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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Child's Day
+
+Author: Woods Hutchinson
+
+Release Date: June 11, 2006 [EBook #18559]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD'S DAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: A GOOD SPORT FOR GIRLS AND BOYS]
+
+
+
+THE WOODS HUTCHINSON HEALTH SERIES
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S DAY
+
+
+BY
+
+
+WOODS HUTCHINSON, A.M., M.D.
+
+
+Sometime Professor of Anatomy, University of Iowa; Professor of
+Comparative Pathology and Methods of Science Teaching, University of
+Buffalo; Lecturer, London Medical Graduates' College and University of
+London; and State Health Officer of Oregon. Author of "Preventable
+Diseases," "Conquest of Consumption," "Instinct and Health," and "A
+Handbook of Health."
+
+
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON   NEW YORK    CHICAGO
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY WOODS HUTCHINSON
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+"If youth only knew, if old age only could!" lamented the philosopher.
+What is the use, say some, of putting ideas about disease into
+children's heads and making them fussy about their health and anxious
+before their time?
+
+Precisely because ideas about disease are far less hurtful than
+disease itself, and because the period for richest returns from
+sensible living is childhood--and the earlier the better.
+
+It is abundantly worth while to teach a child how to protect his
+health and build up his strength; too many of us only begin to take
+thought of our health when it is too late to do us much good. Almost
+everything is possible in childhood. The heaviest life handicaps can
+be fed and played and trained out of existence in a child. Even the
+most rudimentary knowledge, the simplest and crudest of precautions,
+in childhood may make all the difference between misery and happiness,
+success and failure in life.
+
+Our greatest asset for healthful living is that most of the unspoiled
+instincts, the primitive likes and dislikes, of the child point in the
+right direction. There is no need to tell children to eat, to play, to
+sleep, to swim; all that is needed is to point out why they like to do
+these things, where to stop, what risks to avoid. The simplest and
+most natural method of doing this has seemed to be that of a sketch of
+the usual course and activities of a Child's Day, with a running
+commentary of explanation, and such outlines of our bodily structure
+and needs as are required to make clear why such and such a course is
+advisable and such another inadvisable. The greatest problem has been
+how to reach and hold the interest of the child; and the lion's share
+of such success as may have been achieved in this regard is due to the
+co�peration of my sister, Professor Mabel Hutchinson Douglas of
+Whittier College, California.
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  GOOD MORNING
+      I. Waking Up
+     II. A Good Start
+    III. Bathing and Brushing
+
+  BREAKFAST
+
+  GOING TO SCHOOL
+      I. Getting Ready
+     II. An Early Romp
+    III. Fresh Air--Why We Need It
+     IV. Fresh Air--How We Breathe It
+
+  IN SCHOOL
+       I. Bringing the Fresh Air In
+      II. Hearing and Listening
+     III. Seeing and Reading
+      IV. A Drink of Water
+       V. Little Cooks
+      VI. Tasting and Smelling
+     VII. Talking and Reciting
+    VIII. Thinking and Answering
+
+  "ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+      I. Keeping Well
+     II. Some Foes to Fight
+    III. Protecting Our Friends
+
+  WORK AND PLAY
+      I. Growing Strong
+     II. Accidents
+    III. The City Beautiful
+
+  THE EVENING MEAL
+
+  A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+  GOOD NIGHT
+      I. Getting Ready for Bed
+     II. The Land of Nod
+
+  QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S DAY
+
+
+
+
+GOOD MORNING
+
+
+I. WAKING UP
+
+If there is anything that we all enjoy, it is waking up on a bright
+spring morning and seeing the sunlight pouring into the room. You all
+know the poem beginning,--
+
+  "I remember, I remember
+  The house where I was born;
+  The little window where the sun
+  Came peeping in at morn."
+
+You are feeling fresh and rested and happy after your good night's
+sleep and you are eager to be up and out among the birds and the
+flowers.
+
+You are perfectly right in being glad to say "Good morning" to the
+sun, for he is one of the best friends you have. Doesn't he make the
+flowers blossom, and the trees grow? And he makes the apples redden,
+too, and the wheat-ears fill out, and the potatoes grow under the
+ground, and the peas and beans and melons and strawberries and
+raspberries above it. All these things that feed you and keep you
+healthy are grown by the heat of the sun. So if it were not for the
+sunlight we should all starve to death.
+
+While sunlight is pouring down from the sun to the earth, it is
+warming and cleaning the air, burning up any poisonous gases, or
+germs, that may be in it. By heating the air, it starts it to rising.
+If you will watch, you can see the air shimmering and rising from an
+open field on a broiling summer day, or wavering and rushing upward
+from a hot stove or an open register in winter. Hold a little feather
+fluff or blow a puff of flour above a hot stove, and it will go
+sailing up toward the ceiling. As the heated air rises, the cooler air
+around rushes in to fill the place that it has left, and the outdoor
+"drafts" are made that we call _winds_.
+
+These winds keep the air moving about in all directions constantly,
+like water in a boiling pot, and in this way keep it fresh and pure
+and clean. If it were not for this, the air would become foul and damp
+and stagnant, like the water in a ditch or marshy pool. So the Sun
+God, as our ancestors in the Far East used to call him thousands of
+years ago, not only gives us our food to eat, but keeps the air fit
+for us to breathe.
+
+In still another way the sun is one of our best friends; for his rays
+have the wonderful power, not only of causing plants that supply us
+with food--the Green Plants, as we call them--to grow and flourish,
+but at the same time of withering and killing certain plants that do
+us harm. These plants--the Colorless Plants, we may call them--are the
+_molds_, the _fungi_, and the _bacteria_, or _germs_. You know how a
+pair of boots put away in a dark, damp closet, or left down in the
+cellar, will become covered all over with a coating of gray mold. Mold
+grows rapidly in the dark. Just so, these other Colorless Plants,
+which include most of our disease germs, grow and flourish in the
+dark, and are killed by sunlight. That is why no house, or room, is
+fit to live in, into which the sunlight does not pour freely sometime
+during the day. The more sunlight you can bring into your bedrooms and
+your playrooms and your schoolrooms, except during the heat of the day
+in the summer time, the better they will be. The Italians have a very
+shrewd and true old proverb about houses and light: "Where the
+sunlight never comes, the doctor often does."
+
+So you see that Nature is guiding you in the right direction when she
+makes you love and delight in the bright, warm, golden sunlight; for
+it is one of the very best friends that you have--indeed, you couldn't
+possibly live without it.
+
+In one sense, in fact, though this may be a little harder for you to
+understand, you are sunlight yourselves; for the power in your muscles
+and nerves that makes you able to jump and dance and sing and laugh
+and breathe is the sunlight which you have eaten in bread and apples
+and potatoes, and which the plants had drunk in through their leaves
+in the long, sunny days of spring and summer.
+
+So throw up your blinds and open your windows wide to the sunlight
+every morning; and let the sunlight pour in all day long, except only
+while you are reading or studying--when the dazzling light may hurt
+your eyes--and for six or seven of the hottest hours of the day in
+summer time. Perhaps your mothers will object that the sunlight will
+fade the carpets, or spoil the furniture; but it will put far more
+color into your faces than it will take out of the carpets. If you are
+given the choice of a bedroom, choose a room that faces south or
+southeast or southwest, never toward the north.
+
+
+II. A GOOD START
+
+When you are really awake and have had a good look to see what kind of
+morning it is, you will feel like yawning and stretching, and rubbing
+your eyes four or five times, before you jump out of bed; and it is a
+good plan to take plenty of time to do this, unless you are already
+late for breakfast or school. It starts your heart to beating and your
+lungs to breathing faster; and it limbers your muscles, so that you
+are ready for the harder work they must do as soon as you jump out of
+bed and begin to walk about and bathe and dress and run and play.
+
+When you jump out of bed, throw back the covers and turn them over the
+foot of the bed, so that the air and the sunlight can get at every
+part of them and make them clean and fresh and sweet to cover you at
+night again. Though you may not know it, all night long, while you
+have been asleep, your skin has been at work cleaning and purifying
+your blood, pouring out gases and a watery vapor that we call
+_perspiration_, or _sweat_; and these impurities have been caught by
+the sheets and blankets. So after a bed has been slept in for four or
+five nights, if it has not been thrown well open in the morning, it
+begins to have a stuffy, foul, sourish smell. You can see from this
+why it is a bad thing to sleep with your head under the bedclothes, as
+people sometimes do, or even to pull the blankets up over your head,
+because you are frightened at something or are afraid that your ears
+will get cold. Your breath has poisonous gases in it, as well as your
+perspiration; and the two together make the air under the bedclothes
+very bad.
+
+Now you are ready to wash and dress. But before you do this, it is a
+good thing to take off your nightdress, or turn it down to your waist
+and tie it there with the sleeves, and go through some good swinging
+and "windmill" movements with your arms and shoulders and back.
+
+(1) Swing your arms round and round like the sails of a windmill;
+first both together, then one in one direction, and the other in the
+other.
+
+(2) Hold your arms straight out in front of you, and swing them
+backward until the backs of your hands strike behind your back.
+
+(3) Hold your arms straight out on each side, clench your fists, and
+then smartly bend your elbows so that you almost strike yourself on
+both shoulders, and repeat quickly twenty or thirty times.
+
+(4) Swing your arms, out full length, across your chest five or ten
+times.
+
+(5) Swing forward and down with your arms stretched out, until the
+tips of your fingers touch the floor.
+
+(6) Set your feet a little apart, swing forward and downward again,
+until your hands swing back between your ankles.
+
+    [Illustration: STARTING THE DAY]
+
+When you come back from these down-swings, bend just as far back as
+you can without losing your balance, so that you put all the muscles
+along the front of your body on the stretch; and then swing down again
+between your ankles. This will help to tone up all your muscles, and
+limber all your joints, and set your blood to circulating well, and
+give you a good start for the day.
+
+
+III. BATHING AND BRUSHING
+
+Now you are ready to wash and dress. You can easily take off the gown,
+or garments, that you have worn during the night; but there is one
+coat that you cannot take off--one that is more important and useful
+and beautiful than all the rest of your clothes put together, no
+matter of how fine material they may be made, or what they have cost.
+
+Do you remember the old Bible story about Joseph and his "coat of many
+colors"? Perhaps you've wished you had one just as nice. Now, the fact
+is, your coat is more beautiful even than Joseph's; and, as for its
+uses, it is the most wonderful coat ever made!
+
+This coat of yours changes its color from time to time; sometimes it
+is pink, sometimes red, sometimes a soft milky white, and sometimes a
+dull dark blue, or purple. I wonder if you guess what it is. Sometimes
+it is dry and sometimes wet, sometimes it is hot and sometimes cold,
+sometimes rough and sometimes smoother than the softest silk--just run
+your hand gently over your cheek!
+
+Now you have guessed my riddle. This "wonderful coat" is your skin,
+which covers you from top to toe. It fits more closely than any glove,
+and yet is so easy and comfortable that it never rubs or binds or
+hurts you in any way.
+
+    [Illustration: THE SKIN-STRAINER
+
+    The little pores open in furrows of the skin. This drawing is
+    many hundred times as large as the piece of skin itself.]
+
+Will the wonderful coat wash? Yes, indeed, and look all the prettier.
+In fact, to keep it white and clear you must bathe often, not only
+your hands and face, but your whole body. Your skin is a strainer, you
+know. It is a "way out" for some of the gases and waste water from the
+blood. What will happen, then, if you don't wash your skin? The little
+holes, or _pores_, that the sweat comes through may become clogged.
+The strainer won't let the poison out, and so it will stay inside your
+body. Then, too, if you do not wash the skin, the little scales that
+are peeling off the outside coat will not be cleared away. You have
+noticed them, haven't you, sometime when you were pulling off black
+stockings? You found little white pieces, almost as fine as powder,
+clinging to the inside of the stockings. These little scales are
+always rubbing off from your skin.
+
+So every morning it is good to splash the cool water all over
+yourself, if you can, as the birds do in the puddles. You don't need a
+bathtub for this, though of course it is much pleasanter and more
+convenient if you have one. Pour the water into a basin and splash it
+with your hands all over your face, neck, chest, and arms. Then rub
+your skin well with a rough towel. Next, place the basin on the floor;
+put your feet into it and dash the water as quickly as you can over
+your legs. Then take another good rub. But you must not do this unless
+you keep warm while you are doing it, and your skin must be pink when
+you have finished. If you are chilly after rubbing, you should use
+tepid, even very hot, water for your morning bath. In summer you can
+bathe all over easily; but in winter, unless your room is warm, it is
+enough to splash the upper half of your body. Once or twice a week you
+should take a good hot bath with soap and then sponge down in cool
+water. See how the birds enjoy their bath; and you will, too, if you
+once get into the habit of bathing regularly.
+
+Now let us take a good look at this coat and see if we can find out
+what it is like.
+
+The other day I saw some boys playing basketball. They wore short
+sleeves and short trousers. Four were Indians, and five were white
+boys, and one was a negro. The skin of the white boys seemed to shine,
+it looked so white; and the negro's shone in its blackness; but the
+Indian's looked a dull rich dusky brown.
+
+Yes, you say, they belong to different races.
+
+But what causes the difference in their color?
+
+Little specks of coloring matter, or _pigment_, which lie in the outer
+layer of the skin. Even white skins contain a little pigment, they are
+not a pure white. A Chinaman's skin has a little more of this pigment,
+so that it looks yellow; an Indian's has still more; and a negro's has
+most of all, making him black.
+
+Sunlight can increase the amount of pigment in the skin. The people
+who live in the torrid zone have much darker skins than those who live
+where the days are short and cold. You have noticed, yourself, that
+when you expose the skin of your face or arms to the hot sun, you
+become freckled, or tanned. This tanning, or browning, of the outer
+layer of the skin protects the more delicate coats of skin below from
+being scorched or injured by the strong light.
+
+When you are playing and running with your schoolmates, you see that
+their faces grow very red, and even their hands. Why is this? Because
+the heart has been pumping hard and has sent the red blood out toward
+the skin. The red color shines through the outer part of the skin. The
+pigment in the Indian's skin, or the negro's, prevents the red blood
+underneath from shining through, as it does through yours.
+
+    [Illustration: THE PARTS OF THE SKIN
+
+    The pore P on the surface of the skin is the end of a tube
+    through which sweat flows out. At O are the oil sacs that feed
+    the hair H. At B are the little blood vessels that make the skin
+    look pink.]
+
+The skin, you see, is made up of different layers. When you burn
+yourself, you can see a layer of skin stand out like a blister. It is
+white; but if the blister is broken, underneath you see the coat that
+is full of tiny blood vessels, so tiny and so close together that this
+whole coat looks red. The skin, like every other part of the body, is
+made up of tiny animal cells. In the outer coat they become quite flat
+like little scales and then wear off; and their places are taken by
+the newer cells that are growing from beneath. The skin grows from
+beneath, and bit by bit it sheds its old outer coat. This is how it
+keeps itself nice and new on the outside and "grows away" the marks of
+cuts and burns.
+
+Now hold up your hand and look across it toward the light. What do you
+see? It looks fuzzy, doesn't it? Ever and ever so many tiny little
+hairs are on it. The other day a little boy asked me what made his
+skin look so rough? I looked, and saw that all the little hairs were
+standing on end, so that his skin looked like "goose-flesh." It was
+because he was cold. The muscles at the roots of the hairs had
+shortened, so that they pulled the hairs straight up and made the skin
+look rough.
+
+What part of the body has a great deal of hair on it? The head, of
+course. Isn't it strange that you have such long hair on the top of
+your head and none at all on the soles of your feet or the palms of
+your hands? The hair on your head protects you from cold and rain and
+the hot sun; but hair on your palms, would only be in the way.
+
+Now look at the ends of your fingers. There the skin has grown so hard
+that it forms _nails_. If you look at your toes, you will see that the
+same thing has happened there. These nails are little pink shells to
+protect the ends of your fingers and toes. You see what a wonderful
+coat it is that you are wearing.
+
+Does the skin coat keep you warm? Yes, and not only that, but it keeps
+you cool, too. You have often seen little drops of water on your skin,
+when you were very hot. This sweat, or perspiration, as we call it,
+cools the body by making the skin moist. You know how cold it makes
+you to be wrapped in a wet sheet. Well, the skin cools you in just the
+same way, when it becomes wet with sweat. The sweat comes from the
+blood under the skin; so that, as we saw before, by letting this
+moisture pass through, the skin acts as a sieve to let out the waste
+from the blood.
+
+Then, too, the skin covers and protects all the other parts. It is
+thin where it needs to be thin, so as not to interfere with quick
+movements, as on the eyelids and the lips; and thick where it needs to
+be thick, to stand wear and tear, as on the soles of the feet and the
+palms of the hands. I remember once taking a sliver of shingle out of
+the back of a little boy who had been sliding down a roof. I had to
+sharpen my knife and press and push and at last get a pair of scissors
+to cut out the sliver. It was just like cutting tough leather. But
+even if we do sometimes get cuts and burns and bruises, yet our skin
+coat protects us far more than we really think. It keeps out all sorts
+of poisons and the germs of blood-poisoning and such diseases. These
+enemies can attack us only through a scratch or cut in the skin, for
+that is the only way they can get into the blood. The skin is better
+than any manufactured coat, too, because, if it is torn or scratched,
+it can mend itself.
+
+    [Illustration: READING BY TOUCH INSTEAD OF SIGHT
+
+    These boys are blind; their books are printed with raised
+    letters, which they read by feeling of them.]
+
+Does your skin ever talk to you? No, of course not; yet it tells you
+ever so many things. Shut your eyes and pick up a pencil. As you touch
+it, your skin tells you that it is round and smooth, and pointed at
+one end. You can feel the soft rubber on the other end, too. Is it
+wet? No. Is it hot? Of course not. Now place a book in the palm of
+your hand. Is it flat or round, light or heavy, rough or smooth? All
+these things your skin tells you through little nerve tips, which are
+scattered thickly all over it. Still another thing the skin does; if
+you touch anything sharp or hot, it says at once that it hurts. If
+your clothes are tight or uncomfortable, the skin soon lets you know.
+You see it is always on the lookout, always ready to tell you about
+the things around you and to warn you against the things that might
+hurt you. The fifth of your "Five Senses," the sense of _touch_, is in
+your skin.
+
+There are some parts of your skin-coat that should have special care.
+
+I hardly need tell you about washing your face carefully around your
+nose and in front of your ears. Sometimes I have seen a "high-water
+mark" right down the middle of the cheek or just under the jaws or
+chin.
+
+Of course your mother has told you about washing your hands! You see,
+our hands touch so many dirty things, and handle so many things that
+other people's hands have touched, that we ought always to wash them
+before a meal for fear some of the dirt or germs on them may get into
+our mouths and cause disease.
+
+And we really need to clean our nails as often as we wash our hands,
+for that little black rim under the nail is very dangerous. Dust and
+disease germs and dirt of all kinds find it a good place in which to
+hide. Trim your nails with a file, not a knife; and clean them with a
+dull cleaner, for a sharp-pointed one will scrape the nail and roughen
+it, or push the nail away from the skin of the finger underneath.
+
+    [Illustration: USEFUL TOOLS]
+
+Trim and clean the edges of your nails carefully and thoroughly, but
+don't fuss much with the roots of them. That little fold of skin there
+may strike you as untidy, but it covers the soft growing part of the
+nail; and if you push it back with a nail-cleaner, it may cause the
+nail to crack and roughen or become inflamed and start a "hang nail"
+or "run around." If you push it back at all, do so only with the ball
+of your thumb or finger.
+
+The edges of the nails should be trimmed in a curve to match the curve
+of the end of the finger. Of course you know that you should never
+bite your nails, not only because it is a bad habit and will bring a
+good deal of dirt into your mouth, but because you may bite, or tear
+down into, the tender growing part of the nail, sometimes called the
+_quick_; and then this part may become inflamed, and you will have a
+troublesome sore on the end of your finger.
+
+    [Illustration: DO YOUR NAILS LOOK LIKE THESE?]
+
+Just as your nails are a part of your skin,--hardened from it and
+rooted in it,--so, too, are your teeth; and, like the rest of the
+skin, they should be kept thoroughly clean. Every morning and evening
+at least they should be carefully brushed. If you take good care of
+your first teeth and have them filled when they need it, you will
+probably have good permanent teeth, and you won't have to suffer with
+toothache.
+
+The skin of your head, which grows such beautiful hair, and the hair
+itself, should be kept clean. There are two things needed for this.
+
+First, the hair should be brushed and combed night and morning. The
+skin of your scalp is shedding tiny thin scales all day and all night,
+just as the rest of your skin is doing. Fortunately, your hair is
+growing from roots under the skin much in the same way as blades of
+grass grow from their roots; and, as it grows, it pushes up these
+scales from the surface of the scalp to where you can readily reach
+them with a good bristle brush. If they are not well brushed out, the
+dust and smoke from the air will mix with them, and the germs in the
+dust and smoke will breed in the mixture, and you will soon have
+"scurf" or _dandruff_ on your head. So give at least fifteen or twenty
+strokes with the brush before you use the comb. It isn't necessary to
+brush or scrape the scalp, and a comb should be used only to part the
+hair or take out the tangles.
+
+The second thing is to wash the hair and the scalp. Boys ought to wash
+their hair every week; and girls, every two weeks; and girls,
+especially, should be careful to dry their hair very thoroughly
+afterwards. You will notice after washing your hair that it feels dry
+and fluffy, and sometimes rather harsh. This is because the soap and
+hot water together have washed out of the hair its natural oil, or
+grease, which kept it bright and soft; and this is why it is better
+not to wash the hair with soap and hot water oftener than once a week
+or so. But it shouldn't be shirked when the time does come. Watch how
+hard your kitten works to keep her fur coat glossy, though it must be
+tiresome enough to lick, lick, lick.
+
+Sometimes in cold weather your lips and knuckles crack and bleed. That
+is because the skin on those parts is so thin and so often stretched
+and bruised. If you will take a little pure olive oil or cold cream
+and rub it on your lips and hands, it will make the skin softer and
+not so likely to break.
