A MESSAGE FROM THE WOODCRAFT CHIEF
To the Girls of America:
There is a winding deer trail by a stream in the pine woods, and the glint of a larger breadth of water through the alders, with stars in the grass, a high shady rock for the nooning, and a bell-bird softly chiming.
I have found it very, very pleasant to go there whenever my life would permit, but the entrance was hidden, and I never should have seen it but for this — I was struggling and unhappy, worn out and lost, hoping to find it and fearing I never should, when one day a wonderful creature appeared to me. She was very old, I know, but She seemed very young, fresh and athletic, and She had a kind look in her eyes. She said:
- “Ho, Wayseeker, I have seen your struggle to find the pathway, and I know that you love the things you will see there. Therefore, I will show you the trail, and this is what it will lead you to: a thousand pleasant friendships that will offer honey in little thorny cups, the twelve secrets of the underbrush, the health of sunlight, suppleness of body and force unfailing, the unafraidness of the night, the delight of deep water, the goodness of rain, the story of the trail, the knowledge of the swamp, the aloofness of knowing, the power to see a bird when you hear its note, the upbuilding things which are never taught in schools; a crown and a little kingdom measured to your power, but all your own.”
- “These are the things I offer, because you have persevered, but there is a condition attached: When you discover the folksiness of some tree, the compact of bee and bloom, the allaboutness of some secret, the worthwhileness of the swamp, or the friendship of a frog-pond, you must in some sort note it down and pass it on to another truly a Wayseeker, that the liquid gold turn not to vitriol in your hand; for those who have won power, must with it bear responsibility.”
That same Fairy Godmother is waiting for you just beyond that bank of pussy willows in the Springtime, she is waiting in the alder bloom of Summer, and later when the maple red-dens the swamp. Faunima, Spirit of the wild things and of woodcraft is she, and very willing to show you the trail if you ..text pokračuje
