Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/210

196 Proficiency Badges

Whenever I see a Scout coming along I feel at once a friendly interest in her, but when she comes nearer that interest either increases or goes off a bit when I look at her right arm and see on it badges—or no badges.

Every Scout, as soon as she has passed the Second Class tests, can go in for proficiency badges. These badges are not intended for swagger, but to show that you can do things. On the left arm you will wear those badges which mean that you are good at work that is useful to other people, and these are the important badges; while on the right arm the badges show the sort of Scout that you are, that is whether you are efficient or not in different branches of Scout work.

There are a very large number of badges on the list which you can go in for, but it does not mean that you are to try and get them all, but rather that you may look through the list and find out which are most likely to suit you and then to go in for one or two of those. The most important of all the badges are those for nursing. They are important to the Scout herself, because through practising this work she can most easily carry out the Scout law of doing good turns to other people, and these would be good turns which really are useful. Also by knowing how to nurse she can do good work for her country.

The Value of Nursing.—In the great war hundreds and hundreds of women have gone to act as nurses in the hospitals, for the wounded and have done splendid work