CHAPTER IX.PATRIOTISM;

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 25.HELPING OTHERS.

Rendering First Aid—Suicides—How to Carry a Patient.

[Note to Instructor.—It is impossible in the short space at one's disposal to give all the details of First Aid. These can be found in any of the books mentioned at the end of this Camp Fire Yarn.]

In an accident when you are alone with the injured person, if he is unconscious lay him on his back with his head a little raised and on one side so that he does not choke, and so that any vomit or water, etc., can run out of his mouth. Loosen the clothing about his neck and chest. See where he is injured and treat him according to what you are taught in learning "First Aid."

If you have found the man lying insensible you should carefully examine the ground round him for any "sign," and take note of it and of his position, etc., in case it should afterwards appear that he had been attacked by others.

[Practise above, one boy as patient, the other to find him. Make "sign" round the patient.]

If you are out with a patrol and an accident happens, or you find an injured man, the patrol leader should direct one scout to go for a doctor; he himself will attend to the patient with one scout to help him. The corporal will use the other scouts in assisting by getting water or blankets, or making a stretcher, or keeping the crowd back.

As a rule, it is best to keep the patient quite quiet atfirst; unless it is necessary, do not try to move him; and don't bother him with questions until he recovers a bit.

[Practise above.]

Artificial Breathing: Schäfer System.Artificial Breathing: Schäfer System.

Artificial Breathing: Schäfer System.

Artificial Breathing.—To restore anyone who is apparently drowned, it is necessary at once to clear the water out of his lungs, for which purpose therefore you should incline him face downwards and head downwards, so that the water may run out of his mouth, and to help it you should open his mouth and pull forward his tongue; take off the wet clothing and wrap him in blankets if possible, and rub and move his limbs as much as possible to get back the circulation of the blood. After running the water out of the patient, place him on his side with his body slightly hanging down, and keep the tongue hanging out. If he is breathing let him rest; if he is not breathing, you must at once endeavour to restore breathing artificially. Lay him flat on his front with his arm bent and placed under his forehead to keep his nose and mouth on the ground. Put a folded coat or pillow under his chest and let his head hang down. In this way his tongue will not block his throat, and any water or slime can run out. Then either stand astride of him or kneel alongside him, and, placing both yourhands on his lower ribs, press steadily down and forwards to drive any air out of his body for three or four seconds, and then ease up to let the air come in again through the throat, then press down again. Continue this pressing and easing, counting four to each movement, until the patient begins to breathe again. Sometimes this doesn't happen till you have been trying for an hour or even more.

This is called the Schafer method, and can be used equally well for drowned people or for those overcome with smoke or gas fumes.

[Make the scouts, in pairs, practise above.]

Smoke or Fumes.—Accidents are continually occurring from escapes of gas in mines, sewers, and houses.

In endeavouring to rescue a person, keep your nose and month well covered with wet rags, and get your head as close to the floor as possible, and drag the insensible person out as I have suggested in case of a fire. Drag your patient as quickly as possible into the fresh air—(I say as quickly as possible, because if you delay about it you are very apt to be overcome by the noxious gas yourself)—then loosen all his clothing about the neck and chest, dash cold water in his face and apply burnt feathers under his nose. If you find that he is no longer breathing, then treat him as you would a drowned person, and try and work back the breath into his body.

Burns.—In treating a man who has been burnt, remove his clothes, not by peeling them off, but by cutting them with aSHARPknife or scissors. If any part of the dress sticks to the skin from having been burnt there, do not tear it away but cut the cloth round it, then as quickly as possible protect the burnt parts from the air which causes intense pain. The best way to protect them is by dusting them with powdered chalk or flour, or by laying strips of lint well soaked in sweet oil or linseed oil, and covering the whole with cottonwool. Keep the patient warm, and give warm drinks, such as hot tea, hot milk, or spirits and water.

