HUMOROUS IDEA OF CAMP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 76, 22 December 1937, Page 3

HUMOROUS IDEA OF CAMP

This funny bit comes out of "Gilcraft's Gleanings" and is certainly an extreme case, and one that very, very seldom will be found, thank goodnessl "One day I casually visited a Scout camp. On looking in one of the tents I saw several boys in uniform lying about. I then went over to the kitchen and found there three Patrol Leaders in uniform lounging around and looking very bored and watching a man in a black waisteoat and trousers. and a white shirt which in colour was beginning to mateh the waisteoat. He wa® frying sausages in a frying pan over the fire. By way of being polite I asked him who he was, and he said, "Oh, I'm the Scoutmaster," I replied that that was very interesting, and asked him where his tent was and what he was doing. He replied that he slept at the farmhouse and that he was cooking the boys' breakfast. It was then after 10 a.m. I asked him how long he had been Scoutmaster, and wliy he was so kind as to cook the boys' breakfast instead of letting them do it for themselves. He replied that he had only been in chaTge for three years, and that they were not yet fit to cook their own food, but that they were learning by watching him do it. That no doubt accounted for the bored look on the Patrol Leaders' faces. Whether 'he really thought he was doing his best, or whether 'he was merely being selfish and cooking because he liked it, I do not profess to know. Whichever it was, he was doing his worst possible to make his boys Scouts." These are the sort of things that used to happen in the early days of Scouting, and every now and again you can come across a survival of the old methods. The Wood Badge training for Scoutmasters has' altered things a vast lot though, and nowadays more sensible methods of training have taken the place of the old fantastic ideas.