Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/148

134 First, there is the danger of cramp. This comes very often from staying in the water too long. Ten minutes is ample time as a rule for a girl to be in the water, five minutes is safer.

If you bathe within an hour and a half of taking a meal, that is before your food is digested, you are very likely to get cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs, and down you go and drown.

When bathing is going on there should always be one or two good swimmers on duty as "life savers." They should not bathe themselves till the others are out of the water, but should be in bathing-dress, ready to jump in at any moment to help any one that they see in difficulties.

This plan is always strictly carried out by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in camp, and has already been the means of saving many lives and from changing a joy-camp into a camp of mourning.

Water Supply.—A Tenderfoot drinks any kind of water that she finds handy, and consequently gets ill after the first day camping out, and has to go home again.

The old campaigner is very careful indeed about getting clean drinking water, and if she is not certain that it is wholesome she will take care to boil it well before drinking it, as this kills all the little germs of disease which exist more or less in all water, however clear it may be.

Cleanliness.—Take special care to keep your kitchen clean, and it will make you more comfortable and more healthy in camp. More comfortable because flies will not