Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

Fantasy Football Challenge presents
Young Knights of the Empire

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of Jack Johnsons, Black Marias, Woolly Bears, etc. He says of the men: "If I were asked what struck me most, I would say that it was the marvellous cheerfulness of the men living in such awful circumstances. Every one to a man seemed happy. They are always ready for a joke, and they see fun in everything." And that is why we shall succeed in this war, because our men see the bright side of it, and take things cheerfully and hopefully, even in the worst circumstances. It is also the way to succeed in peace time when doing work or suffering hardships or disappointments. * * * * * FIGHTING FROM A CHAIR. [Illustration: KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE DOG.] One bit of advice I gave to the Birmingham Scouts was that, if ever you run a race with a dog, keep your eye on the dog, and don't look about at other things. I myself was an example of "how not to do it," for I had had a race with my dog--I was running in shorts--and he saw me looking round and promptly ran between my legs and threw me over. So I had to go to Birmingham on two sticks with a bandaged knee. But what is true of a dog race is true of any other competition in life. When you start out to do a thing, keep your attention fixed on what you are doing, and do not let it wander off to other things, otherwise you may come a cropper. It is a bit of a handicap to go about inspecting Scouts with one leg out of action, but still I was only carrying out the example of other Scouts. There was Rob. Miller, a Scout at Whitby, who, when he lost a leg through a German shell, was quite cheery, and wrote to me that he felt it an honour to be the first Scout wounded whilst on duty, and that he meant to go on scouting notwithstanding the loss of a leg. Another Scout who lost his eye through a Toby Tenderfoot fooling with a gun wrote to say that he could go scouting just as well with one eye as with two. That is the spirit of the scouts. In addition to these, I had a fine example in a namesake of mine, Major H. G. Powell, out at the Front. He had left the Army some ten years ago, but when the war broke out he went back to his old regiment. In advancing to an attack he sprained his ankle badly. However, he got a stick and a chair from a neighbouring cottage, and continued to hobble along at the head of his men, sitting down whenever there was a halt and directing their operations from the chair. He went on doing this until he himself was hit and badly wounded, and he was able to be carried safely back still sitting in his chair. [Illustration: A CHEERY OLD SCOUT.] * * * * * HOW TO LIVE LONG. I suppose none of you Scouts who read this are cheerful, happy fellows! [I don't think!] But if you should happen to want to live to be 100 years old, here is the way to do it--written by one who has done it: "_Be cheery, and work hard!_" That is what Mrs. Rebecca Clark, of High Road, Wood Green, said a few days before she died, and she was 110 years old, so she ought to know. I think that most Scouts are doing exactly what she recommends--so in A.D. 2010 there will be 200,000 old fellows of over 100 years of age, skipping about in bare knees and worn-out hats, singing: "Boys, Be Prepared!" * * * * * THE ONLY BAD THING. Mrs. Scoresby Routledge, a well-known lady explorer, wrote to me once to say that while travelling in the Pacific she came across Scouts in all sorts of unexpected places. After giving them a good character, she added that the only bad thing about Scouts was that they whistled. She pointed out that a great many people already suffer from the noises in the streets of our towns, especially people who are ill and weak. Even small, harmless noises "get on their nerves," and keep them from resting. And whistling is one of these dreaded noises. I hope Scouts, in going about the streets, will think of this, and tone down their whistling, as a good turn to people who may possibly be disturbed by it. At the same time, I need not remind you that it is good to whistle and smile in a difficulty, when otherwise you might break out into curses, or into a cry of pain or of panic, or take to your fists (or your

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