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Young Knights of the Empire

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talk, and began to imitate him in doing steady work. Then he made use of his savings in a way that was better than feeding himself on good things, for he fed these boys who badly wanted a good meal. As time went on, he started a sort of club or school for his ragged friends, and in the end had a sort of Scout troop of boys who learnt handicrafts under him and became strong with their good feeding, became good workmen under his instruction, and saved up money under his example. Thus he was able to send out into the world a number of good, strong, prosperous workmen who would otherwise have drifted into being wasters. And from his little effort in Portsmouth sprang up similar ragged schools and boys' clubs in different parts of the Kingdom. So he did as much by his thrift as many have done by saving their millions. * * * * * HOW A POOR BOY BECAME RICH. "How can I ever succeed in becoming great and rich? It is impossible. I am only a poor boy!" That is what a lad said to me. I was able to restore him to greater hopefulness by saying: "Nothing is impossible if you make up your mind to do it. Many a great man who is alive to-day began as a poor boy like yourself, with no help besides his own wits and pluck." Then I told him about Sir William Arrol. At nine years of age he went to work as a "piecer" in a cotton factory. A few years later he became apprenticed to a blacksmith. He worked hard and well, and was very steady, so that at the age of twenty-three he found himself foreman in Messrs. Laidlaw's boiler works in Glasgow. Like a Scout, he was thrifty, and in five years of this employment he saved up 85 Pounds of his wages, and with this sum he started a business of his own. At first he made boilers and girders, and then, as his business grew bigger, he took up bridge-building. Steadily he worked at this, being at all times anxious to show good solid work, without any scamping. To start with he had met with disappointments and failures, but he would not give in to then; when things looked their worst he kept a smiling face and _stuck to it_. And in the end he came out successful, as every man does who is patient and sticks it out. He got a name for steady, persevering work, and for giving full value for any money paid to him. For these reasons he obtained good contracts for building bridges, and soon enlarged his business into a very big one. Among others, the great Tay bridge and the bridge over the Forth in Scotland are his work. He died a rich and highly respected man, but in the height of his power he never forgot that he began as a poor boy, and he always did what he could to help other poor boys to win their way to success. He used, however, to say that success depended mainly on the boy himself. If a boy were determined to get on, and knew a handicraft or two, he would probably succeed, but if he merely dabbled in one thing and then another, and wasted his time in amusements, and could not stick it out when luck seemed against, him, that boy would be a failure, and would probably go on being a failure all his life. * * * * * THRIFT IS MANLINESS. So you see if, as a Scout, you pick up and really practise what Scouting teaches you, it gives you every chance of being a success in life, since it teaches you to be active and enduring, to be trustworthy, to be obedient to your duty, to be thrifty, and to learn handicrafts. In fact, it teaches you to Be Prepared to make a successful career for yourself if you stick to it. The knights in the old days were ordered by their code of rules to be thrifty, that is, to save money as much as possible in order to keep themselves and not to be a burden to others, and that they might have more to give away in charity. If they were poor, they were not to beg for money, but had to make it by their own work. Thus, Thrift is part of manliness because it means hard work and self-denial, and boys are never too young to work for pay, which they should put in the Post Office Savings Bank or some other Government security. CLEANLINESS Law 10. A SCOUT IS CLEAN IN THOUGHT, WORD AND DEED. _Decent Scouts look down upon silly youths who talk dirt, and they

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