How Girls Can Help Their Country

The Fisherman's Knot. Make this knot by tying a simple knot on rope B with the end of rope A, then tie a similar knot on rope A with the end of rope B. Pull the standing parts and the knots will remain fast.

Round Turn and Two Half-Hitches. It is used for making fast a rope so that the strain will not jamb hitches.

The Sheet Bend. Used for uniting two dry ropes of different thicknesses. First form a loop, then pass the end of the other rope up through the loop, round the back of the end and standing part of loop, and through below itself.

The Sheep-Shank. A Scout should never cut rope unless absolutely necessary. To shorten a guy rope on tent or marquee, gather the rope in the form of two long loops and pass a half-hitch over each loop. It remains firm under a good strain and can be easily undone when required.

Middleman's Knot. Somewhat similar to the fisherman's knot but in this case only one rope is used. Can safely be used as a halter.

The Slip Knot. You sometimes want to release a knot quickly so this knot is used. It is simply the reef knot with one of the ends (A) pushed through one of the loops. To release, pull end A.

Overhand Loop Knot. When pulling a rope you may wish to gain more purchase on it or you may wish to insert a short stick to pull with. Use the loop knot shown in our diagram.

Important. Many of the knots shown on these pages are open so that you may more easily see their working, but when in use they should always be drawn taut.

The Mariner's Compass

Boxing the compass consists in enumerating the points beginning with north and working around the circle as follows:

How to Read a Map

Conventional Signs & Lettering Used in Field Sketching

Conventional Signs enable you to give information on a sketch or map in a simple manner which is easily understood. In addition to the sign it is often necessary to give an additional description, e. g., whether a railway is double or single, the width of roads, the nature of woods (oak, pine, etc.), etc.

Whatever lettering is used should be legible and not interfere with the detail of the sketch. All lettering should be horizontal, except the names of roads, railways, rivers, and canals, which should be written along them.

Remember to fill in the North point on your sketch, as it is useless without it. Leave a margin of about an inch all round your sketch and state the scale that you have made your sketch, e. g., two inches to the mile.

The Morse Code of Signals is not hard to learn but it requires much practice to "receive" even when the message is sent slowly. The old-fashioned instruments were fitted with a ribbon on which the dots and dashes were recorded, but all modern operators depend on the ear.

The code is as follows:

Punctuation

Signals

All sorts of changes may be made when the signals are committed to memory. Flags—up for a dot and side for a dash is one of the commonest and easiest for the beginner; or whistles—long and short blasts. Even the hand or a hat may be substituted; coughing, stamping, and scratching with the foot or a bit of stick. In fact endless changes may be invented for use with this Code.

Commands and Signals

For the use of the Girl Scouts the following list of words of command and whistle signals has been compiled.

Commands

Whistle Signals

1. One long blast means "Silence," "Alert," "Listen for next signal."

2. A succession of long slow blasts means "Go out," "Get farther away," or "Advance," "Extend," "Scatter."

3. A succession of quick short blasts means "Rally," "Close in," "Come together," "Fall in."

4. Alternate short and long blasts mean "Alarm," "Look out," "Be ready," "Man your alarm posts."

5. Three short blasts followed by one long one from the Captain calls up the patrol leaders.

Any whistle signal must be instantly obeyed at the double as fast as you can run, regardless of anything you may be doing.

By previous agreement many other signals may be arranged. It all depends on the exigencies to be met or the special order or information to be conveyed. But these few important signals should be strictly adhered to in all drills and exercises of Scouts. The compiler of the present volume thinks it unwise to print the secret words so they are left for the patrol leaders and Captain to communicate verbally.

Hand Signals

Indian Signs

Burnt sticks are placed at the last camp-fire to tell the direction the Indians have gone from this spot. Two of them always make a V point and if the third is laid at the point of the [V=] it means north. Across the open end of the [=V] it means south. At one side |V it means east and V| would mean west. Now the above mark as made to indicate south would really mean southwest, if the stick which indicates direction were a little way to the west side—V¯. Northwest would be V_.

[V=] North
[=V] South
|V East
V| West
V¯ Southwest
V_ Northwest

Scout Signs.

Shaking a blanket: I want to talk to you.

Hold up a tree-branch: I want to make peace.

Hold up a weapon (axe) means war: I am ready to fight.

Hold up a pole horizontally, with hands on it: I have found something.

