Excerpt from The Boy Scout's Hike Book: The First of a Series of Handy Volumes of Information and Inspiration

The purpose of this book and of others to follow is to give more detailed information about the special subjects covered than was found practicable in the official handbooks of the Boy Scout Organizations in this and other countries.

In order to cover the entire subject of scouting, so called, in a single inexpensive book of convenient size, it has been necessary for the compilers of the different Boy Scout manuals to abbrevi ate, sometimes to omit entirely, matter which a full discussion would necessarily include. The Boy Scout plan of organization provides for Scout Masters and others to fill out, from their own knowledge and experience, the said abbreviations and omissions, in talks to the Scouts, and this has been wonderfully successful. Still there is a persistent demand from the boys for more books. And it is my opinion, based on my experience as a registered and active Scout Master, in charge of a troop of forty members of the Boy Scouts of America, that books such as these I am undertak ing to write are the kind needed. Not that existing practical books on camping, woodcraft, and kindred subjects of especial interest to Boy Scouts are lacking in merit, but simply because they are not written expressly to conform with the Boy Scout plan.

As to my experience, it has been my good fortune to do a great deal of scouting in one way and another. The knowledge thus gained has been enriched by my work as editor of various maga zines devoted to outdoor life and recreation, and especially by the friendship of many Sportsmen of wide experience, among them most of the authors of the best outdoor books published in this country during the last twenty years.

Naturally, the foregoing is not written for the boy, but for those who properly guard his interests to-day, I am glad to say, more intelligently than ever before.

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