+
+    [Illustration: SHOES THAT SHOW SENSE
+
+    Low heels and plenty of room for the toes.]
+
+Sometimes your feet tell you that they need better care. Perhaps your
+shoes are too tight, or too loose and rub your toes. Soon the skin
+becomes very hard in one spot, and you have a "corn" on your toe. You
+must be very, very careful how your shoes and stockings fit. If you
+should find a corn, or the beginning of one, you had better tell your
+mother about it, and let her see that your stockings are not too big,
+so that they wrinkle into folds and chafe, or that your shoes are
+mended, or that you have a larger pair. And then, if you wash your
+feet in cold water every day, and put some vaseline or sweet oil on
+the hard spot night or morning, the corn will probably go away.
+
+Not only your shoes, but all of your clothing must be comfortable if
+your skin and the parts under it are to do their work well. Your
+clothes as well as your skin must be washed often, because the sweat,
+which is oily and greasy as well as watery, soaks into them, and the
+little white scales cling to them, and often dust and disease germs,
+too.
+
+One winter a little boy came to my school. The other children told me
+they did not like to sit by him, his clothes had such an unpleasant
+smell. I talked to him about it, and what do you suppose he said!
+"Why, I can't bathe; the creek's too cold in winter." He was waiting
+till summer time to take a bath! No wonder the other children did not
+like to sit near him.
+
+Yet, with all the bathing and rubbing and brushing, your skin won't be
+clean and beautiful and able to do all that it has to do, unless your
+stomach and heart and lungs are in good working order. So you must eat
+good food, sleep ten or twelve hours a day, and play out of doors a
+great deal, if you expect your skin to be healthy.
+
+
+
+
+BREAKFAST
+
+
+When you are washed, it doesn't take you long to dress; and before you
+have finished brushing your hair, you begin to feel as if you were
+ready for breakfast. You know just where the feeling is--an empty
+sensation near the pit of your stomach, and you don't have to look at
+the clock to know that it is breakfast time.
+
+About this time something begins to smell very good downstairs; and
+down you go, two steps at a time, and out into the dining-room, or
+kitchen. You could do it with your eyes shut, just following your
+nose; and it is a pretty good guide to follow, too. If you will just
+go toward the things that smell good, and keep away from, or refuse to
+eat, those that smell bad, you will avoid a great many dangers, not
+only to your stomach, but to your general health; for a bad smell is
+one of Nature's "black marks," and you know what they are.
+
+How nice and fresh and appetizing everything looks--the white cloth,
+the clean cups and saucers, and the shining spoons and forks. You are
+sure that a good breakfast is one of the best things in the world. You
+sit down and begin to eat, and everything tastes as good as it looks.
+
+    [Illustration: MILK AND SUNLIGHT DON'T AGREE
+
+    The early riser can help a great deal by taking the milk bottles
+    in out of the sun. Milk spoils quickly if it is not kept cool.]
+
+A good breakfast would be an egg, or a slice of bacon or ham, with a
+glass of milk,--or two, if you can drink another,--and two or three
+slices of bread, or toast, with plenty of butter; and then some cereal
+with plenty of cream and sugar, or some fruit, to finish with. A
+breakfast like this will give you just about the right amount of
+strength for the morning's work. Don't begin with a cereal or
+breakfast food; for this will spoil your appetite for your real
+breakfast. Cereal has very little nourishment in proportion to its
+bulk and the way it "fills you up." Bread or mush or potato alone is
+not enough. Any one of these gives you fuel, to be sure; but it gives
+you very little with which to build up your body. For that you must
+have milk or meat or eggs or fish.
+
+It is most important that children should eat a good big breakfast.
+All the hundred-and-one things that you are going to do during the
+day--racing, jumping, shouting, studying--require strength to do; and
+that strength can be got only out of the power in your food, which is
+really, you remember, the sunlight stored up in it.
+
+Sometimes, when you come down in the morning, especially if you
+haven't had the windows of your bedroom well open so as to get plenty
+of air during the night, you may feel that you are not very hungry for
+breakfast. Or perhaps, if you have risen late, or are in a great hurry
+to get to school in time, you just swallow a cup of coffee or tea, and
+a cracker or a little piece of bread, or a small saucer of cereal.
+This is a very bad thing to do, because coffee and tea, while they
+make you feel warm and comfortable inside, have very little
+"strength," or food value, in them, and simply warm you up and stir up
+your nerves without doing you any real good at all. A cracker or a
+single piece of bread or one large saucer of cereal has only about one
+fourth of the strength in it that you will need for playing or
+studying until noontime. So after you have started to school with a
+breakfast like this, about the middle of the morning you begin to feel
+tired and empty and cross, and wonder what is the matter with
+yourself.
+
+Children of your age are growing so fast that they need plenty of
+good, wholesome food. They get so hungry that they want to be eating
+all the time. For "grown-ups" three times a day is enough; but for you
+children, whose bodies use up the food so fast, it is well to take
+also a piece of bread and butter, or two or three cookies, or a glass
+of milk with some crackers, in the middle of the morning and again
+about the middle of the afternoon. It will not hurt your appetite for
+dinner or supper, and you won't be wanting to "pick" at cake and candy
+and pickles all day long.
+
+How does eating keep you alive and make you grow? Eating is somewhat
+like mending a fire. You put wood or coal on the fire, and it keeps
+burning and giving out heat; but if you do not put fresh fuel on, the
+fire soon goes out. Just so, putting food into your body feeds the
+"body fires" and keeps you warm, and at the same time makes you grow.
+Of course the "body fires" are not just like those you see burning in
+the stove: there are no flames. But there is burning going on, just
+the same.
+
+The food you put into your body must be made soft and pulpy before it
+can burn in your muscles. Now you can guess what your teeth are for.
+They chop, crush, and grind the food; and the tongue rolls it over and
+over and mixes it with the moisture in your mouth, until it is almost
+like very thick soup. Then you make a little motion with your tongue
+and throat, and down it goes.
+
+    [Illustration: THE FOOD TUBE
+
+    Note the arrows. This is the trip made by every mouthful of
+    food.]
+
+Where does it go? It is passed down a tube that we call the _food
+tube_. While I tell you about it, you can look at the picture and then
+try to draw it yourself.
+
+The food goes quickly down the first part of the tube until it comes
+to a part much larger than the rest, which we call the _stomach_. Here
+it is churned about for a long time, and the meat you have eaten is
+melted, or dissolved. Then the food goes on into the next part of the
+tube, which has become narrow again. This lower part, which is about
+twenty-five feet long, is coiled up just below the waist, between the
+large bones that you can feel on each side of your body. These coils
+of the food tube, we call the _bowels_.
+
+Winding all around the stomach and bowels are tiny branching pipes
+full of blood. They look somewhat like the creepers on ivy, or the
+tendrils on grapevines. These suck out the melted food from the
+bowels. They take what the body can use, and carry it away in the
+blood to all parts of the body. This is the fuel that keeps the "body
+fires" going. The tougher parts of the food, which the body cannot
+use, are carried down to the lower end of the bowels and pushed out by
+strong muscles.
+
+This waste should be passed out from the body once every day and at
+the same time each day. In the morning after breakfast is perhaps the
+best time. If you do not get rid of it every day, it makes poisons,
+which go into your blood and soon make you very sick indeed. You must
+keep clean inside as well as outside.
+
+
+
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+
+I. GETTING READY
+
+As soon as you have finished breakfast, and brushed your teeth and
+gone to the toilet, you are ready to run out of doors to play, if you
+have plenty of time, or, if not, to start for school.
+
+Doesn't it seem a nuisance, in winter time, to have to put on a coat
+and overshoes and a cap or a hood, and sometimes leggings and mittens,
+too? But your mothers know what is best for you; and when you are
+young and growing fast, you have so much more surface in proportion to
+your weight than when you are grown up, that you lose heat from the
+blood in your skin very fast; and unless you are warmly dressed, you
+become chilled.
+
+When you are chilled, you are using up, in merely trying to keep
+yourself warm, some of the energy that ought to be used for growing
+and for working. It has been found out by careful tests that children
+who are not warmly dressed, and particularly whose arms and legs are
+not warmly covered, do not grow so fast as they ought to, and more
+easily catch colds and other infections. So take time to put on your
+cap and your coat, if the weather is cold; and, if it is snowy, to
+button on leggings over your stockings; and then you can play as hard
+as you like, and run through the snow, and keep warm and rosy and
+comfortable.
+
+Wool is one of the best stuffs for coats and dresses and stockings and
+gloves and caps, not only because it is warm, but also because it is
+lighter in weight than anything else you could wear that would be
+equally warm, and because it is _porous_; that is, it will let the air
+pass through it, and the perspiration from the body escape through it.
+
+Don't wear any clothes so tight that you cannot run and jump and play
+and fling your arms and legs about freely, or so fine and stylish that
+you are afraid of getting them soiled by romping and tumbling.
+
+It is best to wear fairly heavy, comfortable shoes with good thick
+soles; then you will not have to wear rubbers, except when it is
+actually pouring rain, or when there is melting snow or slush upon the
+ground. Felt, or buckskin, or heavy cloth makes very good "uppers" for
+children's shoes; but only leather makes good soles.
+
+It is best not to wear rubbers too much, because the same
+waterproofness, which keeps the rain and the snow out, keeps the
+perspiration of your feet in, and is likely to make them damp. When
+they are damp, they are as easily chilled as if they had been wet
+through with rain or puddle water. Always take off your rubbers in the
+house or in school, because they are holding in not only the water of
+perspiration, but the poisons as well; and these will poison your
+entire blood, so that you soon have a headache and feel generally
+uncomfortable.
+
+
+II. AN EARLY ROMP
+
+The minute you are outside the door, the fresh morning air strikes
+your face, and you draw four or five big breaths, as if you would like
+to fill yourself as full as you could hold. If you have had a good
+night's sleep and a good breakfast, the very feel of the outdoor air
+will make you want to run and jump and shout and throw your arms
+about. This warms you up finely and gives you a good color; but if you
+keep it up long, you will notice that two things are happening: one,
+that you are breathing faster than you were before; the other, that
+your heart is beating harder and faster, so that you can almost feel
+it throbbing without putting your hand on your chest.
+
+If you run too hard, or too far, you begin to be out of breath, and
+your heart thumps so hard that it almost hurts. What is your heart
+doing? It is pumping; it is trying to pump the blood fast out to your
+muscles to give them the strength to run with.
+
+    [Illustration: AN EARLY RUN IS A GOOD PREPARATION FOR THE DAY'S
+    WORK]
+
+Of course you have seen a pump? Perhaps some of you have to pump water
+every day at home. You take the handle in your hands, lift it up, then
+press it down, and out pours the water through the spout; and, as you
+keep pumping, the water spurts out every time you press the handle
+down. It is hard work, and your arms are soon tired; but, as you
+cannot drink the water while it is down in the well, you must pump to
+bring it up where you can reach it.
+
+    [Illustration: THE HEART-PUMP
+
+    The big tubes are the arteries and veins.]
+
+Just so the heart pumps to keep the blood flowing round and round,
+through the muscles and all over the body. If you put your finger on
+your wrist, or on the side of your neck, you can feel a little throb,
+or _pulse_, for every spurt from your heart-pump; and that means for
+every heart-beat.
+
+This heart-pump is made of muscle, and is about the size of your
+clenched fist. And just as you can squeeze water from a sponge or out
+of a bulb-syringe, by opening and shutting your hand around it, so the
+big heart muscle squeezes the blood out of the heart. It squeezes it
+out from one side of the heart; and then, when it lets go, the blood
+comes rushing in from the other side to fill the heart again. So the
+heart goes on squeezing out and sucking in the blood, all day and all
+night as long as we live.
+
+When the blood comes to the muscles, it is a beautiful bright red; but
+after the muscles have taken what they want of it for food to burn,
+and warm you up, the "ashes" and the "smoke" go back into the blood
+and dirty its color from red to purple. Then the blood is carried to
+the lungs, where the fresh air you breathe in blows away the "smoke"
+and makes the blood red again.
+
+The blood is pumped all over the body through tubes or pipes, called
+_blood vessels_. Those that carry the red blood out from the heart, we
+call _arteries_. They are deep down under the skin, and we cannot see
+them. The pipes that carry the purple blood from the muscles and other
+parts back to the heart again, we call _veins_; and some of these are
+so close to the surface that we can easily see them through the skin.
+Let your hand hang down a minute or two, then you can see the veins on
+the inside of your wrist, or on the back of your hand, if it is not
+too fat.
+
+    [Illustration: IT IS GOOD TO PLAY OUT OF DOORS TILL THE BELL
+    RINGS--EVEN IN WINTER]
+
+The muscles, the brain, the skin, and other parts of the body get
+liquid food from the blood by "sucking" it through the walls of the
+smallest of the blood vessels, for these walls are very thin. In the
+same way, when waste passes from the muscles or the skin into the
+blood, it, too, soaks through the thin walls of the tiniest blood
+tubes, called _capillaries_.
+
+Your heart beats or throbs about seventy-five times in a minute when
+you are well. Look at the second hand of a watch, while you count the
+beats in your wrist or in your neck.
+
+Does your heart ever become tired? Not while you keep well, unless you
+over-drive it by running or wrestling too hard. It can rest between
+the beats. But the heart muscle, like any other muscle, must have
+plenty of good red blood to feed on. You put food into the blood by
+eating good breakfasts and dinners. The more you run and jump and
+play, the more work the heart has to do and the stronger it grows; and
+a good morning romp before school will send the blood flowing so
+merrily round from top to toe that you will feel fresher and brighter
+all the day.
+
+
+III. FRESH AIR--WHY WE NEED IT
+
+The heart is not the only thing that goes faster and harder when you
+run about in the morning and play hard. You are breathing faster and
+deeper as well, as if there were something in the air outside that you
+needed in your body as much as food.
+
+But, of course, you know that air is not good to eat. It has no
+strength in it, as food has; it isn't even a liquid like milk or
+coffee or tea. It is so thin and light that we call it a _gas_.
+Indeed, I suppose it is pretty hard for you to believe that air is a
+real thing at all. But all outdoors is full of the gas called air, and
+everything that seems to be empty, like a room or an empty box, is
+full of it.
+
+You cannot even smell it, as you can that other gas which comes
+through pipes into our houses and burns at the gas jets; nor can you
+see it like the gas that comes out of a boiling kettle or from the
+whistle of a locomotive, and which we call _steam_. This is simply
+because air is so pure that it has no smell, and is so perfectly clear
+that we can see right through it. Almost the only way that we can
+recognize it is by feeling it when it is moving. But it is a very real
+thing for all that; and, like sunshine and food, is one of the most
+important things in the world for us.
+
+What is it that air does in the body? We must need it very much, for
+we die quickly when we cannot get it: it takes us only about three
+minutes to suffocate, or choke to death, if we can't get it.
+
+You remember that the blood is pumped out from the heart, all through
+the body. Everywhere it goes,--to the feet and the hands and the
+head,--it is carrying two things: food that it has sucked up from the
+food tube, and hundreds and hundreds of tiny red sponges called red
+_corpuscles_. These little sponges are full of air which they sucked up
+as the blood passed through the lungs. When we stop breathing,--that
+is, taking in air,--the little red sponges of course can't get any air
+to carry to the different parts of the body.
+
+The body is made up of millions of tiny, tiny animals, called
+_cells_,--so tiny that they can be seen only under a microscope. Each
+of these cells must have food and air, just like any other animal.
+They eat the food the blood brings to them, and they take the air from
+the red corpuscles in the blood. With the air as a "draft," they burn
+up the waste scraps, as we burn scraps from the kitchen, in the back
+of the stove.
+
+Suppose you light a candle and place it under a glass jar and watch
+what will happen. The flame will become weaker and weaker, and at last
+it will quite go out. You might think at first that the wind blew it
+out; but how could the wind get through or under the jar? No, the
+glass keeps all the outside air away from the flame; and that is just
+the reason why it does go out. Unless it has fresh air, it cannot
+burn. There is something--a gas--in the air that makes the flame burn,
+and when it has used up all this gas inside the glass, and can't get
+any more, it stops burning.
+
+Now you will want to know what this gas in the air is. When we write
+about it, we use its nickname, the large capital letter _O_; but its
+whole name is _Oxygen_.
+
+Just as the candle flame must have oxygen to keep it burning, so our
+cells must have oxygen to burn their impurities, or waste; and if they
+don't get the oxygen, and can't burn their impurities, they are
+poisoned by them and "go out," or die.
+
+You can see the flame when the candle is burning, but you can't see
+the fires that burn in our bodies; there are no real flames at all. I
+know it is hard for you to believe that there can be any burning when
+our bodies are so wet and damp. But if you can't see it, you can
+easily feel it. Blow on your hand. How warm your breath is! Touch your
+hand to your cheek. It is quite warm, too. If you run or play hard,
+you sometimes become so hot that you want to take off your coat. That
+is because your fires are burning faster. The muscles are using more
+food and making more scraps to be burned. You breathe faster and
+faster till at last you are "out of breath" and feel as if you would
+smother or choke. The blood has hard work to bring oxygen enough to
+keep the fires going.
+
+After the cells have burned the food scraps, they turn the "ashes" and
+"smoke" back into the blood-stream that is always flowing past them.
+If the cells did not do this, they would soon smother to death, just
+as you could not possibly live in a house without chimneys to carry
+off the smoke. And, of course, the blood wants to get rid of this
+waste just as quickly as possible.
+
+Part of the waste in the body is liquid, like water, and can flow away
+through the blood pipes without needing to be burned. Some of this
+watery waste comes out through the skin and stands in beads or drops
+upon it. That is the part we call perspiration, or sweat. The rest of
+it goes in the blood to another strainer called the _kidneys_, passes
+through this as _urine_, and is carried away from the body as the
+waste water from the bathtub and the sink is carried away from a
+house.
+
+For the "smoke" Mother Nature has still another beautiful plan. She
+sends the blood-stream flowing through the _lungs_, where it can send
+off its "smoke" and then get fresh air to carry to the cells in the
+muscles. When you breathe out, you are sending out the "smoke"; and
+when you breathe in, you are taking in fresh air.
+
+Our body "smoke" is not brown or blue, like the smoke from a fire; it
+is a clear, odorless gas, called _carbon dioxid_. This is the same gas
+that makes the choke-damp of coal mines, which suffocates the miners
+if the mine is not well ventilated; and the same gas that sometimes
+gathers at the bottom of a well, making it dangerous for anyone to go
+down into the well to clean it. And this gas is poisonous in our
+bodies just as it is in the mine or the well.
+
+You see, then, how important it is that we should live much of our
+lives in the clear pure air out of doors, and should bring the fresh
+air into our houses and schools and shops. "Fill up" with it all you
+can on your way to school, for the best of air indoors is never half
+so good as the free-blowing breezes outside.
+
+
+IV. FRESH AIR--HOW WE BREATHE IT
+
+When you are running and breathing hard, and even when you are sitting
+still and breathing quietly, air is going into your lungs and then
+coming out, going in and coming out, many times every minute. How does
+the air get in and out of the lungs? It will not run in of itself; for
+it is light and floats about, you know. Here, again, Mother Nature has
+planned it all out. She has made us an air bellows, or air pump, to
+suck it into the lungs. First we'll see what shape this pump is, and
+then how it works.
+
+    [Illustration: THE CHEST THAT HOLDS THE LUNGS
+
+    Back of the lungs is the heart; its position is shown by the
+    broken line. The black line across the chest shows how high the
+    diaphragm rises when we breathe out quietly.]
+
+Stiff rings of bone called _ribs_ run round your body, just like the
+hoops in an old hoop skirt, or like the metal rings round a barrel.
+Here is a picture of the bones of the chest. Perhaps your teacher can
+show you the skeleton of some animal. You will notice how the rings,
+or ribs, slant and are joined by hinges behind to the backbone and in
+front to the breastbone. It looks somewhat like a cage, doesn't it?
+Put your hands on the sides of your chest and you can feel your own
+ribs. Do they slant upward or downward?
+
+This chest-cage is our breathing-machine. Before I tell you how it
+pumps, I want you to get a pair of bellows and see how they work. When
+you lift up the handle of the bellows, you make the bag of the bellows
+larger so that it sucks in air; and when you press the handle down
+again, the air puffs out through the nozzle.
+
+Our air machine, though it is somewhat different from the bellows in
+shape, works in exactly the same way. You remember that you found that
+the ribs slant down and can be moved on hinges. Suppose, now, you
+place your hands against your ribs and feel the ribs lift as you draw
+in a long breath. The air will be sucked into your nose just as it was
+into the bellows when you raised the handle. By lifting your ribs, you
+have made the chest-cage larger; and the air has rushed into your
+nose, down your windpipe, and filled your lungs. If you breathe very
+deeply, you will find that your stomach, too, swells out. This shows
+that the muscular bottom of the cage, called the _diaphragm_, has been
+pulled down, making the cage larger still.
+
+In this chest-cage are millions of tiny air bags that make up the
+lungs; and every time you take a breath, the air bags are puffed out
+with the fresh air that comes rushing in. By the time you let your
+ribs sink again, the air has given its oxygen to the blood, and the
+blood has poured its carbon-dioxid smoke into the air bags for you to
+breathe out. Nature, with the same bellows, pumps in the oxygen and
+pumps out the "smoke."
+
+Now, we breathe into our lung-bellows whatever air happens to be
+around us. So we should take care that the air around us is fresh air.
+
+Unless the air were kept in motion by the heat of the sun, causing
+breezes and winds, it would become stale and wouldn't do at all for
+our lung-bellows to use. The air we breathe must be kept moving and
+fresh if it is to make us feel bright and strong and happy. Mother
+Nature has given us miles upon miles and oceans upon oceans of this
+clear, fresh air to breathe--"all outdoors," in fact, as far as we can
+see around us and for miles above our heads. She sends the winds to
+move the air about and blow away the dust and dirt; and the sunshine,
+you remember, not only to warm the air and keep it moving, but to burn
+right through it and kill the poisons. But this brings us to something
+else.
