Wouldn’t this be a neat activity to combine the outdoors and the Promise & Law, or as part of a Guide’s Own ceremony? I wonder which trees Pathfinders and Rangers would choose to represent today’s Guide Laws.
A series of articles by an unnamed Ranger Company that appeared in The Guide in 1925 (May 9, 1925, June 27, 1925, September 5, 1925)
1st Guide Law – A Guide’s honour is to be trusted.
Oak – It is strong and durable, tall and straight. It lives over many years, and has a noble and stately form. This is what a Guide’s honour must be like, strong, noble, lasting and firm – so that our honour and trust will live through all difficulties like the oak lives through all rain and storm.
Cedar – The cedar is a strong, upright tree, whose branches are always straight to the sky as though they would seek after truth. The leaves are always green and the stately beautiful tree seems to be the embodiment of truth and beauty.
Silver Birch – The silver birch is a tree that will grow and flourish anywhere even in the far north where the ground is snow-covered all the year round. Many are its uses in that dreary land. The silvery bark that peels off so easily, and looks so easy to destroy is wonderfully tough and lasting – even when the wood inside is rotten the bark is quite fresh. A Ranger should be lasting and fresh.
Oak – The oak is wide-spreading, of long endurance in wet or dry. It is thoughtful, because it bears no acorns until it is 70 years old. Great strength in its branches.
2nd Guide Law – A Guide is loyal.
Lombardy Poplar – First, because the tree is perfectly straight as a Guide’s loyalty should be, without any fear of bending. One of the uses of the Lombardy poplar is, the wood is used for making packing cases which hold things together. So our loyalty should bind and hold us together.
Yew – The yew is a small green tree, and keeps green all the year round. It never changes and grows but little. It makes a staunch strong hedge which cannot be broken down. A true lesson of loyalty.
Lombardy Poplar – The Lombardy poplar best suits this law, because of its very uprightness.
Scots Fir & Plane & Birch – The Scots fir, because it grows best in Scotland. The plane, because its heart-wood is of gold. The birch, because it never perishes, yet, if burnt, it lights up quickly into a bright flame.
3rd Guide Law – A Guide’s duty is to be useful and to help others.
Spruce – The spruce seems to be very useful and to go with our 3rd law. The tree produces valuable timber, also the substance known as Burgundy pitch – the bark is used for tanning – the inner bark for baskets. The wood is used for beams and lathes. In Norway and Sweden poor people earn money by gathering and selling the sprigs. There is nothing of the spruce which cannot be made useful. It grows to a very great height and has a perfect, erect form, with a solid trunk. As Guides we want to be useful in every way, and we want our usefulness to be solid so that other people can depend on us in great need, or when help is wanted. We want also our usefulness to grow and grow to a great height like the spruce.
Oak – The oak best expresses this law. It grows slowly, making the wood hard and strong, which can be made into ships, and beams for ceilings, and heavy furniture. The bark is useful for making ink and dyeing leather. The fruit is useful for pigs and squirrels. Every part of the tree can be made use of. So must we also make use of every power and gift; brain and limb, in every possible way.
Plane – The plane tree is very useful. It is shady in summer. Its three dark looking bobbles remind us of our three Guide promises. It throws its old bark off as soon as it is done with, just as we should when we begin to slack, and not help others.
Lime – The lime has more uses than any other tree. You get bast from the inner bark; paper from the bark; baskets from the pliant twigs; the wood is good for engraving and carving, and also make good charcoal for gunpowder; the leaves and young shoots are used for poultices and formentations. Lime flower tea is a good tonic and good for headaches. The sap drawn off in spring contains sugar. The seed roasted can be made into an oily substance like chocolate. The flowers also make brandy and wind. Cows, goats, horses, sheep, pigs feed on its leaves.
4th Guide Law – A Guide is a friend to all and a sister to every other Guide.
Plane – I love to think of the plane tree as being a friend to many folks who live in our crowded towns, as this is where the plane tree is nearly always seen. I think many of our streets would look lost without the fine forms of the plane tree. Its bark peels off in great pieces and we must let our dislike of others peel off us and be friends to them. It is a handsome tree, and fast growing, and very useful. The leaves are like a hand with five pointed fingers. As we see these hand-like leaves on the tree, so we too can use our hands to shelter and serve our neighbours.
