One day a Scout named Bill was sighting with his compass, as I'm doing now. "Top of that hill is 045 degrees," said Bill, "I'm going to follow that bearing and end up on top. "

Bill started off checking his compass now and then to make sure he was heading right. Finally he set foot on top of the hill.

He had done three things - set his objective, figured out the direction he'd have to go to get there, and then moved full steam ahead.

Like all of you, Bill set a lot of courses towards many goals in his lifetime. Maybe he said to himself, "I'm going to be an engineer. " Then he would find out what it takes to become an engineer, and steer his course in that direction.

By the end of this month, all of you should be able to set a compass course. Probably all of you have set a course toward a career. There's another kind of course that's more important than your career. I'm talking about the character course. . Your character is being formed right now by what you do and don't do.

We have a "compass" for the character course, too. It's the Scout Oath and Law. Set your character course using the Oath and Law and you'll have the best kind of character.

You'll be the kind of man that others can trust, rely upon and admire. you'll go to the top of the character hill.