SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
23 
she knew so well. This out-of-door wisdom and self- 
reliance was the first great principle of Scouting. 
THE HOMEMAKER 
But of course, a country full of “Bird Women” could 
not be said to have advanced very far in civilization. 
Though we should take great pleasure in conferring her 
well earned merit badges on Sacajawea, we should hardly 
have grown into the great organization we are today if 
we had not badges for quite another class of achievements. 
In 1832, not so many years after the famous Lewis and 
Clark expedition, there was born a little New England 
girl who would very early in life have become a First 
Class Scout if she had had the opportunity. Her name 
was Louisa Alcott, and she made that name famous all 
the world over for the book by which the world's girls 
know her — “Little Women." Her father, though a bril- 
liant man, was a very impractical one, and from her first 
little story to her last popular book, all her work was 
done for the purpose of keeping her mother and sisters 
in comfort. While she was waiting for the money from 
her stories she turned carpets, trimmed hats, papered the 
rooms, made party dresses for her sisters, nursed anyone 
who was sick (at which she was particularly good) — all 
the homely, helpful things that neighbors and families did 
for each other in New England towns. 
In those days little mothers of families could not tele- 
phone specialists to help them out in emergencies : there 
were neither telephones nor specialists ! But there were 
always emergencies, and the Alcott girls had to know 
what to put on a black-and-blue spot, and why the jelly 
failed to “jell,” and how to hang a skirt, and bake a cake, 
and iron a table cloth. Louisa had to entertain family 
guests and darn the family stockings. Her home had not 
every comfort and convenience, even as people counted 