Self-Defense

Shooting

All Scouts should know how to shoot. By this we do not mean that you should go all day behind some big dog and try to kill the birds he finds for you, for that is the most useless form of shooting, all things considered, that can be devised. What we mean is that Scouts should know how to load and fire a gun or other firearm so as not to be at a loss for a means of defense should an emergency arise. It is one of the best means to "be prepared." Our preference for practice of this kind is a small rifle as it is less dangerous than any form of pistol and it affords excellent training for hand and eye. Avoid, however, the very high power modern firearms—that kind that "shoot today and kill next week," as there is too much danger of reaching some one that is out of sight. The same may be said of the automatic pistol which fills too large a circle with missiles of sudden death.

Archery

The bows and arrows of our ancestors are not to be despised as a means of training hand and eye. Archery is excellent practice for the eye, and good exercise for the muscles. It makes no noise, does not disturb game or warn the enemy. Scouts should know how to shoot with bows and arrows, and they can make them for themselves. The arrow, twenty-six inches long, must be as "straight as an arrow" and tipped with a heavy head, with wings to keep it level. Ash wood is the best. The bow should be unstrung when not in use, or it will get bent. It is usually made your own height. Old gloves should be worn.

STARS

How to Find the Time by the Stars

Fig. 1 shows the stars around the northern pole of the heavens (Pole Star), and the Pointers of the Great Bear, which direct us to the Pole Star.

Since all stars appear to rise in the East and set in the West (which is really due to our earth turning round under them), the Pointers revolve once around the Pole Star in the opposite direction to the hands of a clock, once in twenty-four hours, or they swing through a quarter of a circle once in six hours; it is thus a simple matter after a little practice to judge what part of the imaginary circle they will pass through in an hour or less.

Assuming that all the stars rise four minutes earlier each night, and that the Pointers of the Plough are vertically above the Pole at midnight at the end of February, we may calculate the position of the Pointers for any hour of the night.

The First Twenty Stars in Order of Brightness

Orion

Then there is another set of stars representing a man wearing a sword and a belt, named "Orion." It is easily recognized by the three stars in line, which are the belt, and three smaller stars in another line, close by, which are the sword. Then two stars to right and left below the sword are his feet, while two more above the belt are his shoulders, and a group of three small stars between them make his head.

Now the great point about Orion is that by him you can always tell which way the North or Pole Star lies, and which way the South, as you can see him whether you are in the South or the North part of the world. The Great Bear can be seen only when you are in the North, and the Southern Cross when you are in the South.

If you draw a line by holding up your staff against the sky, from the center star of Orion's belt through the center of his head, and carry that line on through two big stars till it comes to a third, that third one is the North or Pole Star.

Then if you draw a line the other way, beginning again with the center star of the belt, and passing through the center star of the sword, your line goes through another group of stars shaped like the letter L. And if you go about as far again past L, you come to the South Pole, which unfortunately is not marked by any star. Roughly Orion's sword, the three small stars, points North and South.

East and West. Orion sets due west, and rises due east, so that, if you can catch him rising or setting, you know where the points of the compass are. Constellations, such as Orion, or the Bull, rise in the east, four minutes earlier each succeeding night—that is about half an hour earlier every Saturday.

Read The Song of the Fifty Stars by Arthur A. Carey, and try to find each star on a chart and then in the Heavens.

The Song of the Fifty Stars

The Sun Clock

When you have been able to find the North Star it will be very easy to set up a sun-dial. This device is not so valuable now as standard time is universally used. If you know the difference between "sun time" and standard time, the sun-dial can be referred to with a fair amount of accuracy and many people regard it as a curiosity.

Select a place where the sun shines all day and the ground is level. Set up a post or stake perpendicular and firm. At night go and "sight" a straight stick at the North Star and fasten it securely. This stick will now be parallel to the axis of the earth and its shadow will fall at the same line on any given hour no matter what season of the year it may be. At noon by the sun the shadows of the slanting stick and the upright one will coincide. This gives you the "sun noon" and the time by a standard watch or clock will tell you what correction to apply to your dial to convert its time into standard. Having once established the noon, or "no hour" mark the I, II, III, IV, V, and VI with stakes. Then calculate the correct sun time of VI A.M. by your standard watch and stake out the morning hours. Halves and even quarters can be marked between if you wish.

