Date: Tue, 8 Nov 1994 09:13:48 -0500
From: knowles@escmail.orl.mmc.com
Message-Id: <9411081413.AA08692@dakota.orl.mmc.com>
To: SCOUTS-L@TCUBVM.BITNET
Subject: It's Only a Pin
Content-Length: 1375
Sender: owner-scouts-l@tcubvm.is.tcu.edu

Bill Hunter (and others),

Here is the poem "It's Only a Pin" requested yesterday.

Henry Knowles



  IT'S ONLY A PIN

  Two fond parents watch their boy where he stands,
  Apart from his comrades tonight,
  And see placed on his camp-battered tunic, a badge...
  An Eagle...  the emblem of right.
  It seems just a few short months have passed
  Since he joined with the youngsters next door...
  How proud they were then of their Tenderfoot pin
  As they told of the message it bore.

  But the years have gone as he struggled along
  To learn what the Scout Law's about;
  He practiced them daily, the Oath and the Law,
  Until now he is an Eagle Scout.

  You may smile in your worldly wisdom at this
  And say, "Why it's only a pin."
  But I'll tell you, no honors he'll gain as a man
  Will mean quite as much to him.

  The red, white and blue of the ribbon you see
  Are the symbols of honor and truth.
  He has learned how to value these fine attributes
  In the glorious days of his youth.

  And the out-flinging wings of the Eagle that rests
  On the breast of this knight of today
  Are the wings which will lift him above petty deeds,
  And guide him along the right way.

  Yes, it's only a pin, just an Eagle Scout badge,
  But the heart beneath it beats true,
  And will throb to the last for the things that are good;
  A lesson for me...  and for you.