Major John Garroway, M.D., strongly recommends, instead of flour or oil to stop the pain of a burn, to put a piece of paper firmly over the wound, and the pain will be relieved in a few seconds.

Acid Burning.—A case occurred only the other day of a woman throwing vitriol over a man's face. This is an awful acid which burns and eats away the flesh wherever it touches. Fortunately a policeman happened to be on the spot at the time and knew what to do. He at once applied water to wash off the acid, and then applied flour or whitening to protect the wound from the air and ease the pain.

Broken Limbs.—You may get persons with broken limbs or stunned. In the case of broken limbs you would learn what to do in passing your ambulance course, which every boy scout ought to pass before he can be considered to be fully trained. You would there learn how to know when a limb was broken, and how to tie it up between splints made of pieces of wood, rolls of newspaper or rushes, bundles of twigs, walking sticks, or any other articles that will make a straight support for the limb. [Practise this.]

Pulling in a Dislocated Shoulder—an actual experience of mine in India.Pulling in a Dislocated Shoulder—an actual experience of mine in India.

Pulling in a Dislocated Shoulder—an actual experience of mine in India.

Bleeding.—When a man is bleeding badly from a wound, squeeze the wound or the flesh just above it—that is between the wound and the heart—press it hard with your thumb to try and stop the blood running in the artery. Then make a pad with something like a flat rounded pebble, and bind it over the wound. If bleeding violently, tie a handkerchief loosely round the limb above the wound and twist it tight with a stick. [Demonstrate this.] Keep the wounded part raised above the rest of the body if possible. Apply cold water, or ice if possible, wet rags, etc.

Fainting.—If your patient faints and is pale—fainting comes from too little blood in the head—let him lieflat down with head on the ground. If his face is flushed raise the head—there is too much blood in it, as in apoplexy or sunstroke.

Fits.—A man cries out and falls, and twitches and jerks his limbs about, froths at the mouth, he is in a fit. It is no good to do anything to him but to put a bit of wood or cork between his jaws, so that he does not bite his tongue. Let him sleep well after a fit.

Poisoning.—If a person suddenly falls very ill after taking food, or is known to have taken poison, the first thing to do is to make him swallow some milk or raw eggs. These seem to collect all the poison that is otherwise spread about inside him. Then, if the mouth is not stained or burnt by the poison, make him sick if possible by giving him salt and warm water, and try tickling the inside of his throat with a feather. Then more milk and eggs and weak tea. If the poison is an acid that burns, the patient should not be made to vomit,but milk or salad oil should be given. The patient should be kept awake if he gets drowsy.

Blood-Poisoning.—This results from dirt being allowed to get into a wound. Swelling, pain, red veins appear. Fomenting with hot water is the best relief.

Choking.—Loosen collar; hold the patient's nose with one hand and with the forefinger of the other, or with the handle of a spoon try and pull out whatever is stuck in his throat. By pressing down the root of the tongue you may make him sick and throw out the obstruction. For slight choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of bread, and sip of water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do him good.

Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon in England, but if you travel in a colony you are sure to come across them, and you ought always to know how to deal with bites from them. The same treatment does also for wounds from poisoned arrows, mad dogs, etc. Remember the poison from a bite gets into your blood and goes all through your body in a very few beats of your pulse. Therefore, whatever you do must be done immediately. The great thing is to stop the poison rushing up the veins into the body. To do this bind a cord or handkerchief immediately round the limb above the place where the patient has been bitten, so as to stop the blood flying back to the heart with the poison. Then try and suck the poison out of the wound, and, if possible, cut the wound still more, to make it bleed, and run the poison out. The poison, when sucked into the mouth, does no harm unless you have a wound in your mouth. The patient should also be given stimulants, such as coffee or spirits, to a very big extent, and not allowed to become drowsy, but should be walked about and pricked and smacked in order to keep his senses alive.

[Practise this process in make-believe.]

GRIT IN THE EYE.

