ks about most of the
things he wished to know, the stars, the birds, the {xi} quadrupeds,
the fish, the insects, the plants, telling their names; their hidden
power or curious ways, about the camper's life the language of signs
and even some of the secrets of the trail. But they were very
expensive and a whole library would be needed to cover the ground.
What he wanted--what every boy wants--is a handbook giving the broad
facts as one sees them in the week-end hike, the open-air life. He did
not want to know the trees as a botanist, but as a forester; nor the
stars as an astronomer, but as a traveler. His interest in the animals
was less that of anatomist than of a hunter and camper, and his
craving for light on the insects was one to be met by a popular book
on bugs, rather than by a learned treatise on entomology.

So knowing the want he made many attempts to gather the simple facts
together exactly to meet the need of other boys of like ideas, and
finding it a mighty task he gladly enlisted the help of men who had
lived and felt as he did.

Young Scouts of America that boy is writing to you now. He thought
himself peculiar in those days. He knows now he was simply a normal
boy with the interests and desires of all normal boys, some of them a
little deeper rooted and more lasting perhaps--and all the things
that he loved and wished to learn have now part in the big broad work
we call Scouting.

"Scout" used to mean the one on watch for the rest. We have widened
the word a little. We have made it fit the town as well as the
wilderness and suited it to peace time instead of war. We have made
the scout an expert in Life-craft as well as Wood-craft, for he is
trained in the things of the heart as well as head and hand. Scouting
we have made to cover riding, swimming, tramping, trailing,
photography, first aid, camping, handicraft, loyalty, obedience,
courtesy, thrift, courage, and kindness.

Do these things appeal to you? Do you love the woods?

Do you wish to learn the trees as the forester knows them? And the
stars not as an astronomer, but as a traveler?

Do you wish to have all-round, well-developed muscles, not those of a
great athlete, but those of a sound body that will not fail you? Would
you like to be an expert camper who can always make himself
comfortable out of doors, and a swimmer that fears no waters? Do you
desire the knowledge to help the wounded quickly, and to make yourself
cool and self-reliant