Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 55

1 3 5 7

Senior Scribe Lighter Handy Scout

FRONT RANK "THE REDS"]

The front rank (Reds) is in touch with and under the Senior (Patrol Leader); the rear rank (Blues) is in touch with and under the Junior.

The Senior receives her orders from the Captain and transmits them not only to 3, 5 and 7, but to Junior as well. The Senior and ranking Patrol officer keeps an eye on the Junior and her rear rank. The Captain, of course, is the general overseer, but the Senior has charge of all routine troop duties, superintends camp details and is virtually a first Lieutenant to the Captain. The Junior is a second Lieutenant and a.s.sists the Senior in the supervision of the camp.

_The Senior_ (No. 1) looks after the flags, tentage, blankets, equipment and personal baggage, while the Junior (No. 2) has charge of food, fires, water, cooking, and kitchen work. They appease the demands of the outer and inner man.

_The Scribe_ (No. 3)--She is secretary, bookkeeper, log writer, recorder, correspondent, tent pitcher and First-Aid Scout.

_The Baker_ (No. 4) is the Junior's first aid. She is charged with the care and use of cereal foodstuffs all the way from corn on the cob to flap-jacks and "sinkers," and the cooking outfit and kitchen fire.

_The Lighter_ (No. 5) has care of the lamps, lanterns, candles, matches, oils and all "leaky" stuff. She understands telegraphy and electricity and is chief signal Scout and a.s.sistant tent pitcher. She must keep the camp well illuminated.

_The Water Scout_ (No. 6) locates water for all purposes and carries it to camp. She acts as Fire Chief and Fire Watchman. She provides and cooks meat, vegetables and "greens."

_The Handy Scout_ (No. 7) is field engineer, carpenter, bridge builder, the general maker, mender, patcher, splicer and tinker; cares for tools and trek-cart, mends the tents and clothing, and makes the furniture.

_The Wood Scout_ (Patrol Mascot) (No. 8) is usually the youngest girl.

She keeps fires well fed, the rations dry and the garbage burned. She carries a spade, pick axe and cutting axe.

This system may be used in either a small or large camp; if the latter, corresponding numbers of each Patrol work together.

TEAM WORK AND DAILY ROUTINE

6:30 A. M. Junior, Baker, Water Scout and Wood Scout report half an hour before Mess.

8:00 A. M. Tent Inspection.

8:30 A. M. Senior, Scribe, Lighter and Handy Scout report.

8:30-9:30 A. M. Main work for day accomplished by both Senior and Junior groups.

Caution in Use of Knife and Axe

_The Knife_

1. Always whittle away from you.

2. Keep your fingers behind the blade.

3. Keep saying to yourself: "If this knife slips, can it cut my fingers?"

4. Learn how to sharpen your knife and keep it sharp.

_The Chopping Block_

"A chopping block is the first thing needed about a camp. The axe, when not in use, should always be stuck in that particular block, where one can find it when wanted, and where it will not injure men or dogs."

_The Axe_

"Do not let the axe lie outdoors on a very cold night; the frost would make it brittle, so that the steel might s.h.i.+ver on the first knot you struck the next morning...."

The axe is a most dangerous tool, and a glancing blow may cripple one for life.

1. Do not put your foot on a stick you are chopping.

2. Always have in mind where a glancing blow may throw the axe, and keep your foot away from that danger.

3. In splitting short sticks for kindling hold them by one end flat on the chopping block and strike the blade into the other end.

4. Do not hold the stick on end in one hand while splitting it.

5. Cut or split small wood on a chopping block or log. Never let the axe strike into the ground, as a hidden stone may ruin the edge.

The Camp Fire

"The forest floor is always littered with old leaves, dead sticks and fallen trees. During a drought this rubbish is so tinder-dry that a spark falling in it may start a conflagration; but through a great part of the year the leaves and sticks that lie flat on the ground are too moist at least on their under side, to ignite readily. If we rake together a pile of leaves, cover it higgledy-piggledy with dead twigs and branches picked up at random, and set a match to it, the odds are that it will result in nothing but a quick blaze that soon dies down to a smudge. Yet that is the way most of us tried to make our first outdoor fires.