A flower dial can be made by having your upright post a pretty tall one, say ten or even twenty feet, and planting rows of flowers like spokes of a wheel along the hour lines. It may be possible even to select such as are likely to open at or near the indicated hour. The entire semicircle of pegs will also make a pretty finish with tall ornamental foliage plants or shrubs.

Practice

Make a sun-dial on the ground, mark the hours with stones or sticks, and see if it shows the time every day.

Among the Stars

Scouts must be able to find their way by night, but unless they practise it they are very apt to lose themselves. At night distances seem much greater, and land-marks are hard to see.

When patrolling in dark places, keep closer together, and in the dark or in the woods or caves keep in touch with each other by catching hold of the end of the next Scout's staff.

The staff is also useful for feeling the way.

Winter Evenings.—Cut out a quantity of little stars from stamp edging. Take an old umbrella, open, and stick the stars inside it, in the patterns of the chief constellations, then hold it overhead, and turn it once round for twenty-four hours, making the stars rise in the east.

The sun and the moon appear almost the same size as a rule. When we are a little nearer the sun, in winter, he looks a trifle larger than the moon.

To study the constellations, go out when the stars are bright, armed with a star map and a bicycle lamp to read it by, and spread a rug on the ground to lie on, or have a deck-chair, or hammock. Watch for meteors in August and November.

Let each girl try to draw a sketch map of a given constellation, from memory.

GARDENING

Now what about the gardens, for it goes without saying that Girl Scouts must have gardens. Getting right down and smelling the fresh soil is good for any one. It is mother earth's own breath. Watching the growth of our seeds is a veritable joy of joys. But what had we better plant? Why not let every one plant at least one tree? Never mind what kind of a tree. We will talk about that in a minute but decide at the outset that you will have at least one tree growing this year. Your trees will be a legacy to posterity, a gift from the Girl Scouts to their country. For in this United States of ours we have cut down too many trees and our forests are fast following the buffalo. Nay, the bare face of the land has already begun to prove less attractive to the gentle rains of heaven and offers far too open a path to the raw blasts of winter. In many sections of our country the climate is drier and colder than it was before so much of the forest was destroyed. We are just waking up to this sad fact which it will take many years to rectify. So let us plant trees.

A tree is a tree anyway be it large or small. Some are useful food producers while others are of value for ornament or timber. All are good. There are no bad trees. So if you plant and raise a tree there can be no mistake. Whatever kind you select you will have done well. Fruit and nut trees will of course appeal most strongly to the young, especially to those with good healthy appetites. Many very young trees can be made to return some fruit in a comparatively short time by being budded or grafted. Scouts should learn how to bud and graft. It is not hard. Pears, plums, figs, and peaches all do well in the South as do also some apples and grapes. Peach trees though are in the main short-lived. But trees of different kinds can be grown all over the country. Apples and pears are at their best in the North and many kinds are very long-lived trees. There are apple trees known to be a hundred years old still bearing. Sugar maple does well where there are long winters, and a wood of them—locally called a "sugar bush"—is a paying piece of property. Most fruit trees are best bought from dealers or obtained from your friends. They do not come "true," as it is called, from the seed. A Baldwin apple-seed will not produce a Baldwin apple. But as all the varieties are got by selecting from seedlings we can experiment if we wish. We are already saving apple-seeds for next year, and it will certainly be grand if we can get a new kind of apple and name it the Girl Scout.

We shall not make many suggestions about flowers. Any and all kinds of flowers will do in your gardens but do not neglect our own wild ones. Take the goldenrod for instance. The finest we have ever seen is grown in a city garden. Many other of our wild flowers will bear cultivating and some well repay the care necessary to "tame" them. The atamasco lily seems to be perfectly at home in the garden and so does the bloodroot. Violets of course would be favorites if our native species were not with one exception scentless. As any gardener's book will tell you all about our "tame" flowers it is not necessary to say much about them.

Part IV

SANITATION

Girl Scouts should do everything in their power to make and keep their homes healthy as well as happy.

Most of you cannot choose your own dwelling, but whether you live in a house, a cottage, a flat, in rooms, or even in one room of a house, you can do a very great deal to keep it healthy and pure.

