rrantry

Scouts go out singly, or in pairs, or as a patrol. If in a town, to
find women or children in want of help, and to return and report, on
their honor, what they have done. If in the country, call at any farms
or cottages and ask to do odd jobs--for nothing. The same can be made
into a race called a "Good Turn" race.

Unprepared Plays

Give the plot of a short, simple, play and assign to each player his
part, with an outline of what he has to do and say, and then let them
act it, making up the required conversation as they go along.

This develops the power of imagination and expression on points kept
in the mind, and is a valuable means of education.

It is well before starting to act a play in this way to be a little
less ambitious, and to make two or three players merely {317} carry
out a conversation on given topics leading up to a given point, using
their own words and imaginations in doing so.

The Treasure Hunt

The treasure hunt needs observation and skill in tracking, and
practically any number can take part in it.

Several ways of playing the game are given below.

1. The treasure is hidden and the scouts know what the treasure is;
they are given the first clew, and from this all the others can be
traced. Such clews might be (a) written on a gate post: "Go west and
examine third gate on north side of stream"; (b) on that gate, scout's
sign pointing to notice board on which is written, "Strike south by
south-east telegraph post, No. 28," and so on. The clews should be so
worded as to need some skill to understand, and the various points
should be difficult of access from one another. This method might be
used as a patrol competition, starting off patrols at ten-minute
intervals, and at one particular clew there might be different orders
for each patrol, to prevent the patrols behind from following the
first.

2. The clews may be bits of colored wood tied to gates, hedges, etc.,
at about three-yard intervals, leading in a certain direction, and
when these clews come to the end it should be known that the treasure
is hidden within so many feet. To prevent this degenerating into a
mere game of follow my leader, several tracks might be laid working up
to the same point, and false tracks could be laid, which only lead
back again to the original.

3. Each competitor or patrol might be given a description of the
way--each perhaps of a slightly different way; the description should
make it nec