The Audience at the Camp Fire, Norway.

"On a ledge on the hill-side the camp fire was laid. A small platform had been constructed for the displays, and there were a few rows of chairs for the principal guests. The thrilling sight was, however, to be seen by looking up the hill, for there, sitting one behind the other, as close as they could be packed, were several thousand Scouts and Guides. They wore no hats, and I have never seen such a mass of fine young heads, all of them with fair hair, all of them with eager, serious faces, all of them with eyes fixed on one point, the Chief Scout, who stood below them, and who spoke to them in English, which they nearly all of them understood. He told them that he had brought them a message from the British Scouts and Guides and he asked them whether he might take a message in return: "May I take them back your love?" asked the Piper of Pax. For a second there was a pause and then the whole hillside roared its assent.

"Then came a short camp fire performance. We saw enacted the fairy tale of the Princess who could not be made to laugh: we saw the wicked little Trolls of the Norwegian mountains being won over by the power of the Guide Law, till they burst out of their brown skins and became green woodland sprites. Queen Maud of Norway, who had come quite informally and on the spur of the moment, sat with the Chiefs and listened to the performance, and at her own request, several Guiders were presented to her.

"The lights of Oslo began to twinkle down below, and the black fir trees stood out sharply against the clear evening sky. Then ten fine Scouts came forward: they lit their torches silently at the camp fire, and holding them high above their heads, they lined up on either side of the platform. Between the two lines the Guides built up their national flag: first a white cross on a red ground, which is the celebrated Dannebrog of Denmark; then the dark blue cross superposed, which means Norway. The Chief of the Norwegian Scouts, Moller Gasmann, came forward to the edge of the platform and at a sign from him all rose silently. Very simply, and in a deep, sweet voice, he began: "Our Father, which art in Heaven," and in a deep murmur the hill-side repeated it after him: then they sang, in mellow voices, the evening hymn of the Scouts and Guides, and that was the end of the camp fire, a fitting end to our wonderful cruise.

"At midnight the Calgaric sailed for home."

Rose Kerr, The Cruise of the "Calgaric" August 12th-29th, 1933, London: The Girl Guides Association.

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