SCOUT LAW TALKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 302, 21 December 1932, Page 20

SCOUT LAW TALKS.

By RATA.

A Scout is Loyal. "Gee, dad,, another granny. Aren't I getting careless," exclaimed the disgusted, tenderfoot the other evening as he sat revising his knots prior to the troop meeting. "Say, dad, why does Scputer call this a lubber knot in such a disgusted tone when some of us seem to keep making the same mistake?"

\ou have heard the term lubber before, especially if you are fond of reading the old sea. stories of the daye of the sailing ship or wind jammers ae they were called, and how to a true son of the sea the term lubber was a term cf good natured contempt for .those who were not versed in the work and procedure of ■tji'e ship, but the dictionary explanation is a clumsy fellow or lout. To a scout this is a quality that is not at all to be desired in hie character, and it is little to be' wondered fit tliat Scouter cshquld be. disgusted that a !good scout should-be guilty of tying-' the granny's or lubber's knot. .

You know .the manner in which this knot can be ideteeted,-for it is full of humps and ;bumps and when touched, sticks ite; beastly ends to the four corners of the-room, revealing itself to all in its imperfections, and if by chance it becomes jammed, it is a work of art to undo.' So it is with bad habits, the little things of life which if not corrected, will in time, form themselves in nasty jams and take much patience and struggling to get rid of, spoiling the whole beauty of our lives.

You know them all too well, such things as selfishness, greed, petty deceits, bluff temper and others too many to enumerate.

There yet remains another knot in the reef category so like the genuine article in outward appearance, that to the inexperienced it will be taken for the good wholesome knot, but to the eye of the trained scout, will reveal itself as the false reef or thief knot. Have you ever made one. If so, you will remember that it has to be tied in a manner similar to the sheet bend and threaded through a loop. To my knowledge it cannot be formed in any other manner, a deliberate knot made not by accident, but by design to deceive, ite ends like its motive being wrong.

Deceits and double dealings are, in the mind of a good scout, things to be scorned, and a fellow who makes these vices a practice in his life will eventually be found out, for like the thief knot, he has no holding power and will under strain run and reveal himself a fraud and an impostor, or false reef.

Loyalty starts with oneself, therefore avoid tying grannys or thief knots in your life, following the quotation of Shakespeare'e "Above all to thine own self be true for it follows as night the day thou canst not be false to any man."