Robert Robert - Scouting for Boys

He should also be equally loyal to his family and his friends and should support them in evil times as well as in good times.

Loyalty to duty was shown by the Roman soldier of old who stuck to his post when the city of Pompeii was overwhelmed with ashes and lava from the volcano Vesuvius. His remains are still there, his hand covering his mouth and nose to prevent the suffocation which in the end overcame him.

Duty Before All

The name and fame of Jack Cornwell are known to every boy in Britain as the lad who in the great sea fight off Jutland in 1916 stuck to his gun aboard the Chester when all the gun’s crew were killed or wounded and he might have got away under cover.

He was badly wounded himself— but in the responsible work of sight-setter his duty was to be at his post by the gun, and there he stayed for twenty minutes under heavy fire, in case he should be wanted.

At the end of the fight, after the Chester had come successfully through her tremendous contest with three German cruisers, the only unwounded man of the gun’s crew said to him, “Well done, lad.

You stuck it out well. Lucky you weren’t wounded”.

Jack Cornwell was just a boy. But he proved in the

sea fight off Jutland that he could take a man’s place.

“Well! I am wounded—here in the chest. But did we win? “Yes, my lad.” The boy sank down fainting. He lingered a few days in a hospital and died of his wound, but satisfied—knowing that he had done his duty. He had “stuck to it”, as every Scout should.

Obedience and Discipline

Discipline and obedience are as important as bravery for Scouts and for soldiers.

The Birkenhead was a transport ship carrying troops. She had on board 630 soldiers with their families and 130 seamen. Near the Cape of Good Hope one night she ran on to some rocks, and began to break up.

The soldiers were at once paraded on deck. Some were ordered to get out the boats, and to put the women and children into them, and others were told to get the horses up out of the hold, and to lower them overboard into the sea, so that they might have a chance to swim ashore. When this had all been done, it was found that there were not enough boats to take the men, and so the men were ordered to remain in their ranks.

Then the ship broke in half and began to go down. The captain shouted to the men to jump over and save themselves, but the officer in charge, Colonel Seaton, said, “No, keep your ranks”. For he saw that if they swam to the boats, and tried to get in, they would probably sink them too.

So the men kept their ranks, and as the ship rolled over and sank, they gave a cheer and went down with her. Out of the whole 760 on board, only 192 were saved, but even those would probably have been lost had it not been for the discipline and self-sacrifice of the others.

A British training ship, the Fort Jackson, full of boy-sailors, was run into by a steamer, but just as in the Birkenhead there was no panic or crying out. The boys fell in quickly on parade, put on their lifebelts, and faced the danger calmly and well. And not a life was lost.

Humility

Humility, or being humble, was one of the things which was practised by the knights. Although they were generally superior to other people in fighting or campaigning, they never allowed themselves to swagger about it. So don’t swagger.

And don’t imagine that you have rights in this world except those that you earn for yourself. You have the right to be believed, if you earn it by always telling the truth, and you have the right to go to prison if you earn it by thieving.

There are lots of men who go about howling about their rights who have never done anything to earn any rights. Do your duty first, and you will get your rights afterwards.

The Red Indians had to be courageous to survive. They depended on buffalo meat for food,

and buffalo hunti ng was dangerous.

Courage

Very few men are born brave, but any man can make himself brave if he tries—and especially if he begins trying when he is a boy.

The brave man dashes into danger without any hesitation, when a less brave man is inclined to hang back. It is very like bathing. A lot of boys will come to a river to bathe, and will cower shivering on the bank, wondering how deep the water is, and whether it is very cold—but the brave one will run through them and take his header into the water, and will be swimming about happily a few seconds later.

The thing is, when there is danger before you, don’t stop and look at it— the more you look at it the less you will like it—but take the plunge, go boldly in at it, and it won’t be half as bad as it looked, when you are once in it.

Fortitude

The knights were men who never said “die” until they were dead. They were always ready to stick it out till the end. But it is a very common fault with men to give in to trouble or fear long before there is any necessity. Many of them give up working hard because they don’t get success all at once; probably if they stuck to it a little longer, success would come. A man must expect hard work at first to have success later.

Some of you may have heard the story of the two frogs. If you have not, here it is:

Two frogs went out for a walk one day, and they came to a big bowl of cream. In looking into it they both fell in.

One said: “This is a new kind of water to me. How can a fellow swim in stuff like this? It is no use trying”. So he sank to the bottom and was drowned because he had no pluck.

But the other was a more manly frog, and he struggled to swim, using his arms and legs as hard as he could to keep himself afloat. Whenever he felt he was sinking he struggled harder than ever, and never gave up hope.

At last, just as he was getting so tired that he thought he must give it up, a curious thing happened. By his hard work with his arms and legs he had churned up the cream so much that he suddenly found himself sitting all safe on a pat of butter!

So when things look bad, just smile and sing to yourself, as the thrush sings: “Stick to it, stick to it, stick to it”, and you will come through all right.

A very great step to success is to be able to stand disappointments.

Cheeriness

The knights laid great stress on never being out of temper. They thought it bad form to lose their temper and to show anger.

Captain John Smi th once fell in a bog with his Indian guide tied to his wrist. When captured, his cheerful ness helped hi m to escape.

Captain John Smith was himself a type of a cheerful man. In fact, towards the end of his life two boys to whom he told his

adventures, wrote them down in a book. They said afterwards that they found great difficulty in hearing all that he said, because he roared so with laughter over his own descriptions of his troubles. But it is very certain that had he not been a cheery man, he

never could have come through half the dangers with which he was faced at different times in his career.

Over and over again he was made prisoner by his enemies— sometimes savage enemies—but he managed always to

captivate them with his pleasant manner, and become friends with them, so that they let him go, or did not trouble to catch him when he made his escape.