Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)Music by Linda Cantoni. SCOUTING for GIRLS [Illustration] THIS BOOK BELONGS TO ___________________________________________________________ MEMBER OF _____________________________________________________ Troop MY SCOUT RECORD Registration Date and Place _______________________________ Passed Tenderfoot Test ____________________________________ Passed Second Class Test __________________________________ Passed ____________________________________________________ SCOUTING _for_ GIRLS [Illustration] [Illustration: MAGDELAINE DE VERCHERES The First Girl Scout in the New World. From Statue erected by Lord Grey, near the site of Fort Vercheres on the St. Lawrence.] SCOUTING _for_ GIRLS _OFFICIAL HANDBOOK_ OF THE GIRL SCOUTS [Illustration] SIXTH REPRINT 1925 PUBLISHED BY THE GIRL SCOUTS, INC. NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 670 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. _Copyright 1920 by Girl Scouts, Inc._ _All Rights Reserved._ PRINTED IN NEW YORK CITY _To_ JULIETTE LOW THEIR FOUNDER in grateful acknowledgment of all that she has done for them, the American Girl Scouts dedicate this Handbook FOREWORD _How Scouting Began_ _"How did Scouting come to be used by girls?" That is what I have been asked. Well, it was this way. In the beginning I had used Scouting--that is, wood craft, handiness, and cheery helpfulness--as a means for training young soldiers when they first joined the army, to help them become handy, capable men and able to hold their own with anyone instead of being mere drilled machines._ _You have read about the Wars in your country against the Red Indians, of the gallantry of your soldiers against the cunning of the Red Man, and what is more, of the pluck of your women on those dangerous frontiers._ _Well, we have had much the same sort of thing in South Africa. Over and over again I have seen there the wonderful bravery and resourcefulness of the women when the tribes of Zulu or Matabeles have been out on the war path against the white settlers._ _In the Boer war a number of women volunteered to help my forces as nurses or otherwise; they were full of pluck and energy, but unfortunately they had never been trained to do anything, and so with all the good-will in the world they were of no use. I could not help feeling how splendid it would be if one could only train them in peace time in the same way one trained the young soldiers--that is, through Scoutcraft._ _I afterwards took to training boys in that way, but I had not been long at it before the girls came along, and offered to do the very thing I had hoped for, they wanted to take up Scouting also._