raft consists of "First Aid,"
Life Saving, Tracking, Signalling, Cycling, Nature Study, Seamanship
and other instruction. This is accomplished in games and team play and
in pleasure, not work, for the boy. The only equipment it needs is the
out-of-doors, a group of boys and a leader.

Before he becomes a scout, a boy must take the scouts' oath thus:

"On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, 1. To do my duty to
God and my country. 2. To help other people at all times. 3. To obey
the scout law."

When taking this oath the scout will stand holding his right hand
raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on
the nail of the little finger, and the other three fingers upright
pointing upward. This the scouts' salute and secret sign.

When the hand is raised shoulder high it is called "the half salute."

When raised to the forehead it is called "the full salute."

The three fingers held up (like the three points on the scouts' badge)
remind him of his three promises in the scouts' oath.

There are three classes of scouts. A boy on joining the Boy Scouts
must pass a test in the following points before taking the oath:

Know the scouts' laws and signs and the salute.

Know the composition of the national flag and the right way to fly it.

Tie four of the following knots: Reef, sheet bend, clove hitch,
bowline, middleman's, fisherman's, sheep-shank.

He then takes the scouts' oath and is enrolled as a tenderfoot and is
entitled to wear the buttonhole badge.

A SECOND-CLASS SCOUT

Before being awarded a second-class scout's badge, a boy must pass the
following tests:

1. Have at least one month's service as a tenderfoot.

2. Elementary first aid bandaging.

3. Signalling. Elementary knowledge of semaphore or Morse alphabet.

4. Track half a mile in twenty-five minutes, or if in a town describe
satisfactorily the contents of one store window out of four, observed
for one minute each.

5. Go a mile in twelve minutes at "scouts' pace."

6. Lay and light a fire using not more than two matches.

7. Cook a quarter of a pound of meat and two potatoes without cooking
utensils other than the regulation billy.

8. Have at least twenty-five cents in the savings bank.

9. Know the sixteen principal points of the compass.

FIRST-CLASS SCOUT

Before being awarded a first-class scout's badge, a scout must pass
the following test in addition to the tests laid down for a
second-class