Pokračování textu ze strany 10
Second, your fun must be enjoyed with decorum and decency. No one must get hurt in body or in spirit.
Third, the best fun is in the realm of the imagination. Fun with a purely physical basis is not the best or most enduring quality.
There is an ancient and primitive custom that we have adopted of allowing our members, through some exploit, to win a name. This is the highest honor that can be conferred at the Council Fire. It is doubly desired by those unfortunates who are plagued by an evil nickname, for conferring the council name means wiping out all nicknames.
At one time we gave these too easily, but now we hold the honor so high that not more than two in a camp of fifty boys can win this honor in a summer, and the night before receiving this honorable name the candidate must keep vigil alone, far off in the woods.
About ten years ago there came into my camp a band of boys from a near city. One of them was a singular gawky youngster with some unpleasant habits that had won for him an equally unpleasant nickname, to which, however, he was quite indifferent. He was good-natured, self-reliant, and well liked, though laughed at. After two weeks the band were leaving. Ned came to me and said:
“May I stay awhile?”
“Why, you would be alone”, I said.
“I don’t care. I like it. I have my books.”
“I don’t like boys to be alone in camp, but you may stay if you do not go in swimming alone.”
So he stayed on. The next year the same gang came, and he stayed on three weeks alone, and the next year longer, and so on for five years. Meanwhile the uncouth twelve year-old lad had shot up into a seventeen-year-old stripling, six feet tall, thin and awkward, but with a square jaw and a clear eye that told of a strong soul within. That year he came on July 4, and when his companions returned, on September 1 he had been six weeks alone in camp. Tall and supple in figure, with something in face and in eyes that told of inner power, his appearance made a deep impression on them. They came to me and said:
“He has grown to be quite a fellow. Don’t you think he has won a name?”
“Yes”, I replied, “but maybe he does n’t want it. He’s different from other boys.”
When asked, Ned said:
“There 's nothing I 'd like better.”
“Good,” I said; “but you will have to keep your vigil first. That is, sit alone by a fire all night up in the hills from sundown to sunrise, not sleeping, eating, smoking, reading, speaking, or going far away.”
He was ready, and at sundown we led him to the vigil rock, gave him two blankets, a poncho, a hatchet, two matches, and some water to drink.
At eight next morning he was sent for. As he stepped into the assembled council I asked a formal and perfectly unnecessary question:
“Have you kept your vigil?”
His answer was quiet and simple:
“I have.”
Then one of the councilors said: ..text pokračuje