Do not let your patient rub the eye; it will only cause inflammation and swelling, and so make the difficulty of removing the grit all the greater.

If the grit is in the lower eyelid, draw down the lid as far as you can, and gently brush it out with the corner of a moistened handkerchief, or with a paintbrush, or feather.

If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball and push the underlid up underneath the upper one. In this way the eyelashes of the lower lid will generally clean the inside of the upper one.

Another way, which every scout must practise, is to seat your patient and stand behind him yourself with the back of his head against your chest. Lay a card, match, or any flat substance under your own thumb on the upper part of the upper eyelid and then catch hold of the edge of the eyelid and draw it upwards over the match so that it turns inside out; gently remove the grit with a feather or wet handkerchief, and roll the eyelid down again.

If the eye is much inflamed, bathe it with lukewarm weak tea.

If the grit is firmly embedded in the eye, drop a little oil (olive or castor oil) into the lower lid; close the eye and bandage it with a soft wet pad and bandage, and get a doctor to see it.

[Practise above.]

I was once travelling in the train in Algeria, a part of North Africa which belongs to the French, and there was with me only one other passenger in the carriage, a French farmer, with whom I got into conversation. He became very communicative, and told me that if I had not come into the carriage he would by this time have been a dead man, as he had got into the train with the intention of killing himself. So I asked him about his troubles, and, as he unfolded them to me, I was able totell him various remedies which promised success for him in the future, for he was chiefly upset over his recent failures in farming. After we had been going on for some time, he quite cheered up, and told me that he was going to get out at the next station, and go back and set to work in the way suggested.

You may have opportunities of saving people who are thinking of killing themselves. The newspapers give cases of suicides almost every day, and go into details of them, because they know that so many people have a foolish love of reading horrors.

Most people at one time or the other of their lives get a feeling that they will kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two, and find that it comes from nothing worse than an attack of indigestion, liver, or influenza, or from disappointment, or over-anxiety; but there are others with weaker minds, who read these newspaper accounts, and brood over them till they can think of nothing else. They hug the idea to themselves, although with horror, and get panic-stricken. They think too much of their own trouble, without thinking how the rest of the world is doing.

It only needs a sympathising friend to come along and take command of the would-be suicide, and to give him something else to think about and to do. You can point out that suicide does no good to anybody; that it generally comes from something wrong with the bodily health, which makes the patient hysterical; that he has only got to command his own mind firmly, and the attack will pass off again. Then, if possible, try to get a Salvation Army officer to see him; he will probably set him right. In this way you may be able to save lives.

[The Salvation Army have now a department which gives advice to people who are feeling inclined to kill themselves. This past year 1125 men and 90 women have applied to their London office alone; and of these probably three-quarters would have killed themselves if it had not been for the sympathy and advice of the officers who reasoned with them, and found for them ways outof their difficulties. The official returns of suicides for the past year show a much smaller number than usual.]

Where a man has gone so far as to attempt suicide, a scout should know what to do with him. In the case of a man cutting his throat, the great point is to stop the bleeding from the artery, if it be cut. The artery runs from where the collarbone and breast-bone join, up to the corner of the jaw, and the way to stop bleeding is to press hard with the thumb on the side of the wound nearest to the heart, and pressure should be kept up as hard as possible until assistance arrives. [Demonstrate this.] In a case where the would-be suicide has taken poison, give milk and make him vomit, which is done by tickling the inside of the throat with the finger or a feather, or pouring down his throat a tumbler of water mixed with a tablespoon of mustard or salt.

In the case of hanging, cut down the body at once, taking care to support it with one arm while cutting the cord. Cut the noose, loosen all tight clothing about the neck and chest. Let the patient have as much fresh air as possible, throw cold water on the face and chest, or cold and hot water alternately. Perform artificial breathing as in the case of apparently drowned people.