+
+You have learned that the air we breathe out would soon smother us,
+just as smoke would; and now we will see why. If you blow against the
+window pane on a cold day, the glass is no longer clear; and when you
+look at it closely, you see that it is covered with tiny drops of
+water. This is part of the breath you have just blown out. If the room
+is cold enough, you can see your breath in the air; that is, the steam
+in your breath becomes cold and appears as tiny water-drops. You have
+seen how in the same way, the steam, an inch or so from the spout of
+the teakettle, cools, making little water-drops that float in the air
+like clouds. Part of the breath, then, is water; but most of it is a
+gas, and you can't see it at all as it floats away into the air about
+you.
+
+If your teacher has a glass of limewater, and will let you breathe
+into it through a tube, you will see that your breath soon makes the
+water look milky. This shows that the gas in your breath is not like
+the air about you; because air was all over the top of the limewater,
+yet did not change it at all. The milky look is caused by carbon
+dioxid, one of the poisons in your breath.
+
+When some people come close to you, you want to turn away your head,
+because you do not like the smell of their breath. Even when one is
+quite well, the breath has a queer "mousey" odor, so that we never
+like to breathe the breath of another person. This disagreeable odor
+comes not only from the lungs but from the teeth.
+
+We are always breathing out poisons into the air. One of these you can
+see in the milky limewater, and others you can smell when you happen
+to come close to anyone else.
+
+    [Illustration: PROVING THAT THE BREATH IS NOT LIKE THE AIR]
+
+If you blow on your fingers, you feel that your breath is much warmer
+than the air. If people are crowded together in rooms with doors and
+windows shut, their breath soon heats and poisons the air, until they
+begin to have headache, and to feel dull and drowsy and uncomfortable.
+If they should be shut in too long, without any opening to let in the
+fresh air, as in a prison cell, or in the hold of a ship during a
+storm, the air would become so poisonous as to make them ill, and
+would even suffocate them and kill them outright. Even the bees found
+this out thousands of years ago; and in their hives in hot weather
+they station lines of worker-bees, one just behind another from the
+door right down each of the main passages, whose business it is to do
+nothing but keep their wings whirring rapidly, so that they fan a
+steady current of fresh air into every part of the hive.
+
+    [Illustration: DUSTING--HOW SHALL WE DO IT?]
+
+How does Mother Nature get rid of these poisons from our breath? Of
+course, you say, "She uses the wind and the sunshine." Yes, the winds
+can whisk up the poison and blow it away so fast, and the sunshine can
+burn up the horrid smell so quickly, that even the air above big
+cities, and in their streets, is quite clean enough for us to breathe,
+except where the people are very closely crowded together and very
+dirty. Mother Nature wants all of us to help in keeping the air clean.
+This we can do by keeping ourselves and our houses clean, and by being
+careful not to leave scraps of waste, or dirty things, in the streets
+and cars and parks and other public places. And you children ought to
+be very careful about your school yard and the halls and the
+classrooms, where you spend so much of your time.
+
+
+
+
+IN SCHOOL
+
+
+I. BRINGING THE FRESH AIR IN
+
+The only place where air is absolutely sure to be fresh is out of
+doors. There, as we have seen, the sun and the winds keep it so all
+the time. But, unluckily, we cannot spend all our time outdoors,
+either when we are little or after we have grown up. So we must try in
+every way that we can to bring the outdoors indoors--to get plenty of
+fresh air and light into the houses that we live in, especially the
+bedrooms we sleep in and the schoolrooms we study in when we are
+children, and the offices or shops we work in when we are grown up.
+
+After you have your lungs and your blood well filled with air, either
+by walking briskly to school or by chasing one another about the
+school playground, you will suddenly hear the bell ring, and you march
+indoors and sit down at your desks. Here, of course, the air cannot
+blow about freely from every direction, because the walls and doors
+and windows are shutting you in on every side. The room, to be sure,
+is full of air; but if the doors and windows are shut, this air has no
+way of getting outside, nor can the fresh, pure air out of doors--even
+though it be moving quite fast, as a wind or a breeze--get inside.
+
+    [Illustration: A CLASSROOM ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE OUT-OF-DOORS
+
+    Notice the windows open top and bottom, and the high windows
+    under the roof. Why are these good?]
+
+We must let the fresh air come in and the stale air go out. This is
+one of the things that windows are for; and this is why they are hung
+upon pulleys and made to slide up and down easily. Of course, even
+when the windows are not open, they are letting in light, which, you
+remember, is a deadly enemy to germs and poisons.
+
+Bright sunlight is best for purifying the air of a room, but even
+ordinary daylight has a good deal of germ-killing power. Therefore, a
+room that is well lighted is not only much pleasanter to live in, but
+much healthier, than one that is dull and gloomy. You see why we need
+plenty of windows and doors: we must let in the breezes and the
+sunshine, and let out the poisons and the dirt. Then, too, we must
+make the air in the building move about in order to keep it fresh; for
+if the air is not fresh, we soon grow tired and sleepy and have
+headaches. That is why your teacher keeps the windows open at the top
+a foot or so. You can easily see that when there are twenty or thirty
+of you breathing out poisons, and each one of you needing about four
+bushels of fresh air every minute, the old air ought to be going out
+and the fresh air coming in all the time.
+
+    [Illustration: VENTILATION
+
+    Watch the candle flames. Which way is the air moving, and why?]
+
+That is also why your teacher gives you a recess, so that you can run
+out of doors and get some fresh air. Then she can throw open all the
+windows and doors and have the air in the room clean and fresh when
+you come back again. So when recess comes, don't hang about in the
+hallways or on the stairs or in the basement, but run right out of
+doors into the playground and shout and throw your arms about and run
+races to fill your lungs full of fresh, sweet air and stretch all your
+muscles, after the confinement and sitting still. Don't saunter about
+and whisper secrets or tell stories, but get up some lively game that
+doesn't take long to play, such as tag or steal-sticks or soak-ball,
+or duck-on-a-rock or skipping or hopscotch. These will blow all the
+"smoke" out of your lungs and send the hot blood flying all over your
+body and make you as "fresh as a daisy" for your next lesson.
+
+When you come back into the schoolroom after recess, the air will seem
+quite fresh and pure; but unless you keep the windows open, it will
+not be long before your head begins to be hot, and your eyes heavy,
+and you feel like yawning and stretching, and begin to wonder why the
+lessons are so long and tiresome. Then, if your teacher will throw
+open all the windows and have you stand up, or, better still, march
+around the room singing or go through some drill or calisthenic
+exercises, you will soon feel quite fresh and rested again.
+
+In the mild weather of the spring or early fall, all you need to do to
+keep the air fresh in the schoolroom is to keep the windows well open
+at the top. But in the winter, the air outdoors is so cold that it has
+to be heated before it is brought in; and this, in any modern and
+properly built schoolhouse, is usually arranged for. The fresh air is
+drawn in through an opening in the basement and is either heated, so
+that it rises, or is blown by fans all over the building. This sort of
+fresh air, however, is never quite so good as that which comes
+directly from outdoors; so it is generally best to keep at least two
+or three windows in each room opened at the top as well, and never to
+depend entirely upon the air that comes through the heating system.
+
+Sometimes this may mean a little draft, or current of uncomfortably
+cool air, for one or two of you who sit nearest the windows; but your
+teacher will always allow you to change your seat if this proves very
+unpleasant. If you have plenty of warmth in the room you sit in,
+unless the air outside is very cold, this "breeze" won't do you any
+harm at all; on the contrary, it will be good for you. Instead of
+catching cold from a draft like this, it is from foul, stuffy,
+poisonous air, loaded with other people's breaths and the germs
+contained in them, that you catch cold.
+
+    [Illustration: GARDENS TAKE US OUT OF DOORS]
+
+In fact, staying indoors is usually the reason why people are sick.
+They don't go out into the clean fresh air for fear they'll be too
+cold! It seems a pity we can't just live out of doors all the time.
+Perhaps we shall some day; for doctors are finding out that fresh
+outdoor air and good food are the very best medicines known, and the
+only "Sure Cures." They are pleasant to take, too. Many cities are
+providing outdoor schools for children who have weak lungs or are not
+strong in other ways. Perhaps some day all school children will be
+allowed to study in the open air at least part of every school day.
+
+
+II. HEARING AND LISTENING
+
+Now you are all ready to go to work. What are you going to work with?
+Books? pencils? paper? Yes, but you have something better than those
+and all ready for use. It is that little kit of tools that are
+sometimes called our "Five Senses." You remember that we have already
+talked about one of them, the sense of touch in the skin. Now which
+one are you going to use first this morning? If your teacher talks to
+you, I hope it will be the one we call the sense of hearing. Suppose
+we try to find out something about this sense of hearing, and begin
+with a little experiment.
+
+Take a piece of cork in your hand and lift it up high and then let it
+drop into a large basin or tub of water. What happens? The cork
+strikes and then goes bob-bob-bobbing up and down on its own waves.
+Now watch the little waves all around the cork. Where do they stop?
+They don't stop until they touch the edge of the pan; and no matter
+how big the pan is, the waves go on and on until they reach the edge.
+
+We can see these waves of water, and so we easily believe that they
+are there. Now there are, just as truly, waves of air all around us.
+We cannot see the waves, because they are too small and roll too
+quickly. But some of these, when they roll against our ears, make us
+hear. They make what we call _sound_. You have heard about sending
+messages through the air, without telegraph wires. Wireless messages
+are often sent to ships out in the middle of the ocean. This is done
+by starting tiny electric waves, which travel through the air much as
+the waves of water are traveling across the ocean beneath. Of course
+there must be a machine, called a _receiver_, to catch the waves and
+"hear" the message.
+
+Mother Nature has given each of you two very delicate little receivers
+to catch the sound waves and carry them to your brain. You know what
+they are--you can name them. But how are these wonderful little
+machines made?
+
+You have never seen the whole of your ear. The part on the outside of
+the head, of course, you can easily see and feel. Sometimes you notice
+a deaf person put his hand behind his ear and press it forward so as
+to catch the sound waves better. These waves roll in at the little
+hole you can see, and travel along a short passage till they come to a
+round _drum_, a piece of very thin skin stretched tight like a
+drumhead.
+
+Have you ever beaten a drum with a stick? You felt the drumhead quiver
+under the blow, did you not? Well, when the sound waves beat against
+the drum in the ear, it quivers and starts little waves inside the
+ear. Each little wave in turn beats against a little bone called the
+_hammer_; the hammer beats against another called the _anvil_, and
+this against a third called the _stirrup_; and the quiver of the
+stirrup is passed on to a little window, opening into a little room
+with a spiral key-board; and from this, the wave travels along a nerve
+to the brain. As the waves reach the brain, the brain hears. In this
+way we hear all sorts of sounds, from the tick of a watch to the
+whistle of a train.
+
+    [Illustration: THE WAY BY WHICH SOUND WAVES REACH THE BRAIN
+
+    A section through the right ear.]
+
+There is a sensible old saying, "Never put anything smaller than your
+elbow into the inner part of your ear." Now, of course, you can't put
+your elbow into such a tiny hole! So the old saying means, never put
+anything in. The eardrum is very thin and can easily be broken. Even a
+slap on the ear, or a loud sound too close to it, might crack and
+spoil the drum and make one deaf.
+
+The outside ear needs careful washing; there are so many little
+creases that gather dirt and dust. The deep crease behind the ear,
+too, will become sore if it is not kept clean.
+
+Besides cleaning your ears, you must train them to listen. Some boys
+and girls hear just a word or two of what is said, and then guess at
+the rest and think they are listening, or else ask to have it
+repeated. We should try to hear exactly what is said; and if we listen
+carefully, it will soon be much easier to understand at once.
+
+Of course, if you really cannot hear, the doctor can tell you what is
+the matter, and usually can help you very much. Sometimes people
+become deaf simply because the throat is swollen. Indeed, most
+deafness comes from colds and catarrhs and other inflammations of the
+nose and throat. These spread to the ear through a little tube that
+runs up to the drum cavity from the back of the throat. Sometimes,
+when you are blowing your nose, you may feel your ear go "pop"; and
+that means that you have blown air up into the ear through this little
+tube. Be sure to see a doctor if you don't hear well; and be sure,
+too, to tell your teacher, so that she may know why it is you do not
+hear what she says, and ask her to give you a seat near her, so that
+you can hear.
+
+Then, too, you should learn to notice outdoor sounds--the songs of the
+birds, the noises that the animals make, the wind in the trees, and
+the patter of the rain. The old Norsemen have a story that their god
+Heimdall had such keen ears that he could hear the grass growing in
+the meadow and the wool growing on the backs of the sheep! Your ears
+can never be so keen as that; but there are many, many happy outdoor
+sounds that you should listen for. They will help to make you happy,
+too.
+
+Careful listening may sometime save your life. You can hear the car or
+the train coming, and you can learn to tell from which direction a
+sound comes. You can learn to tell one sound from another in the midst
+of many sounds. In more ways than you can think of now, this habit of
+listening will protect you from danger.
+
+The Germans have a proverb, "Hear much and say little." What does it
+mean?
+
+    [Illustration: "DO YOU HEAR IT? CAN YOU SEE IT?"]
+
+
+III. SEEING AND READING
+
+You can learn a great deal through your ears, but think how much more
+you can learn through your eyes. Just count over all the things that
+you have had to get your eyes to tell you to-day, and then shut your
+eyes for a minute and think what it would mean never to be able to
+see. Don't you think you ought to take very good care of your eyes?
+You are going to keep them very busy all your life, and they deserve
+the very best care you can give them.
+
+    [Illustration: THE LIGHT ON THE PAGE, NOT IN THE EYES]
+
+Just as soon as lessons begin, you get out your books; and a good
+share of the day in school you have a book before you, reading it or
+studying it or copying from it. It makes a great difference to your
+eyes how you hold the book and how the light falls. In reading, you
+should always hold your book so that the light falls upon the page
+from behind you, or from over one of your shoulders. In this way, the
+brightest light that comes into your eyes is not from the window, but
+from the page of your book.
+
+If the light comes from a window in front of you, or if you sit in the
+evening with your face toward the lamp when you read, the light coming
+straight from the lamp or the window, as well as the light coming up
+from the pages of the book, pours into your eyes; and this dazzles and
+confuses your eyes, so that you can't see plainly and comfortably and
+are very likely after a while to find that your head aches. At home,
+of course, you can seat yourself with your back to the light when you
+read; and usually at school your seats are so arranged that the light
+falls from behind you or from one side. If not, by turning a little in
+your seat, you can get the light from over your shoulder.
+
+Notice how the light falls upon the blackboard. When the light comes
+from the windows behind you, or from one side, you can see what is
+written there quite plainly. But if the blackboard happens to be
+between two windows, and especially if this is the lightest side of
+the room, you will find that the light dazzles you so that you cannot
+see the writing clearly.
+
+You must have noticed, too, that if, after you have been reading from
+the blackboard you look down again suddenly to the page of your book,
+for an instant you will not see the letters plainly. Then, almost
+before you have time to notice it, you feel a little change take place
+inside your eyes, and the print upon the page of your book becomes
+quite plain. This is because your eye has to change the shape of one
+of the parts inside it, called the _lens_, before you can see clearly
+the things that are near you. This change, which is called
+_accommodation_, is made by a little muscle of the eye; and if you
+keep your eyes working at close work, like reading or writing or
+fancy-work, too long at a time, or if your eyes need glasses to make
+them see clearly, and you haven't them on, this little muscle becomes
+tired. Then the print of your book, or your writing, or the stitches
+you have taken begin to blur before your eyes. Your eyes begin to feel
+tired, and your head begins to ache. This is what we call _eye
+strain_.
+
+Sometimes this eye strain upsets your appetite or your digestion and
+makes you sleepless and worried. The trouble may be caused by your own
+carelessness: you may have been reading too long, or in a poor light,
+or with the light shining right in your face instead of coming over
+your shoulder. But sometimes it is caused by the fact that your eyes
+are not just the right shape; and then the only way to relieve it is
+to have proper glasses, or spectacles, fitted, which will make up for
+this too flat or too round shape, or too large or too small size, of
+your eyes.
+
+If you cannot see clearly what is written on the blackboard when the
+light falls upon it from behind you, or above; or if, in a good light,
+you cannot read the words in your book quite easily, without straining
+at all, when you hold the book either at arm's length or a foot from
+your face; or if your head aches or your eyes begin to feel tired or
+uncomfortable, or the letters begin to blur, after you have read
+steadily--say, for half an hour,--it is a pretty sure sign that there
+is some trouble with your eyes. Then you had better have them examined
+at once by your family doctor or by the school doctor. In many schools
+now there are doctors to test the children's eyes, and ears, too, so
+that each child may have a chance to see and hear everything that the
+other children can see and hear.
+
+Not very many years ago people thought that glasses were only for old
+people, but now we know that many children's eyes need glasses, too. I
+knew a little girl whose sight was so poor that when she was standing
+and looked down at the grass, she couldn't see the green blades. She
+thought that the grass looked like a green blur to everyone, just as
+it did to her; and so she never said anything about it. She was twelve
+or thirteen years old before she found out that she couldn't see
+clearly. Of course, trying hard to see things gave her a headache and
+made her tired and cross. So some one took her to a doctor, and he saw
+at once what was the matter and fitted her with glasses. Soon she was
+quite well and strong; and how glad she was to see the leaves and a
+hundred other things she had not seen before!
+
+    [Illustration: THE EYEBALL IN ITS SOCKET
+
+    The muscle from M to M, which helps to turn the eyeball, has
+    been cut away to show the optic nerve.]
+
+Here we have a picture of the _eyeball_, as we call it. The little
+bands fastened to it are the bands of muscle; and as soon as I say
+_muscle_ you know what they are for--to move the eyeball about, up and
+down and from side to side. There are muscles outside the eye as well
+as inside. Coming out from the back of the eyeball is a pearly white
+cord quite different from the muscle bands. This is what we call a
+_nerve_. This nerve in your eye carries to your _brain_, or thinking
+machine, picture-messages of whatever you look at.
+
+The nerve in your eye gets messages of light much as the nerve deep in
+your ear gets its messages of sound--from tiny waves in the air. The
+light waves are smaller and faster even than the sound waves, and the
+eye nerve is the only nerve that can get pictures of them. You know
+that, for wireless messages, the receiving machines are not all alike
+and cannot all take the same messages, if the messages are sent with
+different sorts of electric waves; and neither can our receiving
+machines. Some get messages of sight, and some of sound, and some of
+touch, or taste, or smell.
+
+Now shut your eyes as quickly as you can. How long did it take you? A
+minute? No, not a quarter of a second. It is about the quickest thing
+you can think of--"the twinkling of an eye." You shut your eyes "quick
+as a wink" whenever anything seems likely to fly or splash into them,
+and this is what the eyelids are for. If anything gets into the eye
+before the lids can shut, the eye "waters," and _tears_ pour out of
+it. These are made by a gland-sponge up under the upper lid, so as to
+wash any dust or sand or other harmful speck out of the eye before it
+can hurt the sensitive eyeball.
+
+Now look at some one's eyeball. It is like the picture, isn't
+it?--bright white around the edge and then a ring of color, brown or
+blue or gray; and inside the color-ring, or _iris_, a little round
+black hole that we call the _pupil_. Watch the little hole change as
+you turn the face toward the window. It becomes ever so much smaller.
+Now turn the face away from the window, back again into the shadow.
+How did the pupil change this time?
+
+    [Illustration: EYES PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST THE LIGHT]
+
+The iris, or color-ring, acts like a curtain, like the ring-shutter of
+a camera, and closes up the hole, or pupil, when the light is too
+bright and would dazzle or burn the inside of the eye; but when the
+light is dim, the iris opens again, so as to let in light enough with
+which to see. Look at the little window in your kitten's eyes. It is
+not the same shape as yours; but when you carry her to the light, you
+see how the iris closes in and leaves just a little black slit or
+line.
+
+You remember the blind children? Isn't it wonderful how they can play
+games and study, too, even though they are blind! They have to make
+their senses of touch and hearing tell them many things that you learn
+through your sense of sight. Many of these children _need not have
+been blind_, if the nurse who first took care of them when they were
+born had known enough to wash their eyes properly, not with soap and
+water, of course, but with just one or two drops of a kind of
+medicine--an _antiseptic_, as we call it--that makes the eye perfectly
+clean.
+
+But you children who have good eyes that can see, do you really see
+things when you look at them? You can train your eyes just as you can
+train your ears. You can teach them to read quickly down a page, and
+to find things in pictures, and, better still, to see things out of
+doors, in the garden and the woods and on the seashore. We hear a
+great deal about "sharp eyes," but most of us see very little of all
+we might see. Our eyes are on the lookout, too, to protect us from
+dangers that may come; with our skin and nose and ears, they are
+constantly on the watch; so the better we see the safer we are.
+
+Even if your eyes are perfect now, you will need to take good care of
+them to keep them strong. Don't let any story, no matter how
+interesting it is, tempt you to read in a dim light or a light that is
+too strong. And if you can't see the blackboard easily, or can't read
+big print, like the school calendar, across the room, tell your mother
+or your teacher, so that she can ask the doctor to find out what the
+matter is.
+
+
+IV. A DRINK OF WATER
+
+It is astonishing what thirsty work studying is! Scarcely is the
+second recitation over before your throat begins to feel dry, and up
+goes your hand--"May I get a drink?"
+
+If anyone even says the word "water," it makes you thirsty. It is so
+good that just the thought of it makes you want some. I should like
+you to notice how much water you drink every day. Perhaps a glass in
+the morning when you get up, and one at night before you go to bed,
+and three or four in between.
+
+Why do we need so much water? Well, how much do you weigh? Perhaps you
+will find it hard to believe, but more than half of that weight is
+water; and because we are always giving off water from the skin and
+from the body, we need plenty more to take its place.
