rst Aid,
Life Saving, Tracking, Signaling, Cycling, Nature Study, Seamanship,
Campcraft, Woodcraft, Chivalry, Patriotism, and other subjects. This
is accomplished in games and team play, and is pleasure, not work, for
the boy. All that is needed is the out-of-doors, a group of boys, and
a competent leader.

What Scouting Means

In all ages there have been scouts, the place of the scout being on
the danger line of the army or at the outposts, protecting those of
his company who confide in his care.

The army scout was the soldier who was chosen out of all the army to
go out on the skirmish line.

The pioneer, who was out on the edge of the wilderness, {4} guarding
the men, women, and children in the stockade, was also a scout. Should
he fall asleep, or lose control of his faculties, or fail on his
watch, then the lives of the men, women, and children paid the
forfeit, and the scout lost his honor.

But there have been other kinds of scouts besides war scouts and
frontier scouts. They have been the men of all ages, who have gone out
on new and strange adventures, and through their work have benefited
the people of the earth. Thus, Columbus discovered America, the
Pilgrim Fathers founded New England, the early English settlers
colonized Jamestown, and the Dutch built up New York. In the same way
the hardy Scotch-Irish pushed west and made a new home for the
American people beyond the Alleghanies and the Rockies.

These peace scouts had to be as well prepared as any war scouts. They
had to know scoutcraft. They had to know how to live in the woods, and
be able to find their way anywhere, without other chart or compass
than the sun and stars, besides being able to interpret the meaning of
the slightest signs of the forest and the foot tracks of animals and
men.

They had to know how to live so as to keep healthy and strong, to face
any danger that came their way, and to help one another. These scouts
of old were accustomed to take chances with death and they did not
hesitate to give up their lives in helping their comrades or country.
In fact, they left everything behind them, comfort and peace, in order
to push forward into the wilderness beyond. And much of this they did
because they felt it to be their duty.

These little-known scouts could be multiplied indefinitely by going
back into the past ages and reading the histories and stories of the
knights of King Arthur, of the Crusaders, and of the great explore