maintained in 16 States.
These are self-supporting, and as they are open for 10 weeks as a rule
and accommodate about 50 girls at a time, they give an opportunity to
several thousand for the best sort of holiday.

The idea is to have enough camps to give every scout the experience. To
promote this work national headquarters maintains a camping section and
has published a book, "Campward Ho!" which gives full directions for
organizing and running large, self-supporting camps for girls.

Community health habits are quite as important as the purely personal,
and the older girl scout is expected to become a "health guardian,"
which means that she takes an intelligent interest in the things
pertaining to public health, such as playgrounds, swimming pools, school
lunches, the water and milk supplies, clean streets, the disposition of
waste and garbage, the registration of births, and the prevention of
infant mortality. She also learns how to help in times of emergency as
first aid, in sickness as home nurse, and at any time as child nurse.

A scout whose mind is filled with interesting facts about birds and
animals and trees, and who is busy playing games with her companions or
in making useful and beautiful things and in rendering active service to
her home and community, is apt to have a healthy mind without thinking
much about it. And she has a little rule for the blue times, which is
"to smile and sing under all difficulties."

_Citizenship._--The basic organization of the girl scouts into the
self-governing unit of a patrol is in itself an excellent means of
political training. Patrols and troops conduct their own meetings, and
the scouts learn the elements of parliamentary law. Working together in
groups, they realize the necessity for democratic decisions. They also
come to have community interests of an impersonal sort. This is perhaps
the greatest single contribution of the scouts toward the training of
girls for citizenship. Little boys play not only together but with men
and boys of all ages. The interest of baseball is not confined to any
one age. The rules of the game are the same for all, and the smallest
boy's judgment on the skill of the players may be as valid as that of
the oldest "fan." Girls have had in the past no such common interests.
Their games have been either solitary or in very small groups, in
activities largely of a personal character. If women are to be effective
in modern political society,