The Chief Scout Talks

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1932, Page 21 (Supplement)

The Chief Scout Talks

DEDUCTION.

“SIGN” AND ITS jSeANING.

('By Lieut.-General Lord Baden Powell of Gilwell.) In a 'Scout’s life, just as in that of a hunter, every hour, every minute, he is noticing “signs” and reading their meaning. This becomes so much a habit with him that it would be difficult for him not to do it. He goes along reading his “sign” just as other people read a book or a newspaper to get their information. And from frequent practice he gets to read the meaning of the sign at a glance, just as other people after long practice can read a book without spelling out each word letter by letter. One day during the Mata'bele war I was with a native out scouting near the Matopo Hills over a wide grassy plain. Suddenly* we crossed a track freshly made in grass, where the blades of grass were still green and damp, though pressed down; all were bending one way, which showed the direction in which the .people had been travelling. Following up the track for a bit it got on. to a patch of sand, and we then saw that it was the spoor of several women (small feet with straight edge and short steps) and boys (small feet, curved edge and longer strides) walking, not running, towards the. hills about five miles away, where we believed the enemy to be hiding. ONLY A LEAF! Then we saw a leaf, lying about 10 yards off the track. There were no trees for miles but we knew that trees having this kind of leaf grew at a village 15 miles away in the direction from which the footmarks were coming. It seemed likely therefore that the women had come from that village bringing the leaf with them and had gone to the hills. On picking up the leaf we found it was damp and smelt of native beer.The short steps showed that the women were carrying loads. So we guessed that, according to the custom, they had been carrying pots of native beer on ' <1:111111 titftiftiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittiititititiniiiiiifiiiiiiiiifniiiiiiiii

Dorothy Parr, Tangarakau: Three cheers for Dorothy, our new member! Step inside and meet us, although I think you will have done so before. Here comes Billikins, full of importance, to find out your address so that we can send you an enrolment card. So watch for it through the post next week. “Grey Warbler,” Tikorangi; Thank you for al! the jokes and riddles. As we have had a few before, we have not put them in again. Billikins is very glad you like his puzzles. He is wrinkling his brow now in an effort to think out some “catches” for this time. Laurie Cave, Mahoe: You nearly were too wise for me, too, Laurie! We all welcome you to the Hut and Billikins has put your name and birthday on the Hut Roll, so that very soon your “postie” will be bringing you a letter addressed to your very own self. “Waratah,” Tirimoana: Lorna will not feel the wind and cold winter if you are going to knit her such a lovely outfit. ■So, these cold winter evenings, we shall think of you, sitting before the fire knitting, and knitting, or reading and ■reading. Perhaps, sometimes, you will be pop, pop, popping chestnuts. “Grey Dawn,” Inglewood: Poppies are beautiful, frail things, and I have seen fields of them growing among the corn, so that it looks.as if a sunset has been spilled upon the land. Did you do a lot of riding on your holiday, “Grey Da/wn”? ■

their heads, the mouths of the pots being stopped up with bunches of leaves. 'One of these leaves had fallen out, but we found it 10 yards off the track, which showed that at the time it fell a wind was blowing. There was no wind now, at seven o’clock, but there had been some at about five o’clock. COMMON-SENSE DEDUCTIONS. So we guessed from all these little signs that a party of women and boys had brought beer during the night from the village 15 miles away, and taken it to the enemy on the hills, arriving there soon after six o’clock. The men would probably start to drink the (beer at once (as it goes sour after a few hours) and would, by the time we could get there, be getting sleepy and keeping a bad look-out, so we should, have a favourable chance of looking at their position. We accordingly followed the women’s tracks, found the enemy, made our observations and got away with our information without any difficulty. And it was chiefly done on the evidence of that one leaf. So you see the importance of noticing even a little thing like that.

NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM. The vicar was deprecating at his Sunday school class the disrespect shown to parents 'by children who referred to them in slang phrases. “I think it is very painful to hear children speak of their father as the old man.’ After all, what’s the matter with ‘father’?” , Small Boy (involuntarily): “He s all right.”