoot and welcome her. They talked to her so hard that Elise felt her head whirl. She was glad to hear the voice of the little Captain suggesting a song. She handed a leaflet to Elise, but the girls knew the songs, and gathering in a circle they wanted to know which one to sing.
“Sing The Long, Long Line,” suggested the Captain, and the girls sang:
THE LONG, LONG LINE
(Tune: The Long, Long Trail)