determination to progress along right lines." "We're
game?" yelled the boys, "and we mean business."

The start was made for the place where the bonfires were usually held. By
the time I reached the spot, the boys were coming from their tents with
bundles of novels. Every boy was requested to tear each novel in half and
throw it upon the heap. When everything was ready, the boys uncovered and
in the silence that came upon the group, the match was struck and the
flames began to leap upward, until finally, all that remained was the
small piles of ashes. For the majority of the boys it meant the burning up
of the dross and the beginning of better and nobler thinking. I shall
always remember this novel bonfire. This is what I mean by making Bible
study and camp talks effective.

Reading

Sunday afternoon is the time for reading good, wholesome stories. Take the
boys out into the woods where they can squat under a big tree, or if the
day is warm seek the cool shelter of the tent and while the boys are lying
down read a short story or several chapters of a story like "Dr.
Grenfell's Parish," by Norman Duncan, "Just Boys," by Mary Buell Wood,
"Some Boys I Know," "Chapel Talks," or "The Story of Good Will Farm," by
George W. Hinckley. If the group is made up of older boys who like to
discuss life problems, read a chapter or two from Robert Speer's excellent
books, "A Young Man's Questions" and "Young Men Who Overcame." Make sure
that whatever you read has the uplift note. The real purpose of the
afternoon's reading should be that of instilling in the boys' minds some
of the cardinal virtues of Christian character.

Don't moralize; let the story do its own moralizing. Boys are hero
worshippers. If the hero or the heroic appeal of the story is of a sane
type and not abnormal there will be created naturally within the boy a
desire to emulate the good deeds of the hero in the everyday life of the
camp, which is much better than the parrot-like vocalization unfortunately
many times encouraged by well-meaning men.

Chapel

A pile of stones made to serve as an altar or pulpit, a chapel having the
branches of a friendly pine as its roof and under which are built a
reading desk and seats of white birch, a cathedral with towering columns
of pine and cushions of pine needles, a rocky shore along the ocean--all
are places where boys have heard the appeal for right living and responded
with an earnest decision that marked an advance s