+
+No living thing can grow without water. Take a bean, for instance, and
+put it in an empty glass on the window sill; and even if the sun
+shines full upon it, nothing will happen, except that after a few days
+it will shrivel and dry up. But fill the glass with water, and in a
+few hours the bean will begin to swell; and in a few days it will
+burst, and a little shoot will grow out of one end of it and a tiny
+root at the other. The water and the warmth together have made it
+sprout and grow.
+
+    [Illustration: A DRINKING-CUP EASILY MADE]
+
+Children at school and people on trains should have their own private
+cups, for serious diseases may be caught from the mouths of other
+people. You can get a metal pocket folding cup for ten or fifteen
+cents, or paper ones for a few cents a dozen. If you don't have your
+own cup, I hope you will get one and carry it. Here is a pattern for a
+paper cup that you can easily make for yourselves. Try it and see.
+When you have once learned how, you can make it very quickly and have
+a fresh cup every time you want one; but of course you should be sure
+first that the paper itself is clean.
+
+If you drink milk, this takes the place of some of the water and gives
+you food as well. It is both drink and food; and a very good food for
+children it is, too. You know, babies can live on it because it has
+everything in it to make them grow.
+
+Do you know why it is that people are so careful nowadays about having
+milk and drinking-water very clean? It is because they have found that
+the tiny plants, called germs, that make people sick are often carried
+about in these drinks. A disease called _typhoid fever_ is carried in
+this way.
+
+Fifty years ago, cities and towns used to be very careless about where
+they got their water supply, and would often take it out of streams
+into which other cities emptied their sewage. Now, however, they are
+much more particular; and the health officers, or Boards of Health,
+are insisting that public water supply, such as is brought into our
+houses in pipes, shall be taken either from some spring or
+deep-flowing well, or from a stream or lake up in the hills, into
+which no drainage from houses or farmyards, and no dirty water from
+factories, empties.
+
+    [Illustration: A PIPE FOR THE CITY WATER SUPPLY
+
+    This pipe is laid for many miles to bring water from the distant
+    hills.]
+
+We are still, however, far from being as careful as we should be about
+this; and I am sorry to say that America has had more deaths from
+typhoid fever than any other civilized country. Germany, which, of all
+countries in the world, is the most particular about keeping its water
+supply pure, has the fewest deaths from this cause, in proportion to
+its population--scarcely one fifth as many as we have.
+
+Therefore, by taking proper care, it would be quite possible to
+prevent at least two thirds of our nearly 400,000 cases of typhoid
+fever and 35,000 deaths from typhoid, every year.
+
+It is not only cities and towns that ought to be careful of their
+water supply. In fact, now, out on the farms and in the healthy
+country districts, the death rate from typhoid fever has actually
+become higher than it is in our large cities. The main cause of this
+is the custom of digging the well in such a place that the waste water
+thrown out from the house, or the drainage from the barnyard or the
+pigpen or the chicken-house may wash into it, soaking down through the
+porous soil. Far more typhoid fever now is spread by means of infected
+well water than by any other means.
+
+Most dangerous of all is the leakage from the privy vault; as, by this
+means, the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases that affect the
+food tube and digestion may drain through the soil till they reach the
+drinking water in the well. These dangers can be avoided either by
+having the well dug at some distance from the house and in higher
+ground, or by having the drainage from the house, barns, and
+out-buildings piped and carried to a safe distance from the well.
+
+Fortunately, there are only a few kinds of germs that make us sick.
+Most germs are helping us all the time; we could not live without
+them. Some of them make our butter taste good, and others make our
+crops grow, and others eat up the dirt that would make us sick. But
+since disease germs are so tiny that we cannot possibly see them with
+the naked eye, we must know where the water and milk that we use come
+from, and whether or not they are perfectly clean. Boiling the water
+will kill these germs and make the water pure. It is better not to
+boil milk if it can be had from a dairy where the stable and the cows
+and the milkmen and the pails and bottles are quite clean.
+
+The fruits and fruit juices--lemon and orange and raspberry and lime
+and grape--give nice wholesome drinks. Home-made juices are much
+better than those you buy; you can be sure that they are pure and
+really made from fruit. And just here I want to caution you against
+buying "pink lemonade" or soda water or any other drink of that sort
+from the penny venders and open stalls on the street. The drinks they
+sell are not made from pure fruit juices, but from different flavoring
+extracts that are made to taste like the fruit and are colored with
+cheap dyes. Even the sweetening in them is not pure sugar, and they
+are often made or handled in a careless, dirty manner, or exposed to
+the dust of the street, and to flies.
+
+Not long ago I was at the home of a friend where for supper we had the
+nicest grape juice I ever tasted. When I said, "How good it is!" one
+of the little girls piped up, "Billy and I picked the grapes, and
+sister made it all by herself. She learned how at cooking school."
+
+When I was packing my suitcase to leave, this little girl brought out
+a big bottle of grape juice and wanted me to take it with me to
+remember her by. It was all beautifully sealed with wax, and even this
+she had done by herself! Do you think I could have kept it that way
+very long? Perhaps not, it was so good; but if I had wanted it for a
+keepsake, I could have kept it, sealed as it was, for years and years,
+and it would have been just as sweet and fresh as when it was given to
+me.
+
+Suppose, instead of keeping it in its bottle, I had poured it out into
+a glass. Can you tell me what would have happened to it then?
+
+In a few days little bubbles would have come, one after another, up to
+the top of the juice; and soon it would have been all full of bubbles.
+What causes the bubbles? Floating all about in the air and sunshine
+are tiny specks called _spores_. These are to the tiny _yeast_ plants
+what seeds are to other plants. Seeds fall into the ground and grow,
+but these yeast spores fall into the grape juice and grow. While they
+are growing in the grape juice, they eat what they want from the
+juice; and, as they eat, they make bubbles of carbon dioxid,--which,
+you remember, forms in our lungs and looks like air,--and of another
+substance called _alcohol_. Of course, when they have changed the
+juice in this way, it tastes very different. It is then what we call
+_fermented_.
+
+_Fermented drinks are harmful_; but some people like bubbling drinks
+so much that they leave good fresh grape juice open on purpose to let
+the little yeast plants get into it and make it into what we call
+_wine_. They treat apple juice in just the same way to make _cider_;
+and they even take fresh rye and barley and corn, and mash them up,
+and put yeast plants into the mash to ferment them and make them into
+_whiskey_ and _beer_. It does seem a pity, doesn't it, to take good
+foods like wheat and apples and grapes and make them into these things
+that really do us harm if we drink them.
+
+A very wise man named Solomon, who lived thousands of years ago,
+warned people not to drink wine, not even to look at it when it
+sparkled in the cup. He said no really wise man would drink it. Of
+course not; the wise man uses the food and drink that make his body
+grow strong and his brain work true, and no fermented drink can do
+that.
+
+There is no better drink for anyone than clear pure water, and no
+better food and drink in one than pure fresh milk.
+
+    [Illustration: A SCHOOL KITCHEN WHERE BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS LEARN
+    TO COOK]
+
+
+V. LITTLE COOKS
+
+If you have to come so far to school that you cannot go back to dinner
+and so must bring a luncheon with you, be sure to take plenty of time
+to sit down and eat it slowly and chew every piece of food thoroughly.
+Many children who bring luncheons to school just grab a piece of food
+in each hand and "bolt" it down as fast as they can possibly bite it
+off and swallow it, and then rush out to play.
+
+Play is good and very important, but you had better spare ten or
+fifteen minutes of it in order to chew your lunch thoroughly and
+swallow it slowly, and then to sit or move about quietly for a few
+minutes before starting to play hard. This will give your stomach a
+chance to get all the blood it wants to use in digesting the food;
+for, you remember, when you romp and play, your blood moves outward
+toward your skin and away from your stomach. Don't think that, just
+because you "picnic" at lunch, it is not as important as any other
+meal.
+
+I hope, however, that it will not be long before almost every school
+will have a school kitchen and a lunch room; first, so that every girl
+at least can learn to cook. It is well worth while being able to do;
+indeed, no girl ought to be considered properly educated until she has
+learned to cook, and no boy either, for that matter. Then, if the
+school has this kitchen, it can be used to furnish hot luncheons, or
+dinners, for those children who cannot conveniently go home in the
+noon recess. Hot lunches are much more digestible than cold ones, and
+they taste much better, and are much less likely to be eaten in a
+hurry.
+
+But why should we learn to cook? Why shouldn't we eat our food raw
+instead of taking all this trouble and pains to cook it?
+
+I know of a boy--a big lazy fellow--who is always forgetting to do
+things. He used to go away in the morning without leaving wood enough
+for the kitchen fire. So his mother said to herself one day, "I'll
+teach him to remember." The next morning he went off again and left no
+wood. At noon he came back "hungry as a hunter." She called him in to
+dinner; and in he came, sat down, picked up the carving knife--then he
+stopped! What do you suppose was the matter? The beef was raw! Then he
+lifted the cover of the potato dish, and there lay the potatoes raw!
+Then he tried another dish and found nice green peas, but hard as
+little bullets. They were raw, too! Not even the bread had been
+cooked; it was a soft, sticky mass of dough. His mother, who is a
+jolly old lady, fairly shook with laughter when she told me about it.
+She said she never again had to tell him to split wood.
+
+Now that boy didn't need to be told one reason for cooking. We don't
+like our food raw; it doesn't taste so good. At first, perhaps, that
+doesn't sound like a very good reason; but it is more important than
+you think. For it is a fact that, just as soon as you smell food, your
+stomach begins to get ready the juice that is to digest it. If this
+very first juice, which is called the _appetite juice_, is not poured
+out, then the food may lie in the stomach some little time before it
+begins to be digested at all. So it is quite important that our food
+should smell and taste and look good, as well as have plenty of
+strength and nourishment in it.
+
+Another reason for cooking is that it either softens or crisps our
+food so that we can chew it better and digest it more readily. You
+know what a difference there is between trying to eat a raw potato and
+a nice, mealy, well-baked one, or trying to eat popcorn before it is
+popped and after.
+
+Another good thing, too, cooking does, which is very important. It
+kills any disease germs, or germs of decay, that may happen to have
+got upon the food from dust or flies, or from careless, dirty
+handling.
+
+Of course, some of our food, such as apples and other ripe fruits, and
+celery and lettuce and other green vegetables, we can eat raw and
+digest quite well; but we should be careful to see that they have been
+thoroughly washed with water that we know to be pure. Grocers often
+have a careless way of putting fruit and vegetables out upon open
+stands in front of the shop, or in open boxes or baskets inside the
+store, and leaving them there all day. This is very dangerous, because
+dust from the street, which contains horse manure and all sorts of
+germs, may blow in upon them; flies, which have been eating garbage or
+feeding at the mouths of sewers, may come in and crawl over them. You
+ought to be very sure that anything that you are going to eat raw, or
+without thorough cooking, has been well washed. And you ought to ask
+your mother to speak to your grocer, if he is careless in this way,
+and have him keep his fruit and vegetables, as well as sugar and
+crackers and beans and dried fruit, either under glass or well
+screened from flies and dust.
+
+More important than almost anything else in good cookery is to keep
+the food and the kitchen and the dishes and your hands perfectly clean
+all the way through, so that nothing that will upset your digestion
+can get into the food. After things are well cooked, it is very
+important that they should be nicely served on clean dishes, on a
+clean table cloth, with polished knives and shining spoons and forks.
+This means not only that everything about the table and the food will
+be perfectly clean and wholesome, but that you will enjoy eating it a
+great deal more. And when you enjoy your food, you remember, your
+stomach can _secrete_ the juice that is needed to digest it, very much
+faster and better than when, as you say, you are just "poking it
+down."
+
+If you have a school kitchen and a lunch room, you can learn the best
+way of cooking and serving things; and then, perhaps, you can do these
+same things at home and be a real help. Most children are fond of
+trying to cook, and I am glad that they are. Everyone, boys and girls
+both, should know how to cook simple things. Perhaps some day you will
+be stranded, like Robinson Crusoe, on a desert island! Perhaps the
+rest of the family may be sick. How nice it would be for you to be
+able to prepare breakfast for them. I know a family where the youngest
+boy often rises early and gets breakfast for five. He can fry the
+bacon and boil the eggs and make the coffee and mush and biscuit just
+as nicely as his mother can; and he takes pride in it and enjoys it.
+
+Cooking is what we call an art. Everyone, of course, can learn to do
+it; but some people can do it much better than others, just as some
+boys and girls can draw better than others. I hope some of you will be
+what we might call "artist cooks." Take pride in the art and learn all
+that you can about it. There are so many things a cook should know.
+
+A great deal of good food is spoiled by bad cookery, particularly by
+frying slowly in tepid grease, or fat, so that it becomes soaked with
+grease. You should have the frying pan just as hot as possible before
+you begin to fry; and then the meat or potatoes or cakes will be
+seared, or coated over, on the outside, so that the fat cannot soak
+into them, and they will not only taste better, but will be much more
+digestible.
+
+In baking you will have to be careful not to let the oven become too
+hot, or else the meat or bread will be burned or scorched. Even if the
+heat does not do this, it may harden and toughen the outside of the
+meat so that it is almost impossible either to chew or digest.
+
+Sugar is really a very good food if you do not eat too much at once,
+and so pure candy is good for you if you do not eat too much. The very
+best time to eat it is at the end of a meal. If you learn to make it
+at school or at home, you can always have some to eat after your
+luncheon without having to buy it. If you do buy candy, don't get the
+bright colored kind; it looks pretty, but it may hurt you. And be sure
+to see that it has been kept under a cover, where the dust and flies
+could not get at it. Dust is dirty, and flies don't wipe their feet.
+You want clean, pure candy.
+
+Of course, after cooking, you will always be very careful to wash up
+all the pots and pans and dishes that you have used. Food and scraps
+that are left sticking to dishes and cooking utensils very quickly
+turn sour and decay; and then the next time the dishes are used, you
+will perhaps have an attack of indigestion, and wonder why.
+
+There are two things you should always notice: Whether the bread you
+eat is sweet and thoroughly baked; if it is soggy and sour, it will
+make trouble in your stomach. Whether all your food is clean and fresh
+before it is cooked; this you can tell by your eyes and nose.
+
+
+VI. TASTING AND SMELLING
+
+When, at home, you give the baby a ball or a key or a watch to play
+with, what does he do with it the very first thing? He is never quite
+happy, is he, until he has put it into his mouth? Does he want to eat
+it? No, he wants to feel it; and he has not yet learned to feel very
+carefully with his hands, as you do.
+
+Can you feel with your mouth? If you have the least little hole in one
+of your teeth, you know it as soon as you rub your tongue against it.
+How big it feels and how rough the edges seem! If you take a
+looking-glass, you find, if you can see the hole at all, that it is
+just a tiny, tiny hole.
+
+Your tongue and lips, like the rest of your skin, are always touching
+and feeling things for you and sending messages to the brain. They say
+whether your milk is hot or cold, and whether the food you eat is soft
+enough and quite right in other ways. Your tongue is a very busy
+little "waiter": he passes the food about in your mouth for the teeth
+to chew, and he rolls it about at a great rate. But he does more than
+this; he tells you something about how it tastes--not everything, as
+you may think, but only whether it is _bitter_, _sweet_, _sour_, or
+_salty_. Queer as it may seem, your nose tells you the other "tastes,"
+which are really smells. It is your nose that says whether you have a
+strawberry or a piece of onion in your mouth, whether it is coffee or
+cocoa that you are drinking.
+
+Of what other use is your nose?--for only a little patch in the upper
+part is for smelling and tasting. The greater part of the nose is to
+breathe through. You see, your nose warms and moistens the outside air
+that you take in, so that, by the time it reaches your throat, it is
+as warm as your body and does not hurt your throat. Your nose also
+strains, or filters, out of the air the dust, lint, and germs that may
+be floating in it.
+
+You should always keep your lips closed and breathe through your nose.
+Whenever you cannot breathe through your nose, there is something the
+matter. It may be that your nose is swollen shut with a "cold"; but
+that will last only a few days. If, however, your nose often feels
+"stuffed up," there is probably something in it or behind it, that
+ought to be taken away. A throat doctor can easily cure you; and, when
+he has, you'll be surprised how much better you feel and how much
+faster you grow.
+
+    [Illustration: A CLEAR PASSAGE TO THE LUNGS
+
+    (Follow the arrows.)]
+
+I once knew a little girl whose nose was always blocked up. She had
+headache and felt tired most of the time and was behind in her
+classes. The doctor told her what was the matter, but her father and
+mother were afraid that it might hurt her to have the doctor take out
+what was clogging her nose. Well, what did she do? Instead of crying
+and being afraid, one day she walked right into the doctor's office
+and asked him to take out the _adenoids_, as we call these growths
+that block up the nose. And after the doctor had taken them out, she
+began to grow well and fat and strong so fast that she soon "caught
+up" in her classes.
+
+    [Illustration: A PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ADENOIDS]
+
+When you breathe well through your nose, you can smell and taste
+better, too. In fact, when your nose is clogged, you cannot smell at
+all.
+
+How does this sense of smell help us? You say we can smell the flowers
+and the fresh air after the rain, and cookies baking, and all the
+things that we like so well. Yes, and these give us pleasure; but how
+about the bad smells? The bad smells are warnings. If there is a dead
+mouse or rat about, we smell it; and that leads us to look for it and
+take it away. We smell the dirt and get rid of it, and thus keep away
+sickness. When we walk into a room, if the air is bad we smell it at
+once and open a window or a door, and so save ourselves from being
+poisoned.
+
+Some people hurt their noses by smoking tobacco. The inside skin of
+the nose is very delicate, and the smoke going back and forth through
+the nose and the throat keeps them from doing their work properly. It
+is very bad for little children even to smell tobacco smoke. It seems
+in some way to keep them from growing as they would in clear fresh
+air. What a silly habit smoking is! It does no one any good. It hurts
+not only the people who make the smoke, but the people who have to
+smell it. Most of the people who smoke tobacco have to learn to like
+it. It almost always makes them very sick when they first begin.
+
+Sir Walter Raleigh, or the men he sent to America, first taught our
+great-great-great-grandfathers to smoke. His men bought tobacco of the
+Indians here and took it back to England; and Sir Walter himself
+learned to smoke and made smoking fashionable. The first time that Sir
+Walter's servant saw him smoking, he thought his master was on fire;
+so what did he do but bring a big bucket of water and throw it all
+over him! I wish that that bucket of water had settled the matter, so
+that Sir Walter had stopped smoking and had never taught anyone else
+to smoke. If it had, think how much money might have been put to
+better use, for smoking is a very costly habit. And it is not only
+wasteful of money, but, worse still, of health; for it is the cause of
+a great deal of poor health and disease.
+
+Remember that you want the air you breathe perfectly fresh and clean
+and not spoiled and poisoned by tobacco smoke.
+
+
+VII. TALKING AND RECITING
+
+When I was little and playing with my brothers, I did not always do
+what they wanted. So they'd sometimes say, "We'll put him in Coventry,
+then he'll do it." They did not really _put_ me anywhere. They simply
+would not speak to me or answer anything I said. It was just as if I
+were entirely alone. Of course it was a quick way to make me ready to
+take my part in the game again.
+
+How do you think you would feel if you never, never could speak to
+anyone, and no one could speak to you? What a quiet world we'd have!
+Almost every day I meet a boy who can't hear and can't speak. How does
+he ask for things? He makes letters and spells words with his fingers,
+and his friends watch his fingers and read what he says. Is that the
+way you do? "No, indeed," you say, "I talk." "What do you talk with?"
+"I talk with my mouth." Yes, that's true enough; but if you did not
+use something besides your mouth, you'd never make a sound.
+
+Where does the sound come from? Feel gently with your finger and thumb
+along the front of your neck. Do you find something harder than the
+rest of your throat? That is the large tube called your _windpipe_. Do
+you feel a ridge sticking out from this? Now sing or talk a little.
+You can feel the ridge move up and down, and the sound thrill in it.
+That is where the sound comes from. That is your voice-and-music box,
+or _larynx_.
+
+You have seen the little red rubber balloons, haven't you? You blow
+into them until they are big and round; and then, when you take your
+mouth away, out comes the air, making a squawking or whistling sound.
+Now, if you look closely at the mouthpiece, you see a tiny piece of
+rubber tied across it. The air rushing past this rubber is what makes
+your balloon sing.
+
+Your own music box is made on the same plan. When you breathe out, the
+air is pushed from your lungs up the pipe that we call the windpipe.
+In the upper part of this is the little box, a corner of which you can
+feel with your thumb and finger. Across the box, inside, are stretched
+two folds of skin and muscle, just as the rubber is stretched across
+the opening of the balloon. Whenever you like, you can blow out your
+breath between these folds of skin in your voice box. Blow it out in
+one way, and what happens? You are singing. Blow it out in another
+way, and you are talking; in still another way, and you are just
+making a noise--perhaps mewing like a kitten, or neighing like a
+horse. If you pull these folds of skin close together, you can close
+your windpipe and "hold your breath." A cough is made by filling your
+chest with air, holding the folds close shut, and then suddenly
+"letting go." How many sounds you can make from one tiny music box! Of
+course the muscles of the mouth and throat, and the teeth and the
+tongue all help the voice box as much as they can.
+
+One of the best ways to keep your voice clear and strong is to dash
+cold water every morning on your throat and chest, then to rub with a
+coarse towel till your skin is pink and warm. Gargle your throat with
+cold water if your voice is husky. Singing is very good for you, too;
+but don't try to sing too hard. Sing easily and gently, and see how
+many words you can sing without taking a breath. That is good for the
+lung-bellows as well as the voice box. Always sing in fresh air, but
+not in cold air.
+
+When you talk, try to make all the words clear and distinct; open your
+mouth and let the sound out. Once I had a big grown boy in one of my
+classes who did not open his lips properly when he spoke. So I asked
+him to prop his mouth open with a piece of stick and then talk. I made
+him do it until he learned to speak much more clearly. A famous Greek
+orator, named Demosthenes, who had a habit of mumbling his words,
+trained himself to speak clearly by putting pebbles in his mouth and
+then reciting in a loud voice.
