Scoutmaster's Prayer

This poem was written several years ago during World War II on a night preceding a Koshare Christmas party. Buck Burshears, while trying to figure something to say at the banquet the following night, had just learned that another of his boys, one of the Koshares, was missing in action. The result was the poem, "A Scoutmaster's Prayer," which Buck spent most of the night writing. After the war, the young man turned up in a German prison camp and returned home safely.

A little boy came knocking
     At my Scout room door.

An awfully little fellow
     Just twelve and no more.

His eyes danced as he watched
     My gang at rowdy play.

"I would like to be a Scout," he said,
     "I'm just 12 just yesterday."

In the weeks to come he found his place,
     A trim young Scout he made.

The tests he passed with eagerness,
     A thorough job sure paid.

The oath, the laws, the knots and flag.
     Were taken to his heart.

A better man he was sure to be
     Tho he'd just begun to start

By the candle-lighted darkness
     I watched his round face beam

As the oath and law he pleged to keep--
     Just like a prayer it seemed.

The years to come were happy ones
     As we followed the trail--

That greater man had laid for us
     Far up where eagles sail.

I watched him grow from boy to man
     The days were far too few,

To try to teach the important things
     That Scouting said were true.

I didn't know so long ago
     Our nation he would defend,

I only saw a job to do,
     A helping hand to lend.

Now he's flying higher still
     With silver wings up there.

I pray to God the job I did
     Was better than just fair.

He thanked me once for what I did
     So many years ago.

It was not his thanks that paid me
     Because he did not know

That greater thanks he'd given me
     A thousand times before

By his dancing eyes and smiling face--
     Could one ask for more?

There are other boys a-knocking,
     I must invite them in.

Please, God, give me strength
     To make them better men.