A tenderfoot is sometimes inclined to be timid about handling an insensible man or a dead man, or even of seeing blood. Well, he won't be much use till he gets over such nonsense; the poor insensible fellow can't hurt him, and he must force himself to catch hold of him; when once he has done this his fears will pass off. And if he visits a butcher's slaughterhouse he will soon get accustomed to the sight of blood.

At Reading, not long ago, two men were severely reprimanded by the coroner for being afraid to go and cut down a man who had hanged himself—they only ran and fetched someone else, and so he was killed. What would you have done had you been one of the men?

HOW TO CARRY A PATIENT.

(See National Health Society's Manual.)

To Carry Single-handed an Unconscious Person.—Turn patient on his face. Raise him into a kneeling posture. Kneel, and place yourself across and under him, so that his stomach rests on your right shoulder. Pass your right arm between his thighs and behind his right thigh. With your left arm draw his left hand forwards under your left, and grasp the wrist with your right hand; then raise yourself to an erect position.

[Make scouts practise this in pairs.]

Lifting Insensible Man.Lifting Insensible Man.

Lifting Insensible Man.

With Two Helpers to Carry a Conscious Person.(See Manual.)

Stretchersmay be arranged in some of the following ways:

(a) A hurdle, shutter, door, gate, covered well with straw, hay, clothing, sacking.

(b) A piece of carpet, blanket, sacking, tarpaulin, spread out, and two stout poles rolled up in the sides. Put clothes for a pillow.

(d) Two poles passed through a couple of sacks, through holes at the bottom corners of each.

Carrying Insensible Man.Carrying Insensible Man.

Carrying Insensible Man.

In carrying a patient on a stretcher be careful that he is made quite comfortable before you start. Let both bearers rise together; they must walkout of step, and take short paces. It should be the duty of the hinder bearer to keep a careful watch on the patient.

[Practise these different methods.]

In practising First Aid it is a great thing to bespatter the patient with blood to accustom the rescuer to the sight of it, otherwise it will often unnerve him in a realaccident. Sheep's blood can be got from the butcher's shop.

Prepare a heavy smoke fire in a neighbouring room or building (if possible on the first floor), while you are lecturing in the club room. Secretly arrange with two or three boys that if an alarm of fire is given they should run about frightened and try to start a panic.

Have the alarm given either by getting someone to rush in and tell you of the fire, or by having some explosive bombs fired. Then let a patrol, or two patrols, tackle the fire under direction of their patrol leaders. They should shut windows and doors. Send scouts into different parts of the building to see if the fire is spreading, and to search for people in need of rescue.

These scouts should have wet handkerchiefs over their months and noses. "Insensible" people (or sack dummies) should be hidden under tables, etc.

Scouts rescue them by shouldering or dragging them out and getting them down to the ground. Use jumping sheet, shoot, etc.

Other parties lay and connect the hose, or make lines for passing fire buckets.

Another party revive the rescued by restoring animation. Another party form "scrum" to help the police and fire brigade by keeping the crowd back.

"Dragging Race." A line of patients of one patrol are laid out at one hundred yards distance from start. Another patrol, each carrying a rope, run out, tie ropes to the patients, and drag them in. Time taken of last in. Patrols change places. The one which completes in shortest time wins. Knots must be correctly tied, and patients' coats laid out under their heads.

"Aid to the Injured or Sick." H. W. Gell, M.B. Twopence. (Published by G. Gill & Sons, 13, Warwick Lane, London, E.C.)

National Health Society's Booklets, one penny, on hygiene and sanitation. Same publishers.

CHAPTER IX.PATRIOTISM;

or,

Our Duties as Citizens.

How it Grew—How it Must be Held.

The use of a large Map of the Empire is very desirable for illustrating this. The Arnold Forster or the Navy League or the League of the Empire Map are very good, and we hope to issue one specialty designed for the Boy Scouts.

Look up the local history of your neighbourhood, and give your scouts the more interesting and dramatic bits of it, on the actual scene of the events if possible.