+
+When you want your voices to sound pleasant,--and that is always, of
+course,--you must call on your brain to help. That is your thinking
+machine. Always think twice before you let anything unpleasant or
+unkind come out of your voice box. How happy we could make everyone
+about us if we followed this rule!
+
+
+VIII. THINKING AND ANSWERING
+
+Suppose, as you are walking home from school to-day, you are about to
+cross the street when you see an automobile coming very fast. What do
+you do? You stop, of course; wait for it to go by, and then start on
+again. Why do you stop? "Why," you say, "if I didn't, the automobile
+might run over me." Something of that sort would just flash through
+your mind, wouldn't it, in the very same second that you first saw the
+automobile coming. Now, as you know, you think with your brain. But
+what was it this time that set your brain to thinking? "Nothing," you
+say, "I just saw the automobile coming." And that is true in a way:
+you didn't need anything more than your eyes to tell you.
+
+But how did your eyes get the message to your brain, and how did your
+brain tell your legs to stop walking? We must have in our bodies a
+kind of telephone system. And that is, in fact, just what we have. Our
+_brain_ is our "central office"; and our _nerves_ are the wires,
+running from all parts of our body to the brain, carrying messages
+back and forth.
+
+An old man and an old woman lived out on the very edge of a little
+town. One day their house caught fire and was blazing away before they
+noticed it. They rushed to their neighbor's telephone and rang up
+"Central" to tell her to "phone" for the firemen and hose cart. _Kling
+a-ling-a-ling!_ went their bell, but no "Central" answered; and while
+a man was running to town to get the firemen, the fire got such a good
+start that the house burned down.
+
+You can see from this why we need a central office in good working
+order, when we use the "phone." All the wires run into the one
+building, and there must be some one there to receive calls and see
+that they are sent out to their proper places. In this case, you see,
+"Central" should have been at her post to see that the message went on
+to the engine house, and then the fire would have been put out
+"double-quick."
+
+The "central office" of our Body Telephone System is just as important
+and just as necessary to keep in good working order. It would be very
+little use to have even the keenest of eyes and the sharpest of ears,
+with the readiest of nerve wires to carry their messages into the
+center of the body, unless we had some _organ_, or headquarters, there
+for switching the messages over to the nerves running to the right
+muscles to tell them what to do. If the brain-"Central" should fail in
+its duty, or get out of order, then the body would be in serious
+trouble at once.
+
+Every day we read in the papers of accidents because somebody didn't
+think, as well as see or hear. People see cars and automobiles coming,
+but don't give them a thought and so are run down and hurt. They hear
+the whistle of the engine at the crossing, but drive on just the same,
+without seeming to have heard it at all. They are absent-minded; the
+operator in the "central office" seems to be off duty, or busy about
+something else. But if we are going to get on in this world of cars
+and automobiles and all sorts of unexpected things, we must always
+"have our wits about us," as the saying goes, ready to send the
+messages out to the muscles in our legs and arms and fingers just as
+soon as any one of our "Five Senses" "rings up" the "Central" in our
+brain.
+
+Our body wires do not look at all like telephone wires; and the brain,
+if you could see it, would never suggest to you a central office.
+
+The nerves are fine white cords, the smallest ones finer than a hair,
+and the largest so big and strong that you could lift the body by it;
+and their branches run all over the body, to the muscles and the blood
+tubes and the skin and all the other parts, as the picture shows. You
+have already read how the skin can tell you when you feel warm and
+when you feel cold and when something hurts you.
+
+The brain is a soft wrinkled mass, partly gray and partly white. It is
+in the head; and because it is very soft and easily hurt, Mother
+Nature has put around it a strong wall, or shell, of bone--the
+_skull_, or brain box. Feel your head and see how very hard this bone
+is. Solomon, the Hebrew poet-king, called it the "golden bowl." I
+suppose he called it a "bowl" because it is round like one, and
+"golden" because it is so precious. People do not often grow well
+again if the "golden bowl" is broken or even cracked.
+
+    [Illustration: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM--OUR BODY TELEPHONE
+
+    The picture shows the brain, or "Central," and the thick nerve
+    cord that runs down through the backbone, and the principal
+    nerves of the back and the arms.]
+
+The big _nerve cable_, called the _spinal cord_, that connects the
+brain with the rest of the body, and carries all the messages backward
+and forward, runs down the back and is protected by the backbone, or
+_spine_, which is hollow, so that the cord can run down through it.
+This backbone is jointed together so beautifully, too, that you can
+bend your back about and stoop over, and carry heavy weights on your
+back, and yet the bony tube still protects the cord inside. Solomon
+calls this the "silver cord," because it is so white and shiny that it
+looks like silver. You see, our bodies are full of beautiful as well
+as wonderful things.
+
+Probably sometime when your teacher has asked you to recite a poem you
+have all learned, someone in the class has answered, "I don't remember
+it," or has stood up and recited the first few lines and then stopped,
+and thought, and finally had to say, "I can't go on."
+
+Now what is the matter with this boy, or girl? He looks bright enough,
+and you will probably remember that he was in the class when you
+learned the poem. "Oh," you say, "the poem didn't stay in his head."
+No, it didn't "stick" in his memory; but why didn't it?
+
+Some of the messages that the Five Senses carry to the brain are
+answered at once, as when we move away from danger, or reach out our
+hands and help ourselves to butter, or take off a shoe to shake out a
+pebble. But there are other messages that do not call for an immediate
+reply, and are just stored away for future use in the big "central
+office" of our Body Telephone, in what we call our _memory_. And
+later, when the proper message is sent in by our eyes or ears, or
+other sense organs, which reminds us of this message which they sent
+before, perhaps several weeks, months, or even years ago, it wakes up
+the old message stored away in the memory, and we say we "remember"
+what happened to us, or what we learned at that time.
+
+So, when your teacher asks you to recite a certain poem, and your ears
+hear the title or the first line, you recall the rest of the verses
+and the lesson about it. How many things does the word "Christmas"
+wake up out of your memory? or the sight of soldiers marching? or the
+first taste of strawberries in May?
+
+You think about a great many things that you never _do_. Really you
+are thinking almost all the time you are awake. And besides the
+messages that "Central" just stores away for future use, there are a
+great many messages being carried back and forth along the "telephone
+system" all the time, that you don't keep track of at all--the
+messages that keep the stomach and the heart and the lungs and
+everything in your body working together properly.
+
+How are we to take care of the telephone lines and "Central" of our
+_nervous system_? Whatever you do to build up and help the other parts
+of the body will help your brain to _feel_ and _think_ and _remember_;
+and will help your muscles and nerves to answer promptly and truly
+whatever the message may be. Plenty of good food, plenty of sleep and
+fresh air, plenty of play, will keep your nerves and brain healthy and
+growing.
+
+
+
+
+"ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+
+
+I. KEEPING WELL
+
+How many times have you been absent this term? No oftener than you
+were obliged to be, I am sure; for it's almost as bad as being "put in
+Coventry" to come back and hear about the good time the rest of the
+class have been having, and feel that you "weren't in it." Of course,
+sometimes, when you are not well, you have to be absent; it is best
+that you should be. But it is better still to know how to keep well,
+so you won't have to be absent, and won't have to miss any good times
+in work or play all your life.
+
+You remember that all the parts of your body are fed and ventilated by
+the blood, which is pumped to them from the heart. So long as this
+blood is pure and has plenty of oxygen in it, it does good to every
+part of the body to which it comes. But the moment that poisons and
+dirt and waste begin to pile up in the blood, then the blood that
+comes to the different parts of the body may be poisonous to them,
+instead of helpful.
+
+Such poisons in the blood are particularly harmful to the nerves and
+the brain, because these are among the most delicate and sensitive of
+all the structures in the body.
+
+Often we think of the body as a beautiful house. Now a house does not
+look very beautiful when it has dust and crumbs on the floor, buckets
+of greasy dishwater in the kitchen, and smoke from the furnace in the
+air! You could not live in such a place. No, the smoke must go out up
+the chimney, the dust and crumbs must be swept away, the dirty water
+must be drained off in pipes; the house must be not only cleaned, but
+kept clean all the time. This is true of your body, too.
+
+Now Mother Nature sends the smoke from the body out through the lungs,
+and the crumbs and solid dirt down and out by means of the food tube.
+But the waste water--how does she get rid of that? The waste water,
+you remember, is in the blood vessels, mixed with the blood. How does
+she get it out of the blood? She sends it through three magic
+cleaners, or strainers,--the _skin_, the _liver_, the _kidneys_.
+
+That the skin is a strainer, you already know; for you know how the
+skin lets out the waste water in perspiration, or sweat, and how
+important it is that we keep the little holes of the strainer open and
+clean. And you know, too, that most of the water that passes out of
+the body goes first to the kidneys.
+
+The liver, however, is the largest cleaning machine of all and has to
+work very hard. The blood comes to it full of foods and poisons. This
+wonderful cleaner picks out the food it needs and takes up many of the
+poisons, too. "What does it do with the poisons?" you ask. Some of
+them it changes into good food, and others it makes harmless and sends
+away down the food tube in a fluid called _bile_. If we are strong and
+healthy, the liver has the power to kill many of the disease germs
+that get into the body. That is why sometimes, when you have had a
+chance to take mumps or grippe or some other "catching" disease, you
+don't take it. Your liver kills the germs, or seeds. See how carefully
+Mother Nature has planned that we may be clean inside as well as
+outside.
+
+    [Illustration: THE POSITION OF THE LIVER
+
+    Compare this with the diagram on page 26, and see how the liver
+    partly overlaps the stomach.]
+
+But you must not over-work your liver. If you do, it may become too
+tired to do anything at all. Then all these poisons will spread
+through the body; the skin and the whites of the eyes will grow
+yellow, and you will be what is called "bilious." When this happens,
+the poisons go to your brain, too, and make you feel sad; your tongue
+looks white instead of pink, and you have a disagreeable taste in your
+mouth. Your happiness depends very much on your liver.
+
+"How shall I keep my liver rested and in good working order?" By
+eating only sound, wholesome, pure food, and avoiding dirty milk; by
+going to the toilet regularly every morning after breakfast; by
+keeping your windows open and avoiding the poisons and disease germs
+in foul air. Then, if you run and play and work out of doors, so that
+the muscles move a great deal and you breathe in plenty of oxygen to
+keep the body fires burning briskly, that will help a great deal.
+
+Last summer up in the mountains I saw a big log close by the path. It
+had been sawed across so that the end was smooth. It was brown and
+weather-stained, so of course I knew that it had lain there a long
+time. How surprised I was to see a pile of fine fresh sawdust on the
+ground beside it. As I came nearer, I saw piece after piece of sawdust
+dropping, dropping, dropping, one after the other, from a hole in the
+log. I looked into the hole, and what do you think I saw? Hundreds of
+little brown ants, busy as could be carrying the sawdust, throwing it
+out, and then scurrying back to get some more. Several feet inside the
+log, other ants were cutting the sawdust, hollowing out the rooms of
+their house; and in another part others were getting food for the
+workers, and still others taking care of the baby ants. They were all
+helping one another, and whatever one ant did helped all the rest.
+That is the way with the parts, or organs, of the body. When one part
+works well, it helps all the rest; when one squad of tiny cells in the
+muscles or liver or heart is doing its duty, like the little ants, it
+helps all the other cell-workers in the body to keep healthy.
+
+If you eat proper food, you help not only your stomach but your liver,
+too; for it has not so many poisons to get rid of. While you are
+helping your stomach and your liver, you are helping your heart and
+your brain, and so on. So what you do to help one helps all.
+
+There are, however, some poisons that the liver cannot get rid of; but
+these the skin or the kidneys carry away. Have you ever seen kidney
+beans? The bean is the shape of a kidney. The kidneys are in the
+middle of your back, packed close to your backbone, on a line with
+your waist. This is a picture of them. Do you see the little tubes
+leading down from the kidneys, carrying the waste water and poison
+down into a kind of bag? The walls of this bag, called the _bladder_,
+will stretch, and it will hold about a pint of waste water. From the
+bladder a tube carries the water down out of the body.
+
+    [Illustration: THE KIDNEYS AND THE BLADDER
+
+    The large tubes are the artery and the vein that carry blood to
+    and from this part of the body.]
+
+You can help your kidney-strainers by emptying your bladder at certain
+times each day. Some children have to empty the bladder much oftener
+than others, but most children can form what we call _regular habits_
+about it, by trying to do it at the same times each day. If you are
+quite strong, five times a day is often enough: when you first get up,
+at recess, at noon, at four o'clock, and at bedtime. Many children do
+it much oftener than this; but as they grow older and the muscles grow
+stronger, they slowly outgrow this trouble, if they try to form the
+right habits.
+
+There are many diseases of the kidneys; for, like the liver, they are
+sometimes over-worked and do not carry the poisons from the body. You
+are helping your kidneys when you drink plenty of fresh clean water
+every day, and also when you play or work hard enough to get into a
+good perspiration; for, as perspiring carries out some of the poisons,
+it leaves less for the kidneys to pour out. You ought to get into a
+good perspiration at least once every day, or better, three or four
+times, if you wish to keep healthy. The Bible says, "In the sweat of
+thy brow shalt thou eat bread"; and you must earn health and happiness
+at the same price.
+
+
+II. SOME FOES TO FIGHT
+
+You have seen that sitting or sleeping in rooms where the air is bad,
+or eating the wrong kind of food, or working after you are badly
+tired, will poison your blood and hinder the proper working of that
+beautiful machine, your body. These poisons are made inside your body,
+and you can prevent them by living healthfully and wholesomely. But
+there are other poisons, which may get into the blood from outside the
+body; and while it is best for you not to think too much about these,
+or to worry over dangers that may never come, yet it is well to know
+just enough about some of them to be able to keep out of their way, as
+far as possible.
+
+The most dangerous form of poisons from outside the body are those
+made by the germs of some rather common diseases, which, because you
+can "catch" them from some one else who has them, are called
+"catching," or _infectious_, or _contagious_.
+
+Some of the germs of these "catching" diseases, like the germs of
+typhoid fever, of which we have spoken in connection with our drinking
+water, are carried in the water or milk that we drink, or upon the
+food that we eat; and one of the worst carriers of germs is the
+ordinary household fly.
+
+Not so very many years ago, people did not know that _dirt makes
+people sick_. You see, they did not know anything about the disease
+seeds (germs) that grow so fast in dirt. They did not like to have
+flies about, because flies look so dirty and bite people and crawl
+over things and spot them. But nowadays, we will not have flies about
+because we know that they have been in dirty places where disease
+germs live, and that one little fly can carry thousands and thousands
+of these germs on his feet.
+
+Have you ever looked at a fly through a magnifying glass or under a
+microscope? If you haven't, try it sometime. You will see that his
+legs are covered with little hairs; and it is on these little hairs
+that the germs lodge. They are too small for you to see except with a
+very powerful glass; but scientists have proved that they are there,
+and they have found that there are always typhoid germs among them.
+
+    [Illustration: THE COMMON HOUSE FLY
+
+    As he appears through a magnifying glass.]
+
+Did you ever see a fly wipe his feet before he came into the house?
+No, indeed; and he goes anywhere he pleases, over the bread and into
+the cream. Yet he was born in dirt and bred in dirt, and he lives in
+dirty places all the time he is not crawling over your clean things
+and spoiling them.
+
+Flies are hatched from eggs; and these eggs can hatch only in piles of
+dirt, such as heaps of manure, or places where garbage and scraps from
+the house are dumped or thrown. We call the common fly the "domestic"
+or "house" fly, because he lives only in the neighborhood of houses
+and barnyards where heaps of manure and piles of dirt are allowed to
+gather.
+
+When the fly first hatches from the egg, it is a little white,
+wriggling worm called a _maggot_, like those that some of you may have
+seen in decaying meat or fish or cheese. The maggots must have
+decaying substances to eat and live upon while they are growing, and
+this is why the eggs are laid in manure heaps and garbage piles.
+
+    [Illustration: A MAGGOT HATCHING FROM THE EGG
+
+    (Greatly magnified.)]
+
+It takes the maggot about five days to grow to its full size, and then
+it turns into a _chrysalis_. That is, it is shut up in a kind of case
+that it has spun for itself, like the cocoon of the silkworm or the
+caterpillar. In about five days more it breaks out of this cocoon and
+appears as a fly with wings.
+
+So, you see, the eggs must stay in that manure heap about two weeks if
+they are to hatch. If, within that time, the manure is carted away and
+thrown out somewhere where it will dry, the little unhatched flies
+will be killed, or prevented from hatching. All we have to do, then,
+to be entirely rid of flies about our houses is to see that the heaps
+of manure and all piles of cans and garbage are taken away at least
+once a week.
+
+    [Illustration: FLY MAGGOTS ON OLD NEWSPAPER
+
+    Note the size of the maggot compared with the newspaper type.]
+
+If manure heaps or piles of dirt cannot, for any reason, be carried
+away as often as this, then they can be sprinkled with something that
+is poisonous to flies, such as arsenic or kerosene. This will kill the
+maggots. If we keep every kind of waste and scraps from the house, and
+all the manure from the barn and the pig-pen and the hen-house
+carefully cleaned up, or sprinkled with some poison, we shall get rid
+of flies entirely and never need to use screens at the doors and
+windows. Until we do this, it is best to put screens at the doors and
+windows in the summer time, and particularly to screen carefully any
+place where food is kept or cooked; for we know that a great many
+cases of typhoid and of other diseases of the stomach and bowels, such
+as _summer sickness_, or summer _diarrhea_, and _cholera morbus_, are
+carried to our food by the dirty feet of flies.
+
+Many of the germs of "catching" diseases--most of them, in fact--are
+carried in the air, in scales that have rubbed off the skin of the
+persons sick with them, or in spray that they have coughed into the
+air, or in saliva that they have spit upon the floor.
+
+There is one sickness of this kind that I ought to tell you about,
+because it kills so many thousand people here in our own country every
+year. We sometimes call it the "Great White Plague." Its common name
+is _consumption_, and the doctors call it _tuberculosis_. I dare say
+you have heard of it and wondered what it meant.
+
+A few years ago people thought it could not be cured. They thought
+that children had it because their parents had had it before them. But
+now, the cheering thing about it is that we have found that Mother
+Nature herself can cure it with fresh air and sunshine and wholesome
+food. We have found, too, that people catch it from others who are
+sick with it, and need not have it just because their parents did.
+
+    [Illustration: FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT ARE GOOD DOCTORS]
+
+This means, then, that thousands of people who have it need not die,
+but can be cured simply by living and sleeping out of doors and eating
+plenty of milk, eggs, and meat, nuts and fruit. There are camps for
+them in almost every state in the Union now. The fresh air gives them
+such a big appetite that they can eat more than most healthy people,
+and they soon get strong and well.
+
+If all the people who now have consumption were taken out into the
+country and cured, there would be no one left for the rest of us to
+catch it from, and the disease would soon die. Some day our Boards of
+Health will decide to do this, and then consumption will become as
+rare as smallpox is now, and will kill only a few hundred people a
+year in the United States instead of 150,000 every year, as it does
+now.
+
+People and governments are giving great sums of money, not only to
+cure the people who now have consumption, but to do something towards
+stopping the disease by keeping things so clean and people so strong
+that no one will ever have it. Even little children can help to fight
+and kill this "Great White Plague," and I'll tell you how.
+
+We know that, when people have consumption in their lungs, what they
+cough and spit out of their mouths and blow out of their noses (we
+call it _sputum_) has the germs, or seeds, of the disease in it. So,
+to keep other people from catching the disease, they must hold
+something before the face when they cough, and they must catch the
+sputum in paper (newspapers or paper napkins are very good for this)
+and burn it, for burning kills the germs. Then, too, they must not
+kiss other people on the mouth, and others must not kiss them. They
+must use their own drinking-cups, and never lend or borrow a cup. You
+see, you can look out for these things, yourselves. When grown people
+kiss you, just turn your cheek to them, instead of your mouth. Your
+cheek will not carry anything to your windpipe and lungs. And be sure
+to carry your own drinking-cup, or, better still, make the one for
+which you already have the pattern, every time you need one.
+
+    [Illustration: HIS OWN CUP AND TOWEL]
+
+This sounds easy enough; and it is, too. But sometimes people don't
+know when they have this "plague," and of course they do not feel that
+they must be careful. What is to be done, then?
+
+If people won't take care of themselves, then the government has to
+make health laws to protect them, and the health officers have to see
+that the laws are obeyed. In many of the states and cities, laws have
+been made so that nobody is allowed to spit on the sidewalk or in the
+cars or in any other public place; and common drinking-cups are
+forbidden at all park fountains and at the water-coolers in schools
+and trains and stations and other public places.
+
+You ought to know about these things, because, as I have just said,
+other sicknesses, too, are carried about in the nose and mouth.
+_Grippe_, _pneumonia_ or lung fever, and what we call _colds_ are
+caught in exactly the same way. We used to think we caught them by
+being chilled; but we are much more likely to take them by being shut
+up in a hot, stuffy room with other people who already have them.
+Mother Nature never gave us such things in her beautiful, clean
+outdoors. We must wear clothes enough to keep us warm when we go out,
+and have bedclothes enough to keep us warm while we sleep; but we need
+not be afraid of catching any sickness from the clean outside air,
+either by day or by night. Drafts are not dangerous, except when our
+blood is already full of poisons and germs from foul air.
+
+Of course it is foolish even for strong, healthy people to run any
+risks that can be avoided, and there is one other thing that you
+should keep on the watch against doing; and that is, touching or
+kissing or playing with other children who may be sick. It is better
+not even to sit in the same room with them if you can avoid it.