Fresh air is your great friend; it will help you to fight disease better than anything else. Open all your windows as often as you can, so that the air may get into every nook and corner. Never keep an unused room shut up. You know what a stagnant pool is like—no fresh water runs through it, it is green and slimy, and full of insects and dead things; you would not care to bathe in it. Well, still and stuffy air in a house is very much worse, only, unluckily, its dangers cannot be seen, but they are there lying in ambush for the ignorant person. Disease germs, poisonous gases, mildew, insects, dust, and dirt have it all their own way in stale, used-up air.

You do not like to wash in water other people have used, but it is far worse to breathe air other people have breathed. Air does not flow in and flow out of the same opening at the same time any more than water does, so you want two openings in a room—an open window to let the good air in, and a fireplace and chimney to let the stale air out, or, where there is no fireplace, a window open both at top and bottom. The night air in large towns is purer than the day air, and both in town and country you should sleep with your window open if you want to be healthy. Draughts are not good, as they carry away the heat from your body too fast; so if your bed is too near the window, put up a shelter between it and the open window, and cover yourself more. At least one window on a staircase or landing should always be kept open, and also the larder and the closet windows.

Tidiness

Motto: "Tidy as you go."

Half your time will be saved if little things are kept tidy. Have a place for everything, and have everything in its place. If you are not sure which is the right place for a thing, think "Where, if I wanted it, should I go to look for it?" That place is the right one. Get into the habit of always making hanks of any string you get, and keep them.

War must be waged against rats and mice, or they will multiply and loot everything. If you have no mouse-traps, put a newspaper over a pail of water, break a hole slightly in the center in the form of a star, and place a bit of herring or cheese on the center tips of star to entice the mouse. Let the paper reach to the floor, not too upright, for the mouse to climb up. Try putting broken camphor into their holes; they dislike the smell. Fly and wasp traps are made by tying paper over a tumbler half-filled with water and beer or treacle. Break a hole in the paper, and fit in a tube of rolled paper about one inch long and one inch across.

Try to keep yourself neat, and see that the house you live in is clean, sweet, and pleasant.

GOLDEN HEALTH HABITS FOR GIRL SCOUTS

Contributed by Dr. Thomas D. Wood.

1. Remember Fresh Air and Sunlight Are The Best Medicines.

Ventilate, therefore, every room you occupy. Germs cannot live more than a few minutes in sunlight. Breathe deeply, sleep out, if you can. Work and play as much as possible out-of-doors.

2. Be Not the Slave of Unhygienic Fashions.

Be proud to have efficient feet. Wear light, loose and porous, but sufficient clothing.

3. Eat Slowly.

Do not eat between meals. Chew food thoroughly. Do not overeat. Remember a Girl Scout is always cheerful and helpful. She eats what is provided and is thankful for it. (She does not complain about her food.) If there are any suggestions she can make, she reserves them until mother or the (camp) cook is preparing the menu or the meal. Eat some hard, some bulky and some raw foods.

4. Drink Pure Water at Frequent Intervals.

Remember that not all water that looks pure is free from disease germs. Boil the water if the Scout leader (or older person) is doubtful about it. The few minutes spent in boiling and cooling water is time well spent. Do not drink water when there is food in the mouth.

5. Be Mistress of Your Time—Be Regular in Your Habits of Life.

Go to bed early enough to get sufficient sleep. Be in bed 10-1/2 to 10 hours each night. Get up in the morning promptly. Do not doze after it is time to get up. If you have not had enough sleep go to bed earlier the next night.

Be sure your bowels move regularly, at least once a day. If outside engagements are so pressing as to conflict with your personal health, remember you have an important "previous engagement" with yourself for sufficient time for meals, sleep, out-of-door exercise and, if necessary, rest.

6. Avoid Infection and Do Not Spread It.

Wash your hands always before eating. Use your handkerchief to cover a sneeze or cough and try to avoid coughing, sneezing or blowing the nose in front of others, or at the table. Do not use a common towel or drinking cup, or other appliance which may contain disease germs.

7. Keep Clean.

The smell of flowers has been said to be their soul. Try to keep your body as fresh as possible with the sweetness of cleanliness, not perfumery. Take a sponge bath, shower or quick tub bath daily.

8. Play Hard and Fair.

Be loyal to your team mates and generous to your opponents.

Study hard—and in work, study or play, do your best.

9. Remember Dentist's Bills are Largely Your Own Fault.

Get the habit of cleaning your teeth and rinsing your mouth after each meal. It is more than worth the habit.