Any of you who have travelled much about this country by train, going for your holidays and so on, know how two or three hours will take you a good long distance and six or eight hours will take you to the other end of England.

Well, if instead of hours you travelled for as many days, even six or eight days would take you a very little way over our Empire. It would get you into Canada, but you would want several more days—not hours—to get you across that country. Eighteen days' hard travelling day and night would get you to India or SouthAfrica, but either of these are little more than half way to Australia. And all that distance off, across the seas, on the other side of the world, we have a British country into which you could put nine Great Britains and Irelands.

9 United Kingdoms = 1 Australia.10 " = 1 Canada.6 " = 1 India and Burma.5 " = East Africa, Uganda,and Soudan.5 " = South Africa.1 " = New Zealand.1-1/2 " = Nigeria.

9 United Kingdoms = 1 Australia.

10 " = 1 Canada.

6 " = 1 India and Burma.

5 " = East Africa, Uganda,

and Soudan.

5 " = South Africa.

1 " = New Zealand.

1-1/2 " = Nigeria.

Then there are numbers of smaller Colonies or Dependencies, such as Guiana (nearly as big as the United Kingdom), North Borneo, New Guinea, Somaliland, Straits Settlements, Gold Coast, West Indies, Tasmania, etc., and numbers of islands in ever sea all over the world.

Our Colonies together are something like forty times the size of the United Kingdom at home.

Our fellow-subjects amount to four hundred millions, and comprise almost every known race. Almost every known species of wild animal occurs in British territory.

It is a magnificent Empire over which the Union Jack flies, but it is still only at the beginning of its development. The territories are there, but the people are only coming. The white population of all these Colonies only amounts to a little over a quarter of the population of our crowded little island. We have nearly forty-four millions here; they have among the colonies a little over eleven millions.

Many of you scouts, as you grow up, will probably become scouts of the nation, and will find your way to some of the Colonies to help to push them up into big prosperous countries. Your scout's training will come in very useful to you there. But when you go there you must be prepared to work, and to work hard, and to turn your hand to any kind of job.

HOW OUR EMPIRE GREW.

All those vast Colonies did not come to England of themselves. They were got for us by the hard work and the hard fighting of our forefathers.

America.—When we first got to America it took Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith, and other great pioneers four or five months to get there in their little cockleshells of ships, some of them only 30 tons measurement—no bigger than a Thames barge. Nowadays you can get there in five or six days, instead of months, in steamers of 30,000 tons.

Think of the pluck of those men tackling a voyage like that, with very limited supply of water and salt food. And, when they got to land with their handful of men, they had to overcome the savages, and in some cases other Europeans, like the Dutch, the Spaniards, and the French; and then they had hard work to till the ground, to build settlements, and to start commerce.

Hard sailoring, hard soldiering, hard colonising by those old British sea-dogs, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Hawkins, Frobisher, and, best of all to my mind, Captain John Smith.

He left Louth Grammar School in Lincolnshire to become a clerk in an office, but he soon went off to the wars. After two years' fighting he returned home.

He admitted he had gone out as a "tenderfoot," and had not properly prepared himself as a boy for a life of adventure; so he set to work then and there to learn scouting. He built himself a hut in the woods, and learnt stalking game, and killing and cooking it for himself; he learnt to read maps and to draw them, and also the use of weapons; and then, when he had made himself really good at scoutcraft, he went off to the wars again.

He afterwards became a sailor, fought in some very tough sea-fights, and eventually, in 1607, he went with an expedition to colonise Virginia in America. They sailed from London in three ships, the biggest of whichwas only 100 tons, the smallest 30 tons. But they got there after five months, and started a settlement on the James River.

Here John Smith was captured by the Red Indians one day when out shooting (as you have seen by the play in Chapter I.), and they were proceeding to kill him when the King's daughter, Pocahontas, asked for him to be spared. After this the Red Indians and the Whites got on good terms with each other. Pocahontas became a Christian, and married Smith's lieutenant, Rolfe, and came to England. After many strange and exciting adventures in America, John Smith got much damaged by an accidental explosion of gunpowder, and came home ill. He eventually died in London.