+
+Many of the infectious diseases--and nearly three fourths of all the
+diseases that children have are infectious--are caught, as we have
+seen, from germs that are carried in the air. That is one reason why
+so many infectious diseases are likely to begin with running at the
+nose, or sneezing, or cold in the head, or sore throat. The germs,
+having been breathed in with the air, catch on the sides of the
+nostrils or at the back of the throat, and start inflammation and
+soreness wherever they land. This is just the way that _measles_,
+_scarlet fever_, _chicken pox_, _whooping cough_, and _diphtheria_
+begin. Nearly all colds in the head, and sore throats with coughing,
+are infectious; so the best thing to do whenever you have a bad cold
+in the head, or a sore throat, is to keep out in the open air as much
+as you can, until it is better. Of course, a cold is not such a
+serious thing in itself; but, if it is neglected, it may lead to some
+very dangerous troubles, particularly to inflammation of the lungs,
+and sometimes even of the kidneys or the liver or the heart. Several
+of these infectious diseases--measles, chicken pox, and scarlet fever,
+for instance--have a rash, or breaking-out, called an _eruption_, upon
+the skin. This is another thing easy to look out for; and if you see
+anyone with a rash upon his face and hands, it is a good thing to keep
+away from him and not let him touch you. Even if he should not have
+measles or scarlet fever or chicken pox, but only a disease of the
+skin itself, he still might spread the infection of that; for most
+diseases that cause a breaking-out upon the surface of the skin are
+infectious.
+
+Some of these infectious diseases are so common among children that
+they are called _Children's Diseases_, or the _Diseases of Infancy_,
+just as if it were natural for you to have them while you are
+children, and as if they were something that you have to have as a
+matter of course, before you grow up.
+
+But it isn't necessary at all to have them, if you will take care of
+yourselves and help your doctors and the Board of Health of your
+county or town or city to prevent their spreading. These diseases,
+although usually very mild, never do anyone any good whatever, and may
+do serious harm; for their poisons may stay in the blood and injure
+the heart or the kidneys or the nerves.
+
+One thing I should like to urge you to do if you happen to get one of
+these "children's diseases"; and that is, to stay in bed or out of
+school or away from work just as long as your doctor tells you to.
+This is important, because it is very dangerous indeed to become
+over-tired or overheated or chilled, or to get your feet wet or romp
+too hard or sit up too late, before you have fully recovered; and you
+will not have fully recovered until at least three or four weeks after
+you are able to be out of bed. But if you take good care of yourselves
+for three or four weeks after measles or chicken pox or whooping cough
+or a very bad cold, you will avoid almost all danger of their poisons
+injuring your heart or kidneys or nerves, and causing chronic
+diseases, like Bright's disease or heart disease, later in life.
+
+Perhaps now I have told you enough about poisons and sickness. You
+must not be frightened about them. I have told you these things so
+that you may understand why you must bathe, and brush your teeth, and
+wash your face and hands, and wear clean clothes, and breathe fresh
+air, and keep your windows open, and play out of doors--in fact, keep
+your bodies clean inside and out. I know you will be glad enough to do
+these things, troublesome though some of them may be, if you know the
+reason why. The best of it is that when you keep perfectly clean and
+healthy, not even the "Great White Plague" and cold seeds, or germs,
+can hurt you, even though they get into your mouth or nose; for Mother
+Nature gives healthy bodies the power to kill germs, and quite without
+our knowing it.
+
+    [Illustration: ENJOYING "ALL OUTDOORS"
+
+    Very discouraging to disease germs!]
+
+
+III. PROTECTING OUR FRIENDS
+
+If you knew that some of your little friends were sick with an
+infectious disease like measles or scarlet fever, of course you would
+keep away from them, so as to avoid catching the disease. And if they
+knew that they had a disease that was infectious, of course they would
+want to let all their friends know of it, so as to prevent them from
+coming and catching it. But how can they let all their friends know?
+Sick people don't feel like writing letters; and, even if they did,
+some diseases can be carried in letters. So that might not be at all a
+friendly thing to do.
+
+This has always been the greatest difficulty in preventing the spread
+of infectious diseases--how to let other people know. So about fifty
+or sixty years ago, people got together and decided that the best
+thing to do was to appoint an officer known as a _Health Officer_, or
+a committee known as a _Board of Health_, in each town and in each
+county, whose business it should be to find out cases of infectious
+disease, and to warn other people against them.
+
+These officers first ask all the doctors in the town to report to this
+Central Health Office, or Board of Health, every case of a patient
+with an infectious disease. Then, when the case has been reported,
+that office sends some one with a card on which the name of the
+disease is printed in large letters, and he tacks the card upon the
+front of the house or upon the fence around the lot, so that everyone
+who goes near the house may know that there is danger, and keep away
+from it. Then, sometimes, a messenger from the Board of Health goes
+into the house and talks to the family, and tells them how they can
+keep the patient in a room by himself, so as to prevent the rest of
+the family from catching the disease; and how they can best take care
+of the patient, and keep from carrying the infection through clothing
+or food or anything else.
+
+    [Illustration: ONE WAY IN WHICH THE BOARD OF HEALTH PROTECTS US]
+
+Then, because anyone who has been sick with an infectious disease will
+still be shedding the germs of the disease and spitting or coughing,
+not only as long as he is sick, but for two or three weeks after he is
+beginning to feel better, the messenger will tell the family that the
+patient must stay either in his own room or within his own house or
+yard, for so many days or weeks. This is called keeping _quarantine_.
+The word comes from the Italian word _quaranta_, "forty"; because in
+the early days when the practice was first begun, the patients used to
+be kept by themselves in this way for forty days. While sometimes this
+is very inconvenient and hard and troublesome, it is really the only
+safe way of stopping the spread of these diseases; and I am sure
+anyone of you would be willing to take this extra trouble sooner than
+let any of your friends catch a disease from you, and perhaps die of
+it. Quarantine is also the best and safest thing for the patient,
+because it keeps him quiet and at rest until he has completely
+recovered, and until all danger that the poison of the disease will
+attack his lungs or heart or kidneys is over.
+
+In some of the best schools now there is an examination of all the
+children every morning, by a visiting doctor sent by the Board of
+Health. If the doctor finds any child that has red and watery eyes, or
+is running at the nose, or sneezing, or coughing, or has a sore
+throat, he usually sends him home at once, so that the other children
+will not catch the infection. The school doctor is not thinking only
+about what seems to be a cold, although, as you know, it is very
+important that anyone with a cold should take good care of himself and
+should not let others catch it from him. The doctor sends the child
+home because this is just the way in which several other infectious
+diseases may begin--_measles_, _scarlet fever_, _chicken pox_,
+_whooping cough_, and _diphtheria_. For most infectious diseases, as
+you will remember, are caught from germs floating in the air and
+breathed into the nose and throat.
+
+The Board of Health takes care of the public in many ways besides
+these. It keeps a very careful watch upon the water supply of the
+town, or city, so as to keep the houses and factories from running
+their drainage, or _sewage_, into it; for this, as you already know,
+might cause the spread of typhoid fever and of other diseases of the
+bowels and stomach.
+
+The Board of Health sends men to examine, or inspect, the milk the
+dairymen bring, to see that it is sweet and pure, and that there are
+no infectious germs in it. And it sends men out into the country to
+examine the dairy farms and see that the cows are properly fed, and
+that the barns in which they are milked are kept clean; and that the
+water in which the milk pans and bottles are washed comes from clean,
+pure wells or springs.
+
+    [Illustration: WHAT MILK INSPECTION MEANS
+
+    Clean barns, cows, pails, and milkers mean clean milk. The cows
+    here stand in fresh, clean sawdust.]
+
+Another thing that the Board of Health does is to send an inspector
+round to look very carefully at all the meat that is sold in the
+butcher shops, and at all the fruits and vegetables at the grocers'.
+If he finds any meat that is diseased or tainted or bad, or any fruit
+or vegetables that are beginning to spoil, or any flour, sugar, or
+canned goods that have been mixed with cheaper stuffs that are not
+good to eat,--in fact, are what the law calls _adulterated_,--he may
+seize the bad and dangerous foods and destroy them, and summon to
+court the dealers who are trying to sell them. Then the dealers are
+fined or perhaps sent to prison.
+
+So, you see, the Board of Health is one of the very best friends that
+you have, trying to keep your food pure and good, the water that you
+drink clean and wholesome, and the milk sweet and free from dirt or
+disease germs. You ought to help these officers and their inspectors
+in every way that you can. I know that it is sometimes troublesome to
+obey all their rules; and perhaps when you don't know what the dangers
+are which they are trying to guard you against, it seems to you that
+they are too particular about a great many things. But just see what
+they have done already to make our cities and houses healthier and
+pleasanter places to live in.
+
+Only one hundred and fifty years ago, for instance, that terrible
+disease called _smallpox_ killed hundreds of thousands of people every
+year in Europe; and it attacked the eyes and blinded so many of those
+who recovered from it, that nearly half the poor blind people in the
+blind asylums had had their sight destroyed by it. In smallpox there
+is a terrible eruption, or breaking out, upon the skin, which is
+likely to leave it pitted and scarred; and even fifty years ago it was
+exceedingly common to see people who had been pitted by smallpox, or,
+as the expression was, "pock-marked."
+
+Cows have a disease somewhat like this, but much less dangerous,
+called cow-pox. Years ago, before dairies were inspected as they are
+now, dairy maids often caught this disease from the cows they milked,
+so that their hands would break out with pock-marks.
+
+About a hundred years ago, a Dr. Richard Jenner discovered that the
+dairy maids in the country district in which he lived, who had caught
+this mild infection from the cows they milked, never caught smallpox
+even when they were exposed to it. So after studying over the subject
+for some years, he took a little of the matter, or pus, from the
+eruption on the udder of a cow that had cow-pox, scratched the arm of
+a little patient of his, and rubbed some of the pus into it. Only a
+short time after, the family of this little boy was exposed to
+smallpox, and all the other children took it badly, but he escaped.
+
+This was the beginning of what we call _vaccination_; and as soon as
+it was found that this scratching of the arm and putting a little of
+this _vaccine_ matter into it would cause only a few days of
+feverishness, and then after that give complete protection against
+smallpox, the Boards of Health all over the civilized world took it up
+and insisted upon everybody's being vaccinated when a baby.
+
+As a result, smallpox has become one of the rarest, instead of the
+commonest, of our infectious diseases. Only a few dozen people die of
+it each year in Europe, instead of several hundred thousands; scarcely
+one one-hundredth of the people now in our blind asylums have been
+sent there by smallpox, and I dare say that many of you have never
+even seen a pock-marked person.
+
+Another disease that used to be very dangerous to little children is
+_diphtheria_. It was not only very infectious, but very deadly; and
+nearly half of the children who took it died of it, and the doctors
+didn't know anything that would cure it. About twenty years ago, two
+great scientists, one a Frenchman named Roux--a student of the great
+Professor Louis Pasteur, of whom I am sure you have heard--and the
+other, a German, named Behring, discovered an _antitoxin_ for
+diphtheria; that is, something to defeat the poison of the diphtheria
+germ. When this antitoxin is injected into the blood, it will cure
+diphtheria.
+
+The doctors and the Boards of Health took this up too, and insisted
+upon its being used in all cases; with the result that where the
+antitoxin is used early, scarcely one in twenty of the patients dies,
+instead of eight or ten out of twenty, as before.
+
+You know how careful we are all trying to be not to let consumption
+spread. By insisting that all houses shall be built so as to give
+plenty of light and fresh air to everyone; and by forbidding spitting
+upon the streets; and by insisting that food to be sold, especially
+milk, shall be clean,--by preventing the spread of the disease in
+every way, our Boards of Health have cut down the number of deaths
+from this disease nearly one half; and people in the United States,
+for instance, or in England, where these health laws are enforced,
+live now almost exactly twice as long on the average as they did one
+hundred years ago, or as they do now in India and in Turkey, for
+instance, where the people are ignorant and dirty and careless.
+
+So you see that even if some of the health regulations do seem rather
+troublesome and fussy, it is well worth while to try to follow them
+and help the health inspectors in every way. Even little children can
+help very much in keeping the houses and the cities in which they live
+clean and healthful and beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+WORK AND PLAY
+
+
+I. GROWING STRONG
+
+When school is over, out you go with a rush, into the open air. You
+have worked hard all day, and now you have two hours before supper to
+do just as you like.
+
+Perhaps you will play tag, or prisoner's base, or stealing sticks, or
+town ball. They are all fine fun, and they exercise every muscle in
+your body and make your lungs breathe deeper and your heart beat
+faster, and make every part of you grow stronger.
+
+    [Illustration: BETTER TO TAKE THAN MEDICINE]
+
+Perhaps you have a few chores to do or errands to run; but even these
+are almost as much fun as play and give you good exercise in the open
+air and, what is better still, a feeling that you are being of some
+use in the world, which is one of the happiest and most satisfactory
+feelings that you will ever have, if you live to be a hundred years
+old.
+
+    [Illustration: OUT FOR AN AFTERNOON IN THE PARK]
+
+But when you have finished your work, you must not forget to play
+real, lively, jolly games out of doors--ball and tag and
+hide-and-seek, and all those games that children love.
+
+Hide-and-seek is a good game, because, when you are caught, you can
+stand still a few minutes and rest. When you are hiding, you can take
+a good breath for the home-run you have to make. Most games, in fact,
+are planned like this--a run and a rest, and then another run. While
+you rest, some one else is taking his turn at the bat, or at being
+"It," or whatever is the hardest part of the work. This is one reason
+why games are so good for you to play.
+
+You see, when you run, you are working your muscles and heart-pump
+very hard; and if you kept running all the time, you would burn up so
+much food in the muscles that the heart couldn't pump blood fast
+enough to wash away all the waste, and would just chug-chug-chug till
+it tired itself out. When you are tired, it is time to stop and rest;
+for being tired means that the poisons are not being carried away from
+the muscles fast enough, and that your heart is working too hard.
+
+What is it in your body that gives it stiffening to stand upright, and
+makes levers in your legs and arms to move it about? When you feel
+your body and arms and head with your fingers, what are they like?
+Isn't there something hard and then a soft kind of pad over it? We
+call the hard things _bones_. Your teacher will show you some. These
+are white and chalky looking; but when they were alive, they were a
+beautiful pinkish white color.
+
+    [Illustration: SKELETON OF A MAN]
+
+So you have a pretty pearl-colored framework, the shape of your body.
+This, which is called your _skeleton_, makes you stiff enough to stand
+up and walk about. Now bend your arm and turn your wrist and open and
+close your hand. You find that your frame-work is jointed. When you
+are tired standing, you can bend your joints and sit down. If you want
+an apple, you can close your fingers and pick it up.
+
+    [Illustration: THE MUSCLES OF THE ARM]
+
+    [Illustration: WHEN THE MUSCLES SHORTEN]
+
+What are the soft pads that you felt over the bones of your arms and
+legs? Stretch your right arm straight out in front of you and take
+hold of the upper part of it with your left hand. Now clench your
+right fist and bring it toward your shoulder. Can you feel the elastic
+pads, or bands, moving? What are they doing? They are pulling your
+hand up to your shoulder. When you walk, you can feel the elastic
+bands moving your legs along. So every move we make, these elastic
+ropes are at work pulling us about and letting us sit down and making
+us run and jump. We call them _muscles_.
+
+You have perhaps seen jointed dolls. The strings and rubber bands on
+their joints help to make them move; but the dolls don't act as if
+they were alive. They have no telephone system to tell their bodies
+how to move.
+
+If you will stop and think how many "moves" you make in a day, you'll
+know how hard your muscles have to work. They'd be quite tired out if
+they did not have plenty to feed on all the time and did not rest at
+least nine hours a day. I told you how the food is melted and carried
+about in the blood. It is the blood that brings the muscles their food
+and keeps them alive and makes them strong enough to move the joints
+and the bones.
+
+What does all this playing do for you? It makes you grow not only big,
+but strong, too. What puny little things you'd be if you couldn't get
+out and run and play and make your muscles strong and your nerves do
+just what you tell them to do.
+
+I know of ten or twelve little chickens that hatched a few weeks ago.
+There are so many cats about, that the poor little chicks have to be
+shut up in the barn all day. At first they ran and played and jumped
+on their mother's back, but now they hump their shoulders and hang
+their heads and don't seem hungry and look sad and sick. They are not
+so big as some that hatched later. Can you tell me why? Of course you
+can. You know that it is outdoor exercise and play that chickens need,
+and that you need to make you grow big and strong, too. Of course, you
+will have to keep your backbone straight and your chest out and your
+head up; but all these things will be easy for you if you are
+perfectly well and strong.
+
+The school tries to take just as good care of your health and growth
+as it can. Your lessons are short, and you change from one to another
+frequently, with perhaps drills or calisthenic exercises between, so
+that you need not sit still too long at a time; and the seats and
+desks are of different sizes so that you need not sit at a desk that
+does not fit you. When your teacher urges you to go out of doors and
+play at recess time, even if you do not want to, you must think to
+yourself, "It will rest me and make me grow big and straight and
+strong."
+
+When you come home from school, go out of doors and stay out just as
+long as you can. Don't let dolls or toys or picture books tempt you to
+stay in the house. The pictures out of doors are ever so much
+prettier, as soon as you learn to see them. But some of you live in
+crowded cities. I hope you are near a park or a playground, where you
+can have a good romp with other children, and use the swings and
+see-saws and bars, and the skating pond in winter, and the swimming
+pool in summer.
+
+    [Illustration: A SKATING POND MADE OUT OF A GARDEN
+
+    The school garden is flooded in winter--a fine place to skate
+    right after school.]
+
+What fun swimming is! You can learn easily if you have a safe place
+and an older person to teach you the stroke. You can roll over on your
+back in the water, and float, and dive; but you must not stay in
+longer than twenty minutes, and not so long as that sometimes. As soon
+as you begin to feel chilly, come out. Swimming not only cleans your
+skin, but is splendid  exercise for your lungs and muscles.
+
+All this play out of doors will help your appetite, and that will make
+you ready to eat the right kind of food, and this food will get into
+your blood and keep your muscles firm and strong.
+
+    [Illustration: SPLENDID EXERCISE FOR LUNGS AND MUSCLES]
+
+
+II. ACCIDENTS
+
+I am going to tell you what to do in the case of some of the little
+accidents that may happen to anyone, and especially of the kind that
+children meet with in playing; but I don't want you to stop playing
+for fear you'll be hurt. Mother Nature can usually heal all the bumps
+and cuts and scratches that come from wholesome play.
+
+You can, however, help her very much by keeping the _scratch_ or _cut
+perfectly clean_. This is the chief thing to remember. Wash it
+thoroughly in clean water. Hold it under the pump, or faucet, and let
+the water pour down on it.
+
+If you can, pour some _antiseptic_, or germ killer, over the cut, and
+wrap it up in a clean cloth. There is a medicine called _peroxid of
+hydrogen_, which is good for cuts and wounds, but an older person will
+have to put it on for you.
+
+If the scratch is from a finger nail or the claw of a cat, or if the
+wound is the bite of some animal, you must be sure to have your mother
+or a doctor clean the wound with strong medicine. You see, nails and
+claws and teeth are, as a rule, dirty, and have on them germs that
+will get into the cut and make it swell and be very sore indeed.
+
+    [Illustration: THE TIGHT BANDAGE HIGHER THAN THE CUT]
+
+Sometime you may have a cut that is deep. You will see the bright red
+blood spurt from it. This means that you have cut one of the blood
+pipes called arteries. If the cut is on the arm or the leg, you should
+take a cloth or bandage and tie it tightly around the arm or leg
+_above_ the cut; and if that does not check the blood, put a piece of
+stick under the cloth and twist the stick, as in the picture. For a
+cut like this you must get help as soon as possible, and keep quiet,
+or else you will increase the flow of blood.
+
+If you get anything in your eye, be sure not to rub the eye; don't
+even wink hard if you can help it. You will only make the pain worse,
+because you will scratch the eyeball. Let some one take out the bit of
+dust or the cinder or the fly, or whatever it is, as quickly as
+possible. Often, if you close the lids gently and hold them so, the
+tears will wash the speck down for you.
+
+If you should bruise yourself, the best way to treat the bruise is to
+pour either quite cold or quite warm water over it, and keep this up
+for several minutes; or to put it into a bowl of hot water. Then tie
+it up in a bandage of soft cotton cloth or gauze and pour over it a
+lotion containing a little alcohol--about one sixth or one fourth.
+This, by evaporating, cools off the bruise and relieves the pain.
+
+If your ear, or nose, or a finger should happen to be frozen or frost
+bitten, the best thing to do is to rub it hard with snow until it
+thaws out and becomes pink again. Above all, don't go too near the
+fire, and don't go into a very warm room too soon.
+
+If you get one of those uncomfortable itchy swellings on your feet
+called _chilblains_, which come from cold floors in your houses, or
+from wet feet, or from wearing too thin shoes and stockings, don't put
+your feet too near the fire, but rub them well with turpentine just
+before going to bed at night. This will often take all the pain and
+itching out of them.
+
+Sometimes people make the mistake of drinking something that is
+poisonous. Of course, one good way to prevent this is to have _every
+bottle in the house carefully marked_ and never to take anything from
+a bottle without reading the mark, or label. Another good way is _not
+to have poisons about_ any more than we actually need to.
+
+Still, even so, sometimes a mistake is made. If you ever make such a
+mistake, the best thing to do is to drink as much warm water as you
+can, and into the second cupful to put a tablespoonful of dry mustard
+or two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. This will make you vomit, and
+up will come the poison. The water makes the poison weaker. If this
+doesn't make you throw up the poison, have some one tickle the back of
+your throat with a feather. There are a great many kinds of poison and
+as many things to take to cure them; but this is the only remedy I
+shall tell you about, because, by the time you have tried this, some
+older person will probably have come to help you.
+
+All the medicines that you see advertised as "Headache Cures" are
+dangerous poisons if taken in too large doses; and most of them in
+small doses weaken the heart. They are what we call narcotics; they
+just deaden the nerves to pain without doing anything whatever to
+relieve or remove the cause.
