knowledge and moral discipline and fun that a boy is very proud of the privilege of wearing it.
THE CLUB ROOM AND HOW TO FIT IT UP.
One of the first things a patrol usually does is to find a club room. Such a room is not always absolutely necessary, as the boys may meet in one another’s homes for such occasions when the troop or patrol meet, but a special room proves an excellent thing to have for troop and patrol meetings, where the whole group of boys can get together every so often and feel that each has a common ownership in the place. Very often the use of a vacant store or barn may be had for nothing. The boys themselves should clean the place and make it attractive; soap and kalsomine are cheap. Most boys now have manual training in school and can make tables, benches, stools and book shelves of packing cases, staining them in dark colors, or they can repair old furniture that may be donated. There should be a stove and good lamps or some other means of heating and lighting. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the boys can be used in finding things such as flags, rugs, cushions and lithograph prints to make the club room attractive. The more the club room costs in time and effort, the more it will be appreciated by the boys. A small fee should be paid each week by every member to cover the cost of fuel and oil, but the boys, according to the Scout principles, should earn the money themselves for such expenses.
OTHER THINGS THE SCOUT MUST DO AND LEARN
He must serve one month as a Tenderfoot. He must learn, by text-book study, and by actual practice on his mates or at home, how to give elementary first aid to the injured. He must learn elementary signaling, by the Semaphore, American Morse or Myer alphabets. He must be able to track one-half mile in twenty-five minutes, and be able to name and describe satisfactorily the contents of one store window out of four observed for one minute each. He must be able to go a mile in twelve minutes at Scout’s pace—about 50 steps running and 50 steps walking alternately. He must lay and light a camp fire, using not more than two matches, and know the proper use of knife or hatchet. He must earn and deposit at least one dollar in a public bank. He must be able to cook meat and potatoes over the camp fire with the simplest camp kit; and he must know the sixteen principal points of the compass.