He was a splendid character—and always did his duty in spite of all temptations to let it slide. He was a tremendous worker, very keen, and very brave. He was never defeated by any difficulty however great, because he was always cheery under the worst of circumstances. His motto was, "We were born not for ourselves, but to do good to others," and he acted up to it.

In South Africawe had to drive out the Dutch and then fight the natives for our foothold, which once gained we never let go—and though it has cost us thousands of lives and millions of money we have got it now.

Australiawas got by our sailor-adventurers, like Captain Cook, outstripping all other nations in their plucky navigation of immense unknown oceans.

Indiawas practically in possession of the French when Clive and Wellesley drove them out, and then in turn had to fight the hordes of fighting natives of the interior, and gradually, foot by foot, by dint of hard fighting, we have won that country for our Empire.

East Africa, Uganda, and the Soudan beyond Egypt, and Somaliland have also been fought for and won in quite recent times.

And now in all of these we are spreading the blessings of peace and justice, doing away with slavery andoppression, and developing commerce, and manufactures, and prosperity in those countries.

Other nations could formerly only look on and wonder, but now they too are pressing forward in the race for empire and commerce, so that we cannot afford to sit still or let things slide.

We have had this enormous Empire handed down to us by our forefathers, and we are responsible that it develops and goes ahead, and above all that we make ourselves fit and proper men to help it to go ahead. It won't do so of itself, any more than it would have become ours of itself. If we don't do this some other nation will take it from us.

If our island of England were attacked and taken, down comes our Empire like a house built of cards.

We have had this danger always, even before our Empire was a paying one and worth taking. Nowadays it is much more tempting for other people to take. We defeated determined attacks of the Dutch upon us in the old days. The Spaniards with their Armada attempted to invade us, when, largely thanks to a storm, we defeated them utterly. Then the French, after a long struggle to best us, had their invasion stopped by Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, and their harmfulness ended by Wellington at Waterloo. The French Emperor had been so sure of success that he had had medals got ready to commemorate the capture of England. And since helping in the defeat of the Russians in the Crimea we have been at peace with our Continental neighbours.

Let us hope that this peace will remain permanent.

Peace cannot be certain unless we show that we are always fully prepared to defend ourselves in England, and that an invader would only find himself ramming his head against bayonets and well-aimed bullets if he tried landing on our shores.

The surest way to keep peace is to be prepared forwar. Don't be cowards, and content yourselves by merely paying soldiers to do your fighting and dying for you. Do something in your own self-defence.

You know at school how if a swaggering ass comes along and threatens to bully you, he only does so because he thinks you will give in to him; but if you know how to box and square up to him he alters his tone and takes himself off. And it is just the same with nations.

It is much better that we should all be good friends—and we should all try for that—no calling each other names, or jeering; but if one of them comes along with the idea of bullying us, the only way to stop him is to show him that youcanhit andwillhit if he drives you to it.

Every boy should prepare himself, by learning how to shoot and to drill, to take his share in defence of the Empire, if it should ever be attacked. If our enemies saw that we were thus prepared as a nation, they would never dare to attack, and peace would be assured.

Remember that the Roman Empire 2000 years ago was comparatively just as great as the British Empire of to-day. And though it had defeated any number of attempts against it, it fell at last, chiefly because the young Romans gave up soldiering and manliness altogether; they paid men to play their games for them, so that they themselves could look on without the fag of playing, just as we are doing in football now. They paid soldiers to fight their battles for them instead of earning the use of arms themselves; they had no patriotism or love for their grand old country, and they went under with a run when a stronger nation attacked them.

Well, we have got to see that the same fate does not fall upon our Empire. And it will largely depend upon you, the younger generation of Britons that are now growing up to be the men of the Empire. Don't be disgraced like the young Romans, who lost the Empire of their forefathers by being wishy-washy slackers without any go or patriotism in them.