Scots Fir – A strong tall tree is the Scots fir. A tree which stands firm as a rock, such as our friendship to each other should be. It is hardy and used to all weathers, not easily swayed, or blown down. The cones are hardy and not easily decayed. Friendship is firm at the heart even though the outside be decayed. We must be ever ready to stand up for those we love.
Oak – The oak tree represents friendliness, because of its very slow growth, its strength, and its everlasting uses.
Chestnut & Elm – The chestnut tree gives shade and promotes friendship – “Under the spreading chestnut tree.” The elm, because the wood is difficult to split.
5th Guide Law – A Guide is courteous.
Scots Fir – The Scots fir is a noble and sturdy tree and has a beauty in its strength and dignity. Its leaves are like thin long needles which look pretty growing in pairs. it is a valuable tree and gives good products. Like the Scots fir a Guide’s courtesy should be a noble virtue with a beauty and strength in it, growing tall our fir, until we produce good manners and politeness. We want our courtesy to be something beautiful, a thing to stand out in our character like the long graceful leaves each standing out one by one on the fir.
Oak – The oak tree is a very polite tree. It allows all sorts of animals and insects to live on it. It lets flies and beetles build their houses on its leaves and branches. Squirrels are allowed to store their nuts in any holes in the tree. Even other plants, such as ivy or mistletoe are allowed to live on the tree, and feed off the tree. On the whole the oak is a dear, kind old tree – very homely.
Aspen – The aspen, because it is always swaying with the wind.
Birch & Spindlewood – The birch, because it is graceful and does not take up much room. Spindlewood because it can be cut as fine as a needle and will bend almost double.
6th Guide Law – A Guide is a friend to animals.
Horse Chestnut – When we think of friends to animals, we look for a person with a big kind heart, someone with hands to protect and care for them like our noble, fine horse chestnut. It has beautiful large branches which give shelter in time of rain. The nuts give food for our horses, cattle, and sheep, and when they decay they can be made into a kind of soap. It is a fast growing tree and is beautiful when in bloom. The timber has many uses. The fallen leaves are used for pig-stys. Guides, like the horse chestnut, should ever be ready to care for animals, having big kind hearts for them, and hands to see to their needs, then our kindness will grow to a thing of beauty, and blossom in many kinds of ways. Animals are faithful creatures and are known to save life, and as the horse chestnut grows fast so Guides should let their love and devotion grow for animals too.
Elm – The elm is a nice kind tree. It gives shade from burning sun and the birds love to build their nests on its branches, especially the rooks. These make an untidy nest on the top-most branches, and they always look as though they would fall off when the wind sways the tree. Insects make their homes in the tree.
Horse Chestnut – The horse chestnut is not good for all animals, but pigs, sheep and deer will eat the nuts readily enough.
Beech & Hazel – The beech, because, for drought, it collects water in the hollows of the tree and birds can find drink. It is shady. It provides nuts for squirrels and other animals. The hazel gives nuts, and shelter for bids, and for their nests.
Unfortunately, it appears that this series of articles was never finished. I wonder what trees would have been proposed for the remaining Guide Laws –
7th Guide Law – A Guide obeys orders.
8th Guide Law – A Guide smiles and sings under all difficulties.
9th Guide Law – A Guide is thrifty.
10th Guide Law – A Guide is pure in thought, word and deed.
No need for clothes pegs if the drying line is made of two twisted ropes with corners of cloths, etc., inserted between twists.
To tie up bedding. Strong belts from discarded coats and mackintoshes can be used for fastening up rolls of bedding. Companies can collect and keep a store of these.
A safe light – (a) place a candle in a jar half-filled with water. As the candle burns it rises automatically and when it is nearly all gone it sinks in the water and so goes out. (b) Affix a candle to the top of a stake and cover with an inverted bottle with the bottom removed. To remove bottom from bottle stand it on hot embers for two or three seconds, then pour in half an inch of cold water. Trim stake to fit neck of bottle.
Girl Guide History Tidbits 