GIRL GUIDES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 March 1929, Page 16

GIRL GUIDES

NOTES BY “GUIDER.” i Miss D. Corrigan is at present in Honolulu. She is expected to arrive back iu Hawera about t-lie end of March. The last letter received from Miss E. Hawken was written from Eoxlea.se, where she was spending a fortnight in January. Miss Hawken wrote that, with Miss Martin Rogers (Nelson), she was occupying the South African suite —bedroom, bathroom, and balcony.

A pleasant afternoon was spent in King Edward Park last Saturday by the four Hawera companies, who practised drill under Mrs. R. R. Henderson (district captain). We look forward to another afternoon shortly, as we feel we simply must “lie prepared” for the rally in May. But more of the rally later.

THINKING DAY. How many Guides remembered February 22? Probably every Guide in Taranaki anyhow, because there was the editor’s jolly sub-leader to remind any who by some chance might have forgotten. And this is iiow ‘‘Thinking Day” came about. The story is told by Mrs. Mark Kerr, the deputy-Chief Commissioner for London and the Home Counties. “At the international conference in 1926,” writes Mrs. Kerr, “one of the French delegates rose and proposed that we should have a Thinking Day, on which all the Guides in the world should remember their sisters across the seas. This proposal was hailed with enthusiasm by all the Guiders and Commissioners present, and at once there was a buzz of conversation as each person suggested a different day. In a lull in the talk the Chief Guide was heard to say: ‘How would it he to have it on the 22nd of February, that is the joint birthday of my husband and myself ?’

“After that there was no more conversation, as it was felt that Providence had clearly pointed out the way. “It is an extraordinary coincidence that the same day should have seen the births of the Chief Scout and the Chief Guide (with a good many years in between).”

WHAT TO EXPECT IN CAMP

“You will be expecting all sorts ox fun in camp—and you win get. it, never fear! But a lot of things will probably be quite different from what you expect, and just- because they are so different you will find it difficult to be prepared for the various emergencies which are sure to arise. For example, the first night. Your bed looks so enticing when you have just made it. But you wait until you have been tossing about on that hard little palliasise for an hour or two! Perhaps you will begin to thinli that the ‘getting up’ whistle is never going to go. Well, if this happens to you there are two things which you must remember and a third which you may remember if you like. All three are sure to help you. The first is Law No. 8. You must just smil© away to yourself in the dark for all you are worth, for you really cannot start singing in the middle of the night. The second thing to remember is that you are a Guide, and that a Guide, like a Scout, prides herself on being a good camper. Now, really good campers go to sleep the minute their heads touch the pillow, and the pride of a camper is to see how many hours she can sleep, not to boast about the number of hours she lias kept awake. Then there is the third thing which you can think about if you like when you are awake in the small hours of the night. It is just this: it is a very wonderful experience to ‘be awake and out of doors all night. This is what Robert Louis Stevenson says about it:

“ ‘Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; blit in the open world it passes lightly, Avith the stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked 'by changes in the face of nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked betAveen Avails and curtains is only a light and Irving slumber to the man Avho sleeps afield. All night long he can hear nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour unknown to those avlio dwell in houses, Avhen a wakeful influence goes abroad over tlie sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the first cock croAvs, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful Avatc-hman speeding the course of the night. Cattle awake on the meadoAvs; sheep break their fast on dewy hillsides, and change to a neAv lair among the ferns; and houseless men avlio haA'e lain doAvn Avith the foAvls open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night. At Avhat inaudible summons, at Avhat gentle touch of Nature, are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life ? Do the stars rain doAvn an influence, or do Ave share some thrill of Mother Earth below our resting bodies?’ ” M. G. Lewis, in “The Guide.”

HINTS ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR BED COMFORTABLE.

“Your palliasse. You will probably luiA-e made your palliasse cover from an old sheet, or curtain, or table-cloth, or something of that sort. Remember that a short (just a bit longer than 5 our height) and wide mattress is much more comfortable than a long and narrow one that you will be continually rolling off in the night. And do not fill your palliasse too full. Straw is dreadfully hard stuff. Noav, when you have spread your ground-sheet out, put your palliasse right in the middle of it and then make a lovely big hole in the middle of your mattress for your hip bone to rest in. This Avill saA'e you from getting ‘pins and needles’ in your leg when you lie on your side. Rememoer to spread the shiny side of the ground-sheet down.

“Your blankets. If you are wise you will have sewn these up the sides to make a bag into Avhieh you can creep and sleep without any risk of becoming untucked. If you "have not sewn them op, roll one inside the other so that they form- a kind of sack. If you have only brought, three blankets Avith you, be sure and put, two underneath and only one on top. Yes, you must have two thicknesses of blanket underneath you if you Avant to be really Avnrm. You can always put your big coat, or something of that sort, on top for extra warmth; but my experience is that one is seldom cold in camp if one has plenty underneath. You’ll probably learn all kinds of dodges before the week is up on how to keep warm, but the real secret is to get someone to tuck you up, and make up your mind, not to move until morning. “Your pilloAV. Some Guides fill their pillow case with straw, and, once you have got used to the rustling, a very good pilloAV it is. But some manage I to slip a little cushion into their kitbags, But, whatever you use, yon

must not prop it up against the sides of the tent. Not only will your pilloAV get dreadfully damp, but if it rains in the night your tent Avill leak all round the place Avliere the pillow touches it. “Well, if you remember all these hints, your first night in camp is not likely to be sueh a horror after all!” — “The Guide.”