Play up! Each man in his place, and play the game!Your forefathers worked hard, fought hard, and died hard, to make this Empire for you. Don't let them look down from heaven, and see you loafing about with hands in your pockets, doing nothing to keep it up.

Teach the words and choruses of:

"The Maple Leaf" (Canada), "The Song of Australia," and other Colonial songs."God Bless the Prince of Wales.""Rule Britannia.""Hearts of Oak.""The Flag of Britain.""God Save the King."

"The Maple Leaf" (Canada), "The Song of Australia," and other Colonial songs.

"God Bless the Prince of Wales."

"Rule Britannia."

"Hearts of Oak."

"The Flag of Britain."

"God Save the King."

(J. S. Maddison, 32 Charing Cross.)

Apply to Secretary, League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Westminster, S.W.

Explore Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Temple Church, etc., with following books:

"St. Paul's Cathedral" and "Westminster Abbey," both by Mrs. Frewen Lord, 1s. (Published by Clowes and Son, Charing Cross.)

(Excellent short histories of our famous men and their deeds.)

"Travels of Captain John Smith," by Dr. Rouse. 6d. (Blackie.)

"The Story of Captain Cook." Edited by John Lang. 1s. 6d.

"Deeds that Won the Empire," by Fitchett.

"Heroes of Pioneering" (in America, India, Africa), by Sanderson. (Seeley.) 2s. 6d.

Excellent Lantern Slide Lectures can be got on hire from the League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Victoria Street, London, on the history of our Colonies and Empire.

DISPLAY.

John Nicholson was one of the finest among many fine Britons who helped to rule India. On one occasion he had a meeting of a number of chiefs at a time when they were beginning to show some signs of mutiny. The most important one of these chiefs was called Mehtab Singh, and just before the meeting he told the others that he for one was not afraid of the Englishman, and that he meant to swagger into the room with his shoes on. (It is the custom in India for natives to take off their shoes on entering the presence of a superior just as in England you take off your hat on coming in.) And he did so. He walked in before them all with his shoes on.

Nicholson did not appear to take any notice of it and went on with the meeting; but at the end of it, just as they were all leaving, he suddenly stopped Mehtab Singh, and ordered the others to wait. He then reprimanded him for his insolence, and ordered him to take off his shoes then and there and to walk out with them in his hand before all the other chiefs. And so he had to go, hanging his head with shame, disgraced and humbled by the firmness of the British ruler.

This makes a good subject for a display.

Scene in a great tent or hall in India.

Nicholson (with a black beard), in a dark suit, sitting on a throne in the centre, with several British and native officers in red tunics grouped behind him. Native princes, seated in chairs in semi-circle to either side of him, all with white socks or bare feet, except Mehtab Singh, who has black shoes on, put out well before him for all to see.

Nicholson rises, signs to the chiefs that they may go.

All rise and bow to him, with both hands to the forehead.

As they turn to go he stops them.

"Stay, gentlemen, one moment. I have a matter with you, Mehtab Singh! Thou camest here intent to show contempt for me, who represent your Queen. But you forget that you are dealing with a Briton—one of thatband who never brooks an insult even from an equal, much less from a native of this land. Were I a common soldier it would be the same; a Briton, even though alone, amongst a thousand of your kind, shall be respected, though it brought about his death. That's how we hold the world. To plot against your master brings but trouble on yourself. Take off those shoes."

Mehtab Singh.Mehtab Singh.Face—Dark rouge, not black. Dress—Big turban, coloured dressing gown and girdle, white socks, and black shoes.

Mehtab Singh.Face—Dark rouge, not black. Dress—Big turban, coloured dressing gown and girdle, white socks, and black shoes.

[Mehtab starts, draws himself up, and glares at Nicholson angrily.]

Nicholson [very quietly and deliberately]—"Take—off—those—shoes." [Points at them.]

