Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Climbing The Mountain
Adapted from a story in Woodland Tales By Ernest Thompson Seton
November 15 , 2005
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Afar in a dry southwestern country is an Indian village, and in the offing is a high mountain, towering up out of the desert. It is considered a great feat to climb this mountain. So that all the boys of the village were eager to attempt it. One day the Chief said; "Now boys you may all go today and try to climb the mountain. Start right after breakfast, and go each of you as far as you can. Then when you are tired, come back; but let each one bring me a twig from the place where he turned." Away they went full of hope each feeling that he surely could reach the top. But soon a small boy came slowly back, and in his hand he held out to the Chief a twig of sagebrush. "Well," said the Chief, "You reached the mountain's foot but you did not climb upward." Another came later with some buckthorn. The Chief smiled when he saw it and spoke thus: "You were climbing; you were up to the first slide rock." Late in the afternoon, one arrived with a cedar spray, and the old man said, "Well done. You went half way up." An hour afterward, one came with a switch of pine. To him the Chief said, "Good, you went to the third belt; you made it three quarters of the climb." The sun was low when the last returned. He was a tall, splendid boy of noble character. His hand was empty as he approached the Chief, but his countenance was radient, and he said: "There were no trees where I got to; there were no twigs, but I saw the shining sea." Now the old man's face glowed, too, as he said aloud:: "I knew it. When I looked on your face, I knew it. You have been to the top. You need no twigs for token. It is written in your eyes, and rings in your voice. My boy, you have felt the uplift, you have seen the glory of the mountain."

So Scouts, keep this in mind, then: the patches, pins, and medals that we offer for attainment are not "prizes." They are merely tokens of what you have done or where you have been. They are mere twigs from the trail to show how far you got in climbing the mountain.

Thank you for listening.