Although these words make up the second point of the Scout Oath, I have put them here, after the chapter which deals with the third point, because one cannot get the habit of helping other people at all times without being, just to the necessary extent, physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Of course it is possible to be good-natured and to do things to help other people for the sake of being thought a good fellow and becoming popular.
In this case we may be physically strong and mentally awake, but we shall not be morally straight; for moral straightness requires that we should do right for its own sake or because it is the only descent thing to do.
Then, a fellow may be a cripple and have very little physical strength; and yet, if he is really anxious to help, and his mind is alert, there are a great many ways in which he can be of service.
The daily good turn is an obligation of honor intended to teach us to form the habit of helping other people at all times. An ignorant little boy does not think especially about helping other people so much as he does about getting other people to help him. But if he should bend his mind seriously to doing some one kind and unselfish act every day, this would teach him more than anything else to get the habit. After a while, -- because the habit had begun to form in his mind, -- he would see many more opportunities for helping other people than he used to see before he had begun the practice of doing his good turn; and, as he took advantage of these opportunities and did a good turn whenever he got a chance, the doing of the good turns would get to be the regular thing, and missing one's chance would get to be the exception.
Of course it is altogether against the idea of the good turn to keep a record of such acts or to talk
about them afterwards. We should do everything in our power to remind ourselves of the obligation; but, as soon as the act is finished, it should be forgotten as quickly as possible.
This applies to all acts of kindness as well as to the daily good turn to which we are pledged by the Scout Law. It is a custom of the Boy Scout Brotherhood, which has fallen into disuse in our country (and which should be revived as soon as possible), to tie an extra knot in our neckties when we dress in the morning to remind us that we have a good turn to do during the day. Then, when we have helped push an overloaded cart over a hill, or done some other helpful thing, the knot should be untied, and the act forgotten.
The reason for this is that, when we take personal credit for good things that we do, we are apt to become proud and vain, and that always makes us comparatively stupid and inefficient. The boaster and the "swelled head" may prosper for a while, but the time comes when he is only in the way. For this reason, it is a general law of scout-craft as well as of knighthood that we must think less and less about ourselves and more and more entirely about the job in hand.
Of course every boy or man should have a particular aim in life, to which he is best adapted, and this will represent, in one sense, his chief ambition and effort; but, if he becomes unselfish by learning to know his faults and by helping other people at all times, he will become a broader man and be able to do his special work better. Every man's first duty is to be the best man he possible can be, and this will help to make him human and helpful in any work to which he may choose to devote himself.
When, however, people do kind and helpful things to us, we are doing them good by responding quickly with appreciation and thanks. This makes them feel that their kindness was worth while and makes them grateful for the privilege of having done it.
Doing single good turns here and there and once in a while, when it seems especially easy or interesting, has nothing to do with what we mean by the habit of "helping other people at all times." "At all times" means something very different from "now and then," and it implies that we shall form and retain the constant habit of helpfulness by forming the constant habit of helpful acts. We start with the determination to obey the Scout Law and to do helpful acts; when we have acquired this habit as a matter of course, we shall then possess the spirit of the Scout Law in this respect. When a man exerts this spirit as a habit of the will and not merely as a good intention, he can be relied upon to do the right thing under any circumstances that may arise, -- and this is chiefly because he himself knows that he can do it only be the help of God. This shows how foolish it is to have a "swelled head," and we may avoid many a useless fall if we can take in thoroughly the fact that modesty keeps a man's feet on solid ground, where he can get a good purchase of the most difficult task. Some one once asked Lincoln how long he though a man's legs ought to be; and, after thinking a while, he answered: "Just long enough to reach the ground!"
A good scout would rather be a single, solid, spoke in the wheel of life and do his work quietly and unnoticed than to be a whole buzzing and crackling fire-wheel at a Fourth of July celebration.
Mr. Wilder, the present Boy Scout Commissioner for Hawaii, got his first idea of the Boy Scouts from a little Cockney chap he met in London and from whom he asked the way to Charing Cross. The little Londoner answered with a cheery "Yes, Sir!" and led the way, -- by a short cut which non but a Londoner could have know, -- through old-fashioned, narrow streets for two miles, to Charing Cross Station. Mr. Wilder's interest in the boy had grown very keen during their walk together; and, when the time came to say good-by, he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out half a crown, the equivalent of fifty cents. The boy's eyes opened wide, while his mouth puckered into a low whistle. Then he straightened himself up with the remark:
"I am not in uniform, sir; but I am a scout!"
The Scouts of Hawaii can trace their origin truly to this good turn of a single boy.