A pause. Mehtab looks round as if for help, takes a step towards Nicholson, but catches his eye, and stops. He sinks slowly on one knee, head down, and slowly takes off his shoes.

Rises, keeping his head down, slowly turns—Nicholson still pointing—and walks slowly out, shoes in hand.

[If a longer scene is required Nicholson might then address the chiefs on the might of Britain, which, though a small country, is all powerful for good of the world, and so he, as representing her, stands one among them for the good of the whole. And that if they want peace and prosperity they themselves must be loyal and true to the hand that is arranging it. Nicholson's words are splendidly rendered in the poem by Henry Newbolt.]

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 27.CITIZENSHIP.

Duties of Scouts as Citizens—Duties as Citizen Soldiers—Marksmanship—Helping the Police.

There are two ways by which every good Briton ought to be prepared to keep up our Empire.

The first is by peaceful means as a citizen.

If every citizen of the Empire were to make himself a really good useful man, our nation would be such a blessing to the civilised world, as it has been in the past, that nobody would wish to see it broken up by any other nation. No other nation would probably wish to do it. But to hold that position we must be good citizens and firm friends all round among ourselves in our country.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. If a strong enemy wants our rich commerce and Colonies, and sees us in England divided against each other, he would pounce in and capture us.

For this you must begin, as boys, not to think other classes of boys to be your enemies. Remember, whether rich or poor, from castle or from slum, you are all Britons in the first place, and you've got to keep England up against outside enemies. You have to stand shoulder to shoulder to do it.

If you are divided among yourselves you are doing harm to your country. You must sink your differences.

If you despise other boys because they belong to a poorer class than yourself you are a snob; if you hate other boys because they happen to be born richer and belong to higher class schools than yourself, you are a fool.

We have got, each one of us, to take our place as we find it in this world and make the best of it, and pull together with the others around us.

We are very like bricks in a wall, we have each our place, though it may seem a small one in so big a wall. But if one brick gets rotten, or slips out of place, it begins to throw an undue strain on others, cracks appear, and the wall totters.

Don't be too anxious to push yourself on to good billets. You will get disappointments without end if you start that way.

Work for the good of the State, or of the business in which you are employed, and you will find that as you succeed in doing this you will be getting all the promotion and all the success that you want.

Try and prepare yourself for this by seriously taking up the subjects they teach you at school, not because it amuses you, but because it is your duty to your country to improve yourself. Take up your mathematics, your history, and your language—learning in that spirit, and you'll get on.

Don't think of yourself, but think of your country and your employers. Self-sacrifice pays all round.

A cuttle-fish is an animal with a small, round body and several enormously long arms which reach out in every direction to hold on to rocks to enable it to keep its position and to get food.

Great Britain has been compared to a cuttle-fish, the British Isles being the body and our distant Colonies the arms spread all over the world.

When anyone wants to kill a cuttle-fish he does not go and lop off one of its arms; the other arms would probably tackle him and hold him for the cuttle-fish to eat. No, the way to kill a cuttle-fish is to suddenly stab him in the heart, and then his arms fall helpless and dead.

Well, we have many powerful enemies round about us in Europe who want very much to get hold of the trade in our great manufacturing towns, and of the vast farm-lands in our Colonies. If they tried to lop off one of our Colonies it would be like trying to lop off one of thearms of the cuttle-fish. All the rest would tackle him at once, as happened in the last war in South Africa.

Their only way—and they know it—is to stab suddenly at the heart of the Empire, that is to attack England. If they succeeded, the whole of the Empire must fall at once, because the different parts of it cannot yet defend themselves without help from home.

For this reason every Briton who has any grit in him willBE PREPAREDto help in defending his country.

When Mafeking was attacked by the Boers, the boys of the town made themselves into a Cadet Corps, and did very useful work in the defence. It is quite likely that England will some day be attacked just as Mafeking was, unexpectedly, by a large number of enemies.

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