+
+If you have a headache, the best thing to do is to go and lie down
+quietly and rest or sleep, until it goes away. A headache always means
+that something is wrong; it is one of Nature's most valuable danger
+signals. When your head aches, Nature is telling you that you have
+been over-straining your eyes, or breathing foul air, or eating some
+food that does not agree with you, or forgetting to go to the toilet
+regularly, or not getting sleep enough. The sensible thing to do is
+not to swallow some medicine to deaden your nerves to the pain, but to
+find out what you have been doing that is unhealthful for you, and
+then stop it.
+
+Most of the medicines called "patent medicines," which are advertised
+to "cure" all sorts of pains and troubles, contain poisons, and are
+particularly dangerous because they easily lead one to form the habit
+of taking them. Nine tenths of them are either absolute frauds,--of no
+strength or use whatever,--or else they contain alcohol, or opium, or
+some of the dangerous drugs made out of coal tar.
+
+Now about _burns_. You need not wash them, because the heat has killed
+the troublesome germs. They need to be covered from the air, if the
+blister is broken. Cover them thickly with olive oil or vaseline, or
+common baking soda mixed with a few drops of water. This makes a good
+paste to put over them, and it will ease the pain. (This is the way to
+treat a _wasp_ or _bee sting_, too, after you have pulled out the
+"stinger.") If the blister of the burn is not broken, just keep
+putting vaseline or sweet oil on it every half hour or so, and the
+blister won't break; for the oil will make it limber and prevent it
+from bursting.
+
+If ever your clothes should catch fire, _do not run_; the wind you
+make will only fan the flames, so that they burn faster. _Lie down and
+roll over and over_, as fast as you can. If there is a rug or a quilt
+handy, wrap yourself up tight in it. My youngest brother once saved a
+little child's life this way. He was not very old, but he remembered
+to put the child on the floor and roll him up in a rug.
+
+However, the best way to prevent accidents with fire is to let fire
+and lamps and matches and kerosene and sparklers and firecrackers
+alone.
+
+I am so glad that people are becoming sensible about keeping our
+nation's birthday, the Fourth of July, and are doing away with the
+firecrackers that have killed so many thousands of children. The burns
+you get from firecrackers are much more dangerous than other burns. A
+dirt-germ often gets into them that may cause _lockjaw_. The name
+tells what it is: it locks the jaws together so that its victim cannot
+eat; and, of course, if he cannot eat, he cannot live very long. Next
+Fourth of July try getting flags and bunting and drums and horns, if
+you like, instead of these dangerous fireworks.
+
+In keeping the Fourth one year not long ago, one hundred and
+seventy-one children lost one or more fingers; forty-one lost a leg,
+an arm, or a hand; thirty-six lost one eye, and sixteen lost both
+eyes; and two hundred and fifteen children were killed! This accounts
+for only the children; counting everybody, five thousand three hundred
+and seven people were killed or hurt. No wonder we begin to think that
+we ought to keep the Fourth in some other way.
+
+In the City of Washington, on one Fourth of July, one hundred and four
+people were taken to the hospital; but the following year when no
+fireworks were allowed to be sold, the hospitals did not have a single
+patient from the accidents of the day.
+
+    [Illustration: A RESULT OF CELEBRATING THE FOURTH IN THE OLD WAY]
+
+Water, as well as fire, has its dangers. If you ever fall into the
+water, _be sure to keep your mouth shut and your hands below your
+chin_. Then paddle with your hands gently, and you'll swim, just as
+any other young animal does when first thrown into the water. Even
+your cat, who hates water, can swim easily when she falls in. If you
+keep your wits as she does, you will get along as well. Some people
+learn to swim just by trying by themselves.
+
+    [Illustration: WORKING TO START HIS BREATHING AGAIN]
+
+If anyone in your party, when you are out boating or swimming, should
+be nearly drowned, the best way to revive him is to lay him, as
+quickly as possible, flat on his face on level ground, just turning
+his head a little to one side so that his nose and mouth will not be
+blocked. Then, kneeling astride of his legs, put both your hands on
+the small of his back and press downward with all your weight while
+you count three. This squeezes the abdomen and the lower part of the
+chest so as to drive the air out of the lungs. Then swing backward so
+as to take the weight off your hands, while you count three again; and
+then swing forward again and press down, again forcing the air out of
+the lungs. Keep up this swing-pumping about ten or fifteen times a
+minute for at least ten or fifteen minutes, unless the person begins
+to breathe of himself before this. Don't waste any time trying to hold
+him up by the feet, or roll him over a barrel so as to get the water
+out of his lungs. Just turn him over on his face as quickly as
+possible and get to work making a weight-pump of yourself on his back.
+
+If there is any life left in the body at all when it is taken out of
+the water, you will succeed in saving it. It is very seldom, however,
+that anyone who has been under water more than five minutes can be
+revived.
+
+And now the thing that I want you to be sure to remember, I have saved
+for the last. No matter what kind of accident happens, keep your wits
+about you and keep cool. Be calm and _think_ what it is best to do,
+instead of letting yourself be frightened. Of course, get some one to
+help you as soon as you can and, if need be, call for help as loud as
+your lungs will let you. But use that wonderful "phone" system to send
+in and out the messages that will help you to help yourself by telling
+your muscles what to do.
+
+
+III. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
+
+One morning I stopped a moment on the street to speak to a friend. Her
+little nephew had just finished eating some candy, and down went his
+candy-bag on the pavement. His aunt happened to see it. "Oh, no,
+Claude," she said, "don't you see the big green can there? Better put
+it into that." But Claude was only three years old; and the can was so
+tall that he could not tell what it was, till we led him up to it.
+
+Do you have cans like these in your town, too? It is good to think
+that every one of us, even such little fellows as Claude, can help to
+keep the city beautiful. But it is not simply to make things look nice
+that we have so many cans--cans for ashes, cans for papers, cans for
+food scraps. No indeed, it is to keep the city clean and make it fit
+for people to live in; for if dirty papers and scraps were left to
+blow about the streets, they would fill the air with germs and filth.
+
+Any dust that blows about the streets is likely to be carrying disease
+germs with it. That is why we have sprinklers driven through the
+streets to wet them and to keep down the dust; and why, in large
+cities, the streets are thoroughly flooded at night. If the streets
+are kept damp and clean, then the air above them is cool and fresh and
+pure.
+
+How does the city get rid of all the dirt and waste? From every house
+there are two kinds of waste. Some is taken away in pipes from the
+sink and bathroom out into pipes that run under the street, and these
+carry it away from the city to some stream or deep water that takes it
+entirely away from the town.
+
+The waste stuffs that are not watery, but solid--cabbage leaves, apple
+cores, potato parings, and other scraps from the kitchen are carted
+away and burned or fed to pigs. The ashes and tin cans are carted
+away, also, and used in making new land or filling up hollow places.
+
+Besides taking away the dirt, cities are careful to get clear, pure
+drinking water. They are very, very careful about this; and they
+usually have the water tested often, because, as you have learned,
+even water that looks perfectly pure may give people typhoid fever.
+That is why, when you are out in the country, on a picnic perhaps, you
+must not drink from the streams. They may receive the drainage from a
+farmer's barnyard, or the sewage from some house.
+
+The more we all learn about these things, the more careful will the
+city be to protect her people. To be sure, most cities now have Boards
+of Health who employ men and women to go about and see that the food
+in the stores is clean--no flies, no dust, and no tobacco smoke on it.
+They have laws, too, about keeping milk clean; and in New York alone
+these laws have saved the lives of thousands of babies. And they have
+laws about the care of streets and buildings and cars and parks and a
+great many other things.
+
+In all these things we have been talking about, I want you to be
+thinking how you can help. For a city is made up of people--boys and
+girls and men and women. The city is what its people make it; and
+everyone must help, even the smallest children, no older than little
+Claude.
+
+The first and most important thing for you to do is to keep yourself
+clean and tidy. And the next thing is for you to keep your back yard
+as well as your front yard and the school yard and the street free
+from papers and sticks and cans and old playthings. You can put away
+your things when you are through playing; or, if you are making a
+railroad or a town or a playhouse, you can leave it looking nice and
+tidy. You can help chiefly by putting away your own things. You know
+the old saying, "A workman is known by his chips"; and a good workman
+always works in an orderly way.
+
+When you eat apples or bananas or oranges, don't throw the skins or
+peelings about, but put them in a garbage can or swill bucket or cover
+them with soft dirt in the garden or stable yard; and don't throw
+peanut shells, or scraps of paper and the like, about the streets or
+parks. You should begin to notice all these things and talk about
+them, and that will make other people begin to think about them, too.
+
+Then you can make gardens instead of leaving bare, untidy back yards.
+I think that nicely kept vegetable gardens are almost as pretty as
+flower gardens. If you cannot mow the lawn, you can at least cut the
+long grass on the edges; and that makes such a difference! It is
+wonderful how much boys and girls can do in making and keeping a city
+really beautiful.
+
+I hope that you have plenty of room to play in now. Of course, when
+you grow up, you will see that there are plenty of playgrounds and
+parks for the children. We are beginning to find out that the richest
+and the most beautiful city is the one whose streets are lined with
+families of happy, rosy-cheeked children. So, you see, the "City
+Beautiful" is the one that takes best care of her children, and she
+can do this only by keeping her streets and houses perfectly clean and
+seeing that the food her people get is fresh and good, and their
+drinking water pure. If the city or town you live in is not like this,
+be sure you do your very best to make it better.
+
+    [Illustration: WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A BACK YARD LIKE THIS?]
+
+    [Illustration: OR LIKE THIS?]
+
+There is one great evil that for hundreds and hundreds of years has
+been known wherever people are crowded together, and even in the open
+country, too; and which has been the cause of more untidiness and
+uncleanliness and unhappiness and disease than any other evil ever
+known. And that is the drinking of alcohol. People don't drink clear
+alcohol, but they can get a great deal of it--enough to poison them
+badly--in the fermented drinks you learned about some time ago.
+
+In the days when your grandfather was a little boy, every man thought
+that ale and wine and whiskey were good foods for him when he was
+well; and good medicine when he was sick. He believed that they gave
+him an appetite, and increased his strength. But now we have found, by
+carefully studying the effects of alcohol, in laboratories and in
+hospitals, that these beliefs were almost entirely mistaken. We know
+that all that wine, beer, and whiskey do is to make people feel better
+for a little while, without making them actually stronger or better in
+any way. In fact, in most respects these drinks make them weaker and
+worse instead.
+
+Perhaps you will ask, "How do whiskey and wine and beer do us harm?"
+And here is only part of the answer: (1) They tire the heart and, by
+enlarging the blood pipes in the skin, make the heart pump too much of
+the blood out to the skin. In this way they make a person feel warmer
+when he really is not any warmer. (2) They make the liver work too
+hard. (3) They dull the brain, so that it cannot think so clearly or
+so well. (4) If one drinks them frequently, it is harder for him to
+get well when he is sick; more people die out of those who drink
+alcohol than out of those who do not.
+
+Alcohol is a _narcotic_; that is, it deadens our nerves, for the time
+being, to any sensations of pain or discomfort, much in the same way
+that a very small dose of _morphine_ or _opium_ would. We may imagine
+it does us good because, for a little while after drinking it, we may
+cease to feel pain or fatigue or cold; but, instead of making us
+really better and able to do more work, it is dulling our nerves so
+that we work more slowly and more clumsily. Men who have carefully
+measured the amount of work that they do have found that they do less
+work on days when they take one or two glasses of beer or wine than
+they do on days when they drink only water.
+
+The great insurance companies have found that those of their policy
+holders who drink no alcohol at all live nearly one fourth longer and
+have nearly one third fewer sicknesses than those who drink alcohol
+even in moderate amounts.
+
+Indeed, so strong is the evidence as to the bad effects of alcohol,
+and so steadily is it increasing, that it will probably not be very
+many years more before the drinking of wine or beer by intelligent,
+thoughtful people will have become less than half as common as it is
+now.
+
+Strong, healthy men may be able for a long time to drink small amounts
+of liquor without noticing any harmful effects; but all the time the
+alcohol may be doing serious harm to their nerves and brain and
+kidneys and liver and blood vessels, which they will not find out
+until it is too late to stop the trouble.
+
+Useless and bad as alcohol is for full-grown men and women, it is even
+worse for young and growing children; and no child, and no boy or girl
+under the age of twenty-one, should ever touch a drop of it, except in
+those rare instances where it may be prescribed as a medicine by a
+doctor, just as many other drugs are, which in larger doses would be
+poisons.
+
+Fortunately, it will be no trouble for you children to let it alone
+entirely; for not one of you would like the taste of it the first
+time--or, indeed, for the matter of that, for the first ten or twelve
+times--that you tried to drink it, if you should be so foolish. This
+is one striking difference between alcohol and all other foods and
+drinks. Children have absolutely no natural liking, or taste, for the
+drinks that contain it, as they have for meat, milk, sugar, apples,
+and the other real foods. This is Nature's way of telling them that it
+is not a real food, and not needed in any way for their growth and
+health. Let it alone absolutely, until you are at least twenty-one
+years old; and by that time you will probably have become so convinced
+of the harm that it is doing that you will never begin using it at
+all.
+
+What we have been saying so far applies, of course, only to the
+moderate use of alcohol. How terrible the effects of the long or
+excessive use of alcohol are, you don't need to learn from a book. All
+you have to do is to keep your eyes open on the streets, and see the
+drunken men reeling along the sidewalk, and the wrecks of men that
+hang around the saloons. The poorhouses and the jails and the insane
+asylums are filled with them. The most terrible thing that can happen
+to anyone is to become a drunkard. The best and safest and only
+sensible thing to do is to keep away from the only stuff that makes
+drunkards. It may do you the most terrible harm, and it cannot do you
+the slightest good.
+
+Your city can never become the "City Beautiful" so long as this evil
+mars it; and, as you grow up, I hope you will do all you can toward
+making the right kind of city and home.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVENING MEAL
+
+
+When you have had some good games of play after school, and have
+finished whatever errands you may have to run, or have done the chores
+about the barn or the garden or the house, you will begin to feel as
+if there were something missing somewhere. It won't take you very long
+to discover where that missing feeling is; and when you hear a call
+from the house, or a ring of the bell in the hall, you come running in
+for supper. If you have worked well in school and played hard and done
+your chores well, you will have a splendid appetite. In fact, you will
+think there is no other meal in the day that tastes quite so good.
+
+Is your evening meal supper or dinner? If you have had a hot dinner at
+noon, you probably do not want anything more than a good supper. But
+if you had only luncheon, then you are ready to eat something hot and
+hearty about six o'clock.
+
+What are some of the things that you like for dinner? Meat and eggs
+and bread and butter and jam and rice and potatoes and onions and
+celery and cookies and apples and oranges and oh, so many, many other
+things! Mother Nature has given us all these good things, that we may
+have not only enough to eat but plenty of different kinds. We soon
+grow tired of one kind, and that is how she tells us that we need many
+kinds.
+
+When I was little, oranges were not so common as they are now; and I
+never but once had as many as I wanted. That once, my father told me
+to eat all I liked, and I did; but for weeks afterwards I didn't want
+even to see an orange! Did you ever feel that way too, though perhaps
+not about oranges? Nature sometimes has to teach us not to eat too
+much of one kind at a time.
+
+Some people like one thing, and some another. Do all of you like
+onions? I think not; but those who do, like them very much. The same
+thing is true of tomatoes and sweet potatoes and red raspberries and
+oysters and many other things. But there are some things that almost
+everybody likes; and our grandfathers and great-grandfathers and
+great-great-grandfathers ate them. One of them is called the "staff of
+life" because we lean, or depend, on it so much; we have it for
+breakfast, dinner, and supper. That is bread, of course. Meat and eggs
+and milk and butter, too, are among the foods that we all like.
+
+These might be called our "main foods," and we should eat one or two
+or even three of them at each meal. Meat and milk and eggs and butter,
+animals give us. But these are not enough; we need besides some of the
+foods that plants give us, because, as I have told you, we need
+different kinds of food at one time to keep the body fires going
+briskly.
+
+What are some of the foods that plants give us? Bread is made from a
+plant--from wheat. Oatmeal comes from the oat plant; and hominy, from
+corn. Some of our plant foods, such as potatoes, turnips, onions,
+sweet potatoes, parsnips, and radishes, grow under ground. Some, such
+as peas and beans, grow on vines. Then there are lettuce and cabbage
+and celery. And there are fruits--cherries, apples, peaches, plums,
+pears, melons, tomatoes, berries.
+
+Nature has given us all these foods, and many more; and she wants us
+to use them all. She wants us to use, every day and every meal, some
+foods that come from plants and some that come from animals.
+
+A good dinner would be a slice of roast beef or mutton, a potato, a
+helping of some sort of vegetable like peas or beans or onions or
+tomatoes or celery; and a dish of milk pudding or apple dumpling, or
+stewed fruit with bread and butter, or pie that has only an upper
+crust or its under crust very well baked. When you are eating bread,
+remember that the crusts are the very best part, because they are well
+cooked and really taste the best. They are good for your teeth, too.
+
+    [Illustration: ONE OF THE HAPPIEST TIMES OF THE DAY]
+
+Perhaps, while I am talking about a good meal, I ought to talk a
+little about the way to eat and how to make mealtime pleasant.
+
+Of course, to make our food soft, we must take little bites, eat
+slowly, and chew each mouthful a long time. Be sure to remember this.
+So many of the children I know eat so fast that you'd think they had
+to catch a train! Did you ever see anyone try to talk and chew at the
+same time or forget to shut his mouth while he was chewing? Wasn't it
+a very awkward, disagreeable sight? Think a moment, if you are tempted
+to talk with your mouth full, or put your knife into your mouth, or
+make a noise while you are eating, that these things are not pleasant
+for your neighbors.
+
+Do you tell funny stories at the table and talk about happy tramps you
+have taken or games you have played, or about your pets or your books?
+If you do, your food will do you more good, and you will be helping
+the other people at the table, too. Mealtimes should be the happiest
+times in the day.
+
+
+
+
+A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+
+When the supper things have been cleared away, you have two hours or
+so before going to bed, and I dare say you look forward to these as
+one of the pleasantest parts of the day.
+
+It is always best for you to take things rather easily and quietly and
+pleasantly for at least fifteen or twenty minutes after every meal;
+and after the heaviest meal of the day, whether this comes at noon or
+in the evening, it is better to stretch the time to half or three
+quarters of an hour. If you try to work or play hard right after a
+hearty meal, you will be drawing away to your brain or to your
+muscles, the blood that the stomach is trying to get for the digesting
+and melting of your food. I suppose that you have all found this out
+for yourselves; for, if you run and play too hard right after dinner,
+you are very soon out of breath, and if you keep up the exercise, you
+are quite likely to have an attack of indigestion or stomach ache. If
+you sit down to study directly after a meal, you soon feel heavy and
+lazy, and what you read doesn't seem clear to you, and in a little
+while you probably have a headache and an unpleasant taste in your
+mouth. If you try to do two important things like digestion and hard
+work with your brain or the muscles of your arms and legs at the same
+time, you will be very likely to do both of them badly.
+
+Even if you have studying to do at night, it will be much better for
+you to spend half an hour or an hour in laughing and chatting, or in
+reading some good story, or in playing some of the many pleasant
+parlor games that rest you instead of tiring you, before you settle
+down to your books. You will find that when you do start to work, you
+get your lessons much more quickly and easily than if you had started
+in after eating.
+
+Perhaps your sister is just waiting to show you that girls can play
+checkers better than boys can--"So there!" Or some of your friends
+have come in for a game of dominoes or authors or snap or parcheesi or
+stage coach or pussy-wants-a-corner, or to try that new song you
+learned last week; and you will be surprised how quickly the time
+flies away and bedtime or study hour comes.
+
+Most evenings, however, you will probably get out your favorite
+magazine, or that good story that you are reading, and you will all
+sit around the big lamp on the center table and go off on adventures
+to the uttermost parts of the earth, with the best and most lasting
+friends that you will ever make--friends who will never grow tired of
+you and will always come when you want them and are always willing to
+talk or play--the people that live in books. Be sure to pick out the
+best of them for your chums--the bravest and the kindest and the most
+courteous, and the cleanest and the most honorable. You have the whole
+world to choose from; and it is never worth your while to get
+acquainted with cheap, badly behaved, second-rate people when you can
+have your pick of the best. Your mother and your father and your
+teacher will help you to choose, and you will soon find that what they
+call "good literature" is good stories, and about the right sort of
+men and women and boys and girls--the kind that you would like to
+know, and that you would want to be like. Once try it, and you find
+that you like that kind of reading better than you do the cheap,
+slangy, trashy stuff, just as you like, and never get tired of, good
+bread and butter and roast beef and apples and milk and cream and
+pudding and pie. Good sound stories of home life and adventure and
+travel are just as important in making your minds wholesome and happy
+as these good foods are in keeping your bodies strong and healthy.
+
+Be sure that the paper of the books and magazines you read is white
+and _not_ glossy, and is fairly thick and firm; for this makes them
+much easier to read and strains your eyes less. See, too, that the
+type is large and clear; for small, close type and yellow or shiny
+paper are very hard on the eyes.
+
+Be sure, of course, when you sit down to read _not_ to sit with your
+face to the lamp and your head bending forward; but settle yourself in
+a comfortable chair with your back to the light, and hold your book so
+that you can keep your chin up and your head erect while you read. You
+can breathe better, and read better, and enjoy what you read better in
+this position than in any other.
+
+Even if you have sums or writing to do, it is better to sit with your
+back, or at least your left side, toward the light; and often you will
+find it a great help to sit down with your back to the light in a
+large easy chair and do your writing on a big, thin book, or light
+piece of board, on a cushion on your knee.
+
+In winter, you will find that for the first half hour or so that you
+are reading after supper, you will want to keep fairly near the fire,
+because the blood is being drawn in from your skin to your stomach for
+purposes of digestion; but be sure to see that at least one, and
+better two, windows in the room are open six inches or so at the top,
+so that there is plenty of fresh air pouring into the room.
