Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/266

252 Camps

Camping, which a few years ago was looked upon as impossible for girls, has now become an institution in very many centres—or one that has brought the very best results. It is what the girls look forward to with intense joy, and it gives the Captains their greatest opportunity.

Large camps are, for training purposes, a mistake: one troop of three or four patrols is as much as a Captain and Lieutenant can manage with due regard to the health and training of the girls. They may be carried out in tents or in barns and farm buildings, empty houses, etc.

Religion

Two authorities from very different points of view have gone so far as to describe Scouting and Scout work as "a new religion and a practical one." One of these was a clergyman and a schoolmaster, and the other a statesman of strong human sympathies.

We have not ourselves pretended to claim any such standing for the teaching, but we do find from experience that where rightly handled it can put the right spirit and the right grounding into children for developing religion through their inner consciousness instead of having theology imposed upon them through surface instruction of morality taught them through fear of punishment.

Nature Study and Good Turns

To interest the child is our method of training in the Scout movement, whatever may be the subject taken up.