manner is one of the most valuable assets a girl can
possess, and should be practised steadily. At home, at school, in the
office and in the world in general, the girl with the courteous manner
and pleasant voice rises quickly in popularity and power above other
girls of equal talent but less politeness. Girl Scouts lay great stress
on this, because, though no girl can make herself beautiful, and no girl
can learn to be clever, _any girl can learn to be polite_.

=VI. A Girl Scout Is a Friend to Animals=

All Girl Scouts take particular care of our dumb friends, the animals,
and are always eager to protect them from stupid neglect or hard usage.
This often leads to a special interest in their ways and habits, so that
a Girl Scout is likely to know more about these little brothers of the
human race than an ordinary girl.

=VII. A Girl Scout Obeys Orders=

This means that you should obey those to whom obedience is due, through
thick and thin. If this were not an unbreakable rule, no army could
endure for a day. It makes no difference whether you are cleverer, or
older, or larger, or richer than the person who may be elected or
appointed for the moment to give you orders; once they are given, it is
your duty to obey them. And the curious thing about it is that the
quicker and better you obey these orders, the more quickly and certainly
you will show yourself fitted to give them when your time comes. The
girl or woman who cannot obey can never govern. The reason you obey the
orders of your Patrol Leader, for instance, in Scout Drill, is not that
she is better than you, but because she happens to be your Patrol
Leader, and gives her orders as she would obey yours were you in her
place.

A small well trained army can always conquer and rule a big,
undisciplined mob, and the reason for this is simply because the army
has been taught to obey and to act in units, while the mob is only a
crowd of separate persons, each doing as he thinks best. The soldier
obeys by instinct, in a great crisis, only because he has had long
practice in obeying when it was a question of unimportant matters. So
the army makes a great point of having everything ordered in military
drill, carried out with snap and accuracy; and the habit of this, once
fixed, may save thousands of lives when the great crisis comes, and turn
defeat into victory.

A good Scout must obey instantly, just as a good soldier must obey his
officer, or a good citizen m