humming it to yourself:

_MARCHING SONG

Where do we go from here, girls, where do we go from here?
Anywhere (our Captain[5]) leads we'll follow, never fear.
The world is full of dandy girls, but wait till we appear--
Then!
Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts, give us a hearty cheer_!

A very stirring marching song, without doubt, but what would they do if
the leader's name happened to be something like Mary Louise Abercrombie
or Elizabeth Van Der Water? They just couldn't have a Captain with such
a long name, that's all. And there you have unfair discrimination
creeping into your camp right at the start.

In "Scouting for Girls" there is some useful information concerning
smoke signals. In case you are lost, or want to communicate with your
friends who are beyond shouting distance, it is much quicker than
telephoning to build a clear, hot fire and cover it with green stuff or
rotten wood so that it will send up a solid column of black smoke. By
spreading and lifting a blanket over this smudge the column can be cut
up into pieces, long or short (this is the way it explains it in the
book, but it doesn't sound plausible to me), and by a preconcerted code
these can be made to convey tidings.

For instance, one steady smoke means "Here is camp."

Two steady smokes mean "I am lost. Come and help me."

Three smokes in a row mean "Good news!"

I suppose that the Pollyanna of the camping party is constantly sending
up three smokes in a row on the slightest provocation, and then when the
rest of the outfit have raced across country for miles to find out what
the good news is she probably shows them, with great enthusiasm, that
some fringed gentians are already in blossom or that the flicker's eggs
have hatched. Unfortunately, there is no smoke code given for snappy
replies, but in the next paragraph it tells how to carry on a
conversation with pistol shots. One of these would serve the purpose for
repartee.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Supply Captain's name.

LIII

HOW TO SELL GOODS

The Retail Merchants' Association ought to buy up all the copies of
"Elements of Retail Salesmanship," by Paul Westley Ivey (Macmillan), and
not let a single one get into the hands of a customer, for once the
buying public reads what is written there the game is up. It tells all
about how to sell goods to people, how to appeal to their weaknesses,
how to exert subtle influences which will win them over in spite of
themselves. Ho