+
+    [Illustration: A COZY NOOK WHEN EVENING COMES]
+
+When study hour comes, take up your books and go briskly to work,
+forgetting that there is anything else in the world, and you will be
+astonished how quickly you will learn your lessons. Besides, you will
+be learning one of the most valuable lessons in life--to do with your
+might whatever your hands, or minds, find to do.
+
+
+
+
+GOOD NIGHT
+
+
+I. GETTING READY FOR BED
+
+By and by the clock strikes eight or nine, and your mother says,
+"Children, time to go to bed!"
+
+Sometimes you will have just come to the interesting point in the
+story, and would give anything to go on and finish it. But often you
+will be just nodding over your book, or beginning to wonder why the
+story is not quite so interesting as it was, or why the lines seem to
+be running into one another, and the book inclined to swing up and
+bump your nose.
+
+If you have had a lively, busy, happy day, you are quite sleepy enough
+to be ready for bed--that is, if you could drop into it with all your
+clothes on, without all the bother and fuss of undressing. So you pull
+yourself together bravely and answer, "All right, mother," and say
+"Good night" to everybody, and upstairs you go.
+
+Of course, you must take off your clothes, because you would find them
+most uncomfortable to sleep in. Besides, the little pores all over
+your skin have been pouring out perspiration all day long; and a great
+deal of this has been caught by your clothes, just as it is caught by
+the bedclothes while you sleep.
+
+So it is a good thing to take off your clothes, and let your skin be
+well aired and cooled. Don't leave your clothes all in a heap on the
+floor just where you happen to shed them, but hang them up over the
+back of a chair or on pegs, so that the air can blow through them all
+night long and sweeten and clean and dry them. Clothes that are worn
+continuously become sour with perspiration, and for this same reason
+your mother gives you regularly, once or twice a week, clean underwear
+and clean shirts or dresses.
+
+After you have undressed for bed, wash your face and neck and hands;
+and if you have a nice warm room or bathroom, take a quick splash, or
+sponge bath, all over, before you put on your nightgown. This will
+wash away from your skin everything that the perspiration has been
+leaving on it all day long, as well as any dust, or dirt, that may
+have got on it during the day.
+
+If the room is not warm enough for you to do this, it is a good thing
+for you to strip to your waist and then to swing your arms about, much
+as you did in the morning, only not quite so long, and to rub your
+arms and neck and shoulders all over with your hands. This gives them
+an _air bath_, and rubs off any of the little scales of skin that may
+be ready to be shed, and gives you a sort of dry wash, which is next
+best to a wet one.
+
+Then, when you have put on your nightdress, give your hair a thorough
+brushing. This is the best time of the day to do it. Dust, smoke,
+soot, and germs have been blowing into your hair all day long, and a
+thoroughly good brushing will not only get these out of it before they
+have had time to work their way in and lodge on the scalp, but will
+keep the hair bright and healthy.
+
+Before you get into bed, give your nails a quick scrub with a nail
+brush and hot water and soap, and go over them with a _blunt_-pointed
+nail cleaner, cleaning out any dirt that may be under their edges, and
+rounding off any ragged or broken points with the file. Once a week or
+so, when you take your hot bath, it is a good thing to go over your
+toe nails in the same way, trimming them and cleaning them. Remember,
+however, not to round off your toe nails at the corners, but to leave
+them square, as in this way you will prevent them from ingrowing under
+the pressure of your shoes.
+
+There is one thing that you should be very sure of before you get into
+bed, and that is that your teeth are as clean as it is possible for
+you to make them. If you attended to this also directly after supper,
+so much the better; for just as it is important to clean the dishes
+and knives and forks that you have been using, so it is important to
+thoroughly clean the ivory knives and forks that grow in your mouth.
+Talk about being "born with a silver spoon in your mouth"! You were
+born with something much prettier and far more valuable.
+
+Even though your teeth make a firm and even line in front and on their
+cutting edges, yet there are many little gaps and spaces between their
+roots, where bits of food can stick. If these scraps of food are not
+thoroughly and carefully removed after each meal, the warmth and
+moisture in the mouth makes them begin to decay. The acids from this
+decay will be likely not only to upset your stomach and digestion, but
+to act upon the glassy coating of your teeth. After a little while,
+spots will begin to form on the surface of your teeth; they will lose
+their bright, shiny, pearly look; the acids will eat further into the
+teeth, and very soon there will be holes, or _cavities_.
+
+Though your teeth are very hard and glassy looking on the surface,
+they are much softer and chalkier inside; this glassy coating covers
+only the _crown_, or free part, of the tooth, which you can see. It
+leaves the softer inside part of the tooth bare just at the edge of
+the gums, and particularly between the roots of the teeth, where
+little scraps of food lodge and decay. When the acids that are formed
+by the decaying food have eaten away a good deal of the inside of the
+tooth, the hard, shiny surface is left just like a thin shell; and one
+day you happen to bite down upon a piece of bone in your food, or try
+to crack a nut with your teeth, and "crack" goes this brittle shell of
+your hollow tooth.
+
+    [Illustration: HEALTHY GUMS MEAN HEALTHY TEETH
+
+    If the gums are not kept clean and healthy, the second teeth
+    that are getting ready to push out the first teeth will not come
+    in strong and good, nor will the teeth remain good. This picture
+    shows how the teeth grow. Notice the gaps between the teeth,
+    where food may lodge.]
+
+Right in the middle of each tooth is a tiny hollow, or cavity, filled
+with a soft, living pulp containing one or two very sensitive nerves;
+and when the decay has eaten into the tooth far enough to reach this
+nerve pulp, it makes it ache, and then you have _toothache_.
+
+The one and only thing that is necessary in order to avoid all this
+decay and breaking away of your teeth, and throbbing toothache, is to
+keep the surface of your teeth, and particularly the sides where they
+are next one another, clean and smooth and unbroken. And all that is
+needed to keep your teeth perfectly clean and smooth is to use your
+toothbrush thoroughly after every meal and at bedtime; and then, if
+there are any little scraps of food between the teeth that have not
+been brushed away, to pick them out gently with a quill toothpick, or
+take a piece of silk or linen thread, push it up between the teeth,
+and gently saw backward and forward until you have cleaned out the
+space between the roots. You should take at least three to five
+minutes after every meal and before you go to bed at night to brush
+your teeth; and you should brush not only your teeth, but the whole
+surface of your gums close up to where they join the lips.
+
+It is almost as important to keep your gums pink and hard and healthy
+as it is to keep your teeth clean; and the same thorough brushing will
+do both. If the gums are perfectly healthy, they will come well down
+over the roots of the teeth, and keep them safely covered right down
+to where the glassy outer coating begins, and so leave no gap where
+the acids of decay can attack the teeth. Be sure to brush your teeth,
+not merely straight backward and forward, but up and down and round
+and round as well, both to clean out thoroughly all the grooves and
+openings between them and to brush the gums well down over the teeth.
+
+It may seem strange, but one of the best ways to keep your teeth from
+growing crooked and irregular is to keep your nose clear and healthy,
+so that you can breathe through it freely at all times, both day and
+night. Crooked jaws and irregular teeth are more often caused by mouth
+breathing than by any other one thing.
+
+You can see why it is best to be careful not to get grit or dirt or
+bits of bone in your food, and not to crack nuts or hard candy with
+your teeth. If you do, you may crack or scratch the delicate glassy
+coating of your teeth. But, on the other hand, it is a good thing to
+give the teeth plenty to do, and particularly to eat the crusts of
+bread, and some of the tougher parts of meat, and parched corn or
+other grains, and to eat celery, apples, and other foods that take a
+great deal of chewing. The teeth are like everything else in the
+body--they need plenty of vigorous work in order to keep them healthy.
+
+Be very careful, though, to keep out of your mouth anything that might
+possibly crack or scratch the glassy coating, such as pins, pennies,
+pieces of wire, or slate pencils. It is best not even to try to bite
+off threads or pieces of string. There is, of course, another reason
+for not putting pencils and pennies and such things into your mouth:
+they may have dirt, or germs, on them and infect you with disease or
+at least upset your digestion.
+
+
+II. THE LAND OF NOD
+
+Now you are all ready for bed; and the white pillow and the nice,
+clean sheets and the warm blankets look very good to you, and you are
+ready to go to the "Land of Nod."
+
+You need not be afraid of the cold at night. Open your bedroom
+windows. Have plenty of light-weight, warm covers; then the cold
+breezes won't hurt you, but will make you strong. Just think how many
+hours you are in bed,--nearly half of your life,--and you need fresh,
+moving air all the time. Be sure to open your windows from the top as
+well as from the bottom. You know why: your breath is warm so that it
+floats and rises like smoke; and if you open the window only at the
+bottom, this bad air, which rises to the top of the room, can't get
+out. It is best to have windows on two sides of a bedroom, so that the
+air can be kept moving through it all night long. If you don't breathe
+fresh air while you sleep, you will feel dull and stupid in the
+morning and perhaps have a headache.
+
+So run your window shades right up to the top and throw your curtains,
+or shutters, back, as well as open the windows. If you don't, the
+fresh air cannot blow through the room properly. Even if this does let
+more light or noise into the room, this is of no importance whatever
+compared with abundance of fresh air. If you have played long enough
+out of doors in the daytime and have eaten a good supper and not
+stayed up too late, you will sleep soundly without being bothered at
+all by either lights or noises coming in through the windows. And no
+matter how cold or how light it is, don't put your head under the
+bedclothes. Why?
+
+It is best for you to close your mouth while you are going to sleep,
+and breathe through your nose, so that the air will be properly
+purified and warmed before it reaches your lungs. If you can't do
+this, your mother can perhaps give you something to wash out your
+nose, so that you can breathe freely. If that does not help, you had
+better see a doctor, and he will find some way to clear your head so
+that you can use your nose comfortably.
+
+Suppose you take a pencil and paper and write down all you did
+yesterday. Wasn't it enough to make you tired and sleepy and want a
+chance to rest? Even while you sleep, your heart keeps beating, and
+you don't stop breathing, of course. But your muscles are quiet, and
+your food tube rests. Your brain rests, too,--better in sleep than at
+any other time,--so that when morning comes you are as "lively as a
+cricket" and quite ready for the new day.
+
+Yet even in sleep your brain does not stop working entirely, but goes
+on receiving messages from the stomach and the skin and the memory,
+and mixing them up together in the strangest fashion, so that you
+_dream_, as you say. You ought not to dream very much if you are
+perfectly well; but as long as your dreams are pleasant or amusing,
+you need not pay any attention to them. But if you have had bad
+dreams, or you dream so hard all night long that you don't feel rested
+in the morning, then you had better speak to your mother about it, and
+let her see what is the matter with your digestion or your nerves, or
+take you to a doctor. Bad dreams are always a sign of ill health and
+are a very disagreeable thing, from which there is no need that you
+should suffer any more than from headache or indigestion or colic.
+Dreams, of course, do not mean or foretell anything whatever, except
+simply how bad, or good, the state of your digestion and your nerves
+is.
+
+Now, how much time should you spend in bed? Well, I think at your age
+nearly half the time. Ten or eleven hours of sleep make you ready for
+all the hours of work and play, and you don't become cross and tired
+half so easily if you have plenty of sleep. Though you are lying so
+quietly, you are not by any means wasting your time, for you probably
+are growing faster when you are asleep than when awake. Babies, who
+are growing very fast, you know, sleep nearly all the time.
+
+So after you have opened all the windows wide, put out the light and
+jump into bed and lie down for a good night's rest without thinking
+about anything except how comfortable the bed feels when you are
+tired.
+
+
+
+
+QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
+
+
+GOOD MORNING
+
+I. WAKING UP. 1. If you were choosing a bedroom, on which side of the
+house--facing which direction--would you choose it, and why? 2. How
+does the air "down cellar" feel? 3. Why do people often keep fresh
+fruit and vegetables there? 4. What are _bacteria_? 5. How can we
+prevent bacteria that cause disease from growing in our houses? 6. How
+would you know, without being told, that sunshine is good for you? 7.
+What does this book mean by saying that we are made of sunshine?
+
+II. A GOOD START. 1. When you jump out of bed in the morning, what do
+you do with the bedclothes? Why? 2. Stand in front of the class and
+show them the exercises that are good to do every morning. 3. Tell the
+class why they are good. 4. Do them every morning for a week, and then
+tell the class how you feel about keeping them up.
+
+III. BATHING AND BRUSHING. 1. If you grow very warm exercising, what
+change do you notice in your skin? What makes it turn pink? Where does
+the moisture come from? 2. What kind of bathing do you like best? 3.
+What do we wash off besides perspiration and dust? 4. If a scab forms
+over a scratch or cut in your skin, what should you do to it? Why?
+When will the scab come off of itself? 5. What makes the skin freckle
+or tan? 6. Could your face stand the same hard rubbing as your hands?
+Why not? 7. How do you take care of your hair? 8. What other parts of
+the skin can you tell about? 9. Look at your nails; which of the
+"tools" on p. 17 do they need now? 10. How, and when, do you care for
+your teeth? Why is this brushing very necessary? 11. Why must our
+clothes be washed every week? Name each of your _Five Senses_. 12.
+What can your skin tell you that your eyes and ears cannot? 13. Do you
+know of any trade or occupation in which it is necessary to train
+one's sense of touch? Tell about it. 14. What are the blind children
+in the picture doing? (Their alphabet does not look like yours, for
+the letters are represented by groups of raised dots or dashes or
+curves, which are more easily and quickly felt.) 15. What must you do
+besides washing and brushing to keep your skin in good order and
+looking well?
+
+
+BREAKFAST
+
+1. Why do we need to eat? 2. Do you like the breakfast suggested here?
+Why do you need so much? 3. Which of these foods come from animals?
+Which from plants? Which of them are the best "to grow on"? 4. How
+much milk is there in the two bottles in the picture on p. 23? What is
+the difference between milk and cream? Why is it better to buy bottled
+milk than milk dipped out of a can? 5. Suppose that you are going to
+get the breakfast in this house; how will you use some of the milk in
+preparing it? How will you take care of what is left? 6. Why is milk
+much better for you than coffee or tea? Where does the food strength
+in the milk come from? 7. Suppose that you have just bitten off a
+mouthful of food; what is the story of this mouthful before it is
+taken into your blood? Where does most of it enter the blood? What
+becomes of the part that the blood cannot use? Why is it very
+necessary that this be disposed of regularly?
+
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+I. GETTING READY. 1. How is it best to dress in winter? Why? (If this
+is hard to understand, think which would cool faster--hot soup in a
+deep cup or the same soup poured out into a plate? In which dish would
+the soup have the larger surface from which to let off the heat? You
+may now weigh only half as much as you will when you are fully grown,
+but you already have much more than half as much size or surface.) 2.
+What quality should all clothing material have, and why?
+
+II. AN EARLY ROMP. 1. Which makes you more tired, to walk slowly, just
+"lagging along," for about twenty minutes, or to walk briskly for the
+same time? Why? 2. How do you make your muscles strong? What is your
+heart made of? How can you make your heart strong? 3. Why do you need
+a heart? 4. What is your _pulse_? Where can you easily feel a pulse?
+Count the pulse of someone else for half a minute by a watch. Do this
+accurately. How many beats would there be in a minute? Try this with
+different classmates. 5. What do we call the tubes through which the
+blood flows away from the heart? The tubes through which it flows back
+to the heart? 6. What is happening to the blood on its "round trip"?
+Where does it get the liquid food that it delivers to the muscles? Why
+must the blood be carried away from the muscles?
+
+III. FRESH AIR--WHY WE NEED IT. 1. If you were asked how we can tell
+that air is everywhere, what could you say? 2. What do we call a thin
+light substance like air? 3. What proof have we that the body needs
+it? How does it get around to the different parts of the body? 4. What
+is the body--its muscle, bone, skin, and all--made up of? How do these
+cells use the air? Why do you need to breathe so often? 5. In the
+candle experiment, is all the air under the glass used up? What is
+used up? How can we compare a person in a closed room to the burning
+candle under the glass? 6. What is the gas that we breathe out? 7. In
+what three ways does the body "clean house"?
+
+IV. FRESH AIR--HOW WE BREATHE IT. 1. Where are your lungs? 2. Draw a
+picture of the ribs. 3. In what position are they when the lungs are
+filled with air? In what position is the diaphragm then? 4. What are
+the lungs giving off in the breath besides carbon dioxid? How can you
+prove this? 5. How can you prove that the gas in your breath is not
+like the gas in the fresh air around you? 6. Why does a room with
+people in it grow very warm if the doors and windows are kept closed?
+7. How does Nature keep the outdoor air clean? What makes the winds?
+8. Are you careful to keep your breath as clean as possible? How? How
+do you help keep the air in your house clean?
+
+
+IN SCHOOL
+
+I. BRINGING THE FRESH AIR IN. 1. What do we mean by fresh air? Why
+must the air we breathe have oxygen in it? 2. Is the air in the room
+now the best you can have in it? How is the air moving? 3. Is there
+always the same amount of air in the room? Then, if there is more
+fresh air, there must be--bad air? If there is less fresh air, there
+must be--bad air? What is the quickest way to let the bad air out and
+the fresh air in? Why are you given recess? 4. What is a draft? Are
+drafts dangerous? 5. Will night air hurt you? What air can you have in
+the house at night except night air?
+
+II. HEARING AND LISTENING. 1. Have you ever slept in a house close to
+a railway? What did you notice whenever a heavy train went by? What
+made the bed tremble? 2. If you have stood very near a moving train,
+how did your ears feel? Why? 3. How far do sound waves travel after
+they enter the ear? Could a person be deaf who had two perfect ears?
+Where would the trouble be? 4. Draw a picture to show the parts of
+your _left_ ear, and name each part. 5. How do you take care of your
+ears? 6. Comment on doing each of these things:--firing a bean shooter
+at anyone; throwing gravel or sand; firing off a cap or torpedo close
+to some one's head; boxing a person on the ear; running a nail cleaner
+or pencil point into your ear; putting on the baby's cap so that the
+ears are folded forward; asking your teacher to repeat her question.
+7. Have you tried to train your ears? How?--and why? 8. Find out about
+some business, or occupation, in which it is necessary to have very
+keen hearing, and write a little story about it.
+
+III. SEEING AND READING. 1. Are you seated now in the best way for
+reading or not? Why? 2. Why is it well to look up often, as you read?
+3. How far from your eyes ought you to be able to hold this book to
+read it easily? If you cannot, what should you do? 4. Draw a picture
+of someone's eye, as you see it, naming the parts. 5. Draw a picture
+of your eye as it would look if you could see the eyeball from the
+_left_ side, and name the parts. 6. What takes the sight message to
+the brain? 7. How does the nerve of the eye (the _optic nerve_) get
+its messages? What, then, is _light_? If the light waves enter the
+ear, can they make you hear? Why not? 8. When a baby is born, what
+care should be taken of its eyes immediately, and why? 9. Have you
+ever played any games in which the sharpest eyes won? What were they?
+10. Write a little story about the picture on p. 59.
+
+IV. A DRINK OF WATER. 1. Why do we want to drink water? How would you
+know that your body must have a great deal of liquid in it? 2. Do you
+know where the water you drink at school comes from? If you don't, try
+to find out; and find out also just how it is brought to the school
+and why it flows up to the faucets. 3. If you get drinking water from
+a well, either at home or at school, tell where this well is--how near
+the house or the out-buildings. Do you think that any waste from these
+buildings could drain into the well? Why? 4. At your sand table or
+from a sandpile in the yard, lay out a farmyard, showing where the
+house, the barn, the chicken yard, and the pig-sty, also the privy
+vault, are. Now locate the well so that it cannot receive drainage
+from any of these places. 5. What is the danger in using drinking
+water from a stream? 6. How could the germs of typhoid fever get into
+the milk we drink? 7. What do we mean by _fermented_ drinks? Name
+some. What is in these drinks that is so very harmful?
+
+V. LITTLE COOKS. 1. Do you bring luncheon to school? What do you like
+to have for your luncheon? Talk about this in class with your teacher,
+and find out what things are best for school luncheons. 2. How is your
+luncheon packed? Why ought it to be neatly done? 3. How long do you
+take for luncheon, or for dinner at home? Is this time enough? 4. What
+do you do right after eating? Is this what you ought to do? Why? 5.
+What foods do you know how to cook? Write out the recipe for something
+you have made, showing what you mixed and how you did it; and in what,
+and how long, you cooked it. 6. Give three reasons for cooking food.
+7. How is fried food so often made indigestible? 8. Are sweet foods
+good or harmful? What does sugar come from? How is it made? 9. Write a
+little story about one of these things: My First Lesson in Cooking;
+Our Taffy Party; How I Kept Flies out of the Kitchen; How We Boys
+Cooked Breakfast (or Supper); My Marketing.
+
+VI. TASTING AND SMELLING. 1. If anyone asked you how a lemon tastes,
+what would you say? What would you say about sugar? Salt? Pepper?
+Pickles? Strawberries? Cheese? Onions? Radishes? How did you learn
+about each of these? 2. What does your tongue do besides receiving
+tastes? Note in the picture (p. 86) how strongly your tongue is
+rooted; point to the tip of it in the picture. 3. How does your nose
+help your throat and your lungs? How else may it help you? 4. Draw a
+picture to show how air reaches the lungs. 5. What are _adenoids_? How
+may you know if you have adenoids? If you have, what ought you to do?
+Why? 6. Where do the men who want to smoke in the open trolley car
+have to sit? Why? If children breathe tobacco smoke, what effect will
+it have on them? Why is smoking a foolish habit? How is it often
+harmful?
+
+VII. TALKING AND RECITING. 1. When you are reciting in class, do you
+think how your voice and the words sound to the other people in the
+room? Show the class how you can make your speech sound just as you
+want it to. 2. Give three ways in which you can take care of your
+throat and voice. Put your hand on the place where your voice is made.
+How is it made? 3. On your own picture of the throat, show where those
+little folds of skin are (the picture on p. 86 shows, of course, only
+the fold of skin, or _vocal cord_, on the right half of the windpipe).
+
+VIII. THINKING AND ANSWERING. 1. With two or three of your classmates,
+play telephone;