ches a most practical outlet for their ideals for their young
people. Its encouragement of the intelligent domestic interests is shown
by the stress laid on every aspect of home and social life and by the
great variety of Merit Badges offered along these lines. The growing
interest in the forming of Girl Scout Troops by schools, churches and
parents proves as nothing else could, how naturally and helpfully this
simple organization fits in with the three factors of the girl's life;
her home, her church, her school. And the rapid and never ceasing growth
of the Girl Scouts means that we are able to offer, every year, larger
and larger numbers of healthy and efficient young citizens to their
country.

SECTION IV

WHO ARE THE SCOUTS?

In the early days of this great country of ours, before telephones and
telegrams, railroads and automobiles made communications of all sorts so
easy, and help of all kinds so quickly secured, men and women--yes, and
boys and girls, too!--had to depend very much on themselves and be very
handy and resourceful, if they expected to keep safe and well, and even
alive.

Our pioneer grandmothers might have been frightened by the sight of one
of our big touring cars, for instance, or puzzled as to how to send a
telegram, but they knew an immense number of practical things that have
been entirely left out of our town-bred lives, and for pluck and
resourcefulness in a tight place it is to be doubted if we could equal
them today.

"_You press a button and we do the rest_" is the slogan of a famous
camera firm, and really it seems as if this might almost be called the
slogan of modern times; we have only to press a button nowadays, and
someone will do the rest.

But in those early pioneer days there was no button to press, as we all
know, and nobody to "do the rest": everybody had to know a little about
everything _and be able to do that little pretty quickly_, as safety and
even life might depend upon it.

The men who stood for all this kind of thing in the highest degree were
probably the old "Scouts," of whom Natty Bumpo, in Cooper's famous old
Indian tales is the great example. They were explorers, hunters,
campers, builders, fighters, settlers, and in an emergency, nurses and
doctors combined. They could cook, they could sew, they could make and
sail a canoe, they could support themselves indefinitely in the
trackless woods, they knew all the animals and the plants for miles
around