10. Remember Silence Is Golden.

In solitudes poets and philosophers have touched the heights of life. It is valuable for everyone to take account of stock occasionally with oneself.

HEALTH

Exercises and their Object

The best results of exercise are to be had outdoors from the activity of vigorous games. Some of us are so placed that we cannot have daily recreation outdoors and it becomes necessary to give our bodies some type of activity to keep them normal. More than half the weight of the body is made up of muscular tissue. If this muscle is not used the health of the whole body is affected. Exercise is a necessary condition of health, just as food and sleep are. The body is very responsive to the demands made upon it. In fact, each one of us can mold her own body, very much as a sculptor fashions a statue. This is done by giving the body proper care and the right forms of activity. A weak, infirm physique is nothing less than a crime. It is the duty of each one of us, both for our own sakes, and for the benefit of future generations, to perfect our physical frame. It is a duty to be strong and beautiful in body as well as in mind and spirit.

The Nose

Always breathe through the nose. Fifty years ago Mr. Catlin wrote a book called Shut your Mouth and Save your Life, and he showed how the Red Indians for a long time had adopted that method with their children to the extent of a cruel habit of tying up their jaws at night, to ensure breathing through the nostrils.

Breathing through the nose prevents germs of disease getting from the air into the throat and stomach; it also prevents a growth in the back of the throat called "adenoids," which reduce the breathing capacity of the nostrils, and also cause deafness.

By keeping the mouth shut you prevent yourself from getting thirsty when you are doing hard work. The habit of breathing through the nose prevents snoring. Therefore practice keeping your mouth shut and breathing through your nose.

Ears

A Scout must be able to hear well. The ears are very delicate, and once damaged are apt to become incurably deaf. No sharp or hard instrument should be used in cleaning the ear. The drum of the ear is a very delicate, tightly stretched skin which is easily damaged. Very many children have had the drums of their ears permanently injured by getting a box on the ear.

Eyes

A Scout, of course, must have particularly good eye-sight; she must be able to see anything very quickly, and to see it a long way off. By practicing your eyes in looking at things at a great distance they will grow stronger. While you are young you should save your eyes as much as possible, or they will not be strong when you get older; therefore avoid reading by lamplight or in the dusk, and also sit with your back or side to the light when doing any work during the day; if you sit facing the light it strains your eyes.

The strain of the eyes is a very common failure with growing girls, although very often they do not know it, and headaches come most frequently from the eyes being strained; frowning on the part of a girl is very generally a sign that her eyes are being strained. Reading in bed brings headaches.

Teeth

Bad teeth are troublesome, and are often the cause of neuralgia, indigestion, abscesses, and sleepless nights. Good teeth depend greatly on how you look after them when you are young. Attention to the first set of teeth keeps the mouth healthy for the second teeth, which begin to come when a child is seven and these will last you to the end of your life, if you keep them in order.

If one tooth is allowed to decay, it will spread decay in all the others, and this arises from scraps of food remaining between the teeth and decaying there.

A thorough Scout always brushes her teeth inside and outside and between all, just the last thing at night as well as other times, so that no food remains about them to decay. Scouts in camps or in the wilds of the jungle cannot always buy tooth-brushes, but should a tiger or a crocodile have borrowed yours, you can make your teeth just as bright and white as his are by means of a frayed-out-dry, clean stick.

Learn how to make camp tooth-brushes out of sticks. Slippery elm or "dragonroot" sticks for cleaning teeth can be got at chemists' shops as samples.

Measurement of the Girl

It is of paramount importance to teach the young citizen to assume responsibility for her own development and health.

Physical drill is all very well as a disciplinary means of development, but it does not give the girl any responsibility in the matter.

It is therefore deemed preferable to tell each girl, according to her age, what ought to be her height, weight, and various measurements (such as chest, waist, arm, leg, etc.). She is then measured, and learns in which points she fails to come up to the standard. She can then be shown which exercises to practice for herself in order to develop those particular points. Encouragement must afterwards be given by periodical measurements, say every three months or so.

Cards can be obtained from the "Girl Scouts" Office, which, besides giving the standard measurements for the various ages, give columns to be filled in periodically, showing the girl's remeasurements and progress in development. If each girl has her card it is a great incentive to her to develop herself at odd times when she has a few minutes to spare.

My Physical Development