Читать книгу Scouting for Boys - Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell - Страница 12

I suppose every British boy wants to help his country in some way or other.

There is a way, by which he can do so easily, and that is by becoming a scout.

A scout, as you know, is generally a soldier who is chosen for his cleverness and pluck to go out in front of an army in war to find out where the enemy are, and report to the commander all about them.

But, besides war scouts, there are also peace scouts, i.e., men who in peace time carry out work which requires the same kind of abilities. These are the frontiersmen of all parts of our Empire. The "trappers" of North America, hunters of Central Africa, the British pioneers, explorers, and missionaries over Asia and all the wild parts of the world, the bushmen and drovers of Australia, the constabulary of North-West Canada and of South Africa—all are peace scouts, real men in every sense of the word, and thoroughly up in scout craft, i.e., they understand living out in the jungles, and they can find their way anywhere, are able to read meaning from the smallest signs and foot-tracks; they know how to look after their health when far away from any doctors, are strong and plucky, and ready to face any danger, and always keen to help each other. They are accustomed to take their lives in their hands, and to fling them down without hesitation if they can help their country by doing so.

They give up everything, their personal comforts and desires, in order to get their work done. They do not do all this for their own amusement, but because it is their duty to their King, fellow-countrymen, or employers.

The History of the Empire has been made by British adventurers and explorers, the scouts of the nation, for hundreds of years past up to the present time.

The Knights of King Arthur, Richard Coeur de Lion, and the Crusaders, carried British chivalry into distant parts of the earth.

Raleigh, Drake, and Capt. John Smith, soldiers and sailors of Queen Elizabeth's time, faced unknown dangers of strange seas, as well as the known dangers of powerful enemies, to take and hold new lands for the expansion of our small kingdom.

Capt. Cook in Australia, Lord Clive in India, opened up new countries. Speke, Baker, and Livingstone pushed their way through the savage deserts and forests of Africa; Franklin and Ross braved the ice and snows of the Arctic regions.

In the present time Selous, the great hunter, and Lieut. Boyd Alexander, who last year crossed Africa, are peace scouts.

These are just a few names out of many hundreds of the scouts of the nation who have from all times down to the present spread the good name and power of our country in all parts of the world.

And there have been women scouts of the nation, too: such as Grace Darling, who risked her life to save a shipwrecked crew; Florence Nightingale, who nursed sick soldiers in the Crimean War; Miss Kingsley, the African explorer; Lady Lugard, in Africa and Alaska; and many devoted lady missionaries and nurses in all parts of our Empire. These have shown that girls as well as boys may well learn scouting while they are young, and so be able to do useful work in the world as they grow older.

It is a grand life, but it cannot suddenly be taken up by any man who thinks he would like it, unless he has prepared himself for it beforehand.

Those who succeed best are those who learnt scouting while they were still boys.

Scouting also comes in very useful in any kind of life you like to take up, whether it is soldiering or even business life in a city. Sir William Crookes says it is even valuable for a man who goes in for science, and finding out little things about air, and light, and so on.

So I am going to show you how you can learn scout-craft for yourself and can put it into practice at home.

It is very easy to learn and very interesting when you get into it. You can best learn by joining the "Boy Scouts."