"One glance at a camper's fire tells what kind of a woodsman he is. It is quite impossible to prepare a good meal over a heap of smoking chunks, a fierce blaze, or a great bed of coals that will warp iron and melt everything else.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LUNCHEON FIRE]

"If one would have good meals cooked out of doors, and would save much time and vexation; in other words, if he wants to be comfortable in the woods, he must learn how to produce at will either (1) a quick, hot little fire that will boil water in a jiffy, and will soon burn down to embers that are not too ardent for frying; or (2) a solid bed of long-lived coals that will keep up a steady, glowing, smokeless heat for baking, roasting or slow boiling; or (3) a big log fire that will throw its heat forward on the ground, and into a tent or lean-to, and will last several hours without replenis.h.i.+ng.

"_Luncheon Fire_--For a noonday lunch, or any other quick meal, when you have only to boil coffee and fry something, a large fire is not wanted.

Drive a forked stake into the ground, lay a green stick across it, slanting upward from the ground, and weight the lower end with a rock, so that you could easily regulate the height of a pot. The slanting stick should be notched, or have the stub of a twig left at its upper end, to hold the pot in place, and to be set at such an angle that the pot swings about a foot clear of the ground.

"Then gather a small armful of sound, dry twigs from the size of a lead pencil to that of your finger. Take no twig that lies flat on the ground, for such are generally damp or rotten. Choose hard wood, if there is any, for it lasts well.

"Select three of your best sticks for kindling. Shave each of them almost through, for half its length, leaving lower end of shavings attached to the stick, one under the other. Stand these in a tripod, under the hanging pot, with their curls down. Around them build a _small_ conical wigwam of the other sticks, standing each on end and slanting to a common center. The whole affair is no bigger than your hat. Leave free air s.p.a.ces between the sticks. Fire requires air, and plenty of it, and it burns best when it has something to climb up on; hence the wigwam construction. Now touch off the shaved sticks, and in a moment you will have a small blast furnace under the pot. This will get up steam in a hurry. Feed it with small sticks as needed.

"Meantime get two bed-sticks, four or five inches thick, or a pair of flat rocks, to support the frying pan. The firewood will all drop to embers soon after the pot boils. Toss out the smoking b.u.t.ts, leaving only clear, glowing coals. Put your bed-sticks on either side, parallel and level. Set the pan on them, and fry away. So, in twenty minutes from the time you drove your stake, the meal will be cooked.

"_Dinner Fire_--First get in plenty of wood and kindling. If you can find two large flat rocks, or several small ones of even height use them as andirons; otherwise lay down two short cuts off a five or six inch log, facing you and about three feet apart. On these rocks or billets lay two four foot logs parallel, and several inches apart, as rests for your utensils. Arrange the kindling between and under them, with small sticks laid across the top of the logs, a couple of long ones lengthwise, then more short ones across, another pair lengthwise, and thicker short ones across. Then light it. Many prefer to light the kindling at once and feed the fire gradually; but I do as above, so as to have an even glow under several pots at once, and then the sticks will all burn down to coals together.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAMP CRANE]

"This is the usual way to build a cooking fire when there is no time to do better. The objection is that the supporting logs must be close enough together to hold up the pots and pans, and, being round, this leaves too little s.p.a.ce between them for the fire to heat the balance evenly; besides, a pot is liable to slip and topple over. A better way, if one has time, is to hew both the inside surfaces and the tops of the logs flat. s.p.a.ce these supports close enough together at one end for the narrowest pot and wide enough apart at the other for the frying pan.

"If you carry fire-irons much bother is saved. Simply lay down two flat rocks or a pair of billets far enough apart for the purpose, place the flat irons on them, and s.p.a.ce them to suit the utensils.

"If a camp grate is used, build a crisscross fire of short sticks under it.