On The Trail, An Outdoor Book for Girls

Lina and Adelia Beard, co-founders of the first American girls' scouting group, originally called the Girl Scout Society, then the Girl Pioneers, and finally as the Camp Fire Girls, provide practical advice and encouragement to girls and young women who wish to explore a "free, wholesome, and adventurous outdoor life."

By : Lina Beard (1852 - 1924) and Adelia B. Beard (1857 - 1920)

00 - Presentation 01 - Trailing 02 - Woodcraft 03 - Camping, Part 1 04 - Camping, Part 2 05 - What to Wear on the Trail 06 - Outdoor Handicraft 07 - Making Friends with the Outdoor Folk 08 - Wild Food on the Trail 09 - Little Foes of the Trailer 10 - On the Trail with your Camera 11 - On and In the Water 12 - Useful Knots and How to Tie Them 13 - Accidents 14 - Camp Fun and Frolics 15 - Happy and Sane Sunday in Camp

The joyous, exhilarating call of the wilderness and the forest camp is surely and steadily penetrating through the barriers of brick, stone, and concrete; through the more or less artificial life of town and city; and the American girl is listening eagerly. It is awakening in her longings for free, wholesome, and adventurous outdoor life, for the innocent delights of nature-loving Thoreau and bird-loving Burroughs. Sturdy, independent, self-reliant, she is now demanding outdoor books that are genuine and filled with practical information; books that tell how to do worth-while things, that teach real woodcraft and are not adapted to the girl supposed to be afraid of a caterpillar or to shudder at sight of a harmless snake.

In answer to the demand, "On the Trail" has been written. The authors' deep desire is to help girls respond to this new, insistent call by pointing out to them the open trail. It is their hope and wish that their girl readers may seek the charm of the wild and may find the same happiness in the life of the open that the American boy has enjoyed since the first settler built his little cabin on the shores of the New World. To forward this object, the why and how, the where and when of things of camp and trail have been embodied in this book.

Thanks are due to Edward Cave, president and editor of Recreation, for kindly allowing the use of some of his wild-life photographs.