It is equally important that efficiency methods should be employed in the training of boys. Scientific methods applied to boy-culture will increase the quality of the output as well as make the work easier for the boy and the parent. The Boy Scout movement is an efficiency method of scientific boy-training in mass. It supplements perfectly the work of the home, the school, the church. It furnishes a kind of training which none of these supplies and in making this statement I do not undervalue the inestimable influence of these institutions on the life of the boy today. The home is the primary and most important agency for the boy’s general training, the school for mental development, and the church for moral and religious culture; but in the wide field of boy-nature not reached by these agencies the Boy Scout organization directs his development from the child into the man. The organization has passed the experimental stage and is now on the highway of proved success. Thousands of boys are clamoring for admission which must be denied until Scout Masters can be enlisted and trained to take charge of troops. Here is a wonderful field for social service, ripe for harvest, awaiting the man who loves boys and who recognizes his duty in having some part in raising the standard of our future citizenship. CHAPTER XIV JUVENILE READING Next to environment and companions, books exercise the most powerful influence for good or evil on the life of the boy. His companionship with books is as intimate as his companionship with playmates and usually occupies as large a portion of his life, especially after puberty. The value of literature is two-fold: it molds the character and develops the taste, both of which processes are closely related. It is natural for the boy to want “something to read” and this desire is not satisfied by schoolbooks, biographies, or histories. History which is a mere recital of facts, names, and dates in which the human element is little emphasized becomes wearisome and unprofitable. The boy voluntarily reads for entertainment; he studies because he is compelled to. It is, of course, apparent that the child’s reading should be suited to his mental and psychological requirements. He begins with nursery rhymes and jingles and then follow fairy tales, folklore and wonder-tales told by the parent. These serve as an introduction to tales and stories of mythology, which are in turn stepping stones to history and biography. At the age of nine or ten he begins to develop a taste for fiction, tales of adventure, chivalry, and daring experience which exploit the virtues of some hero, on which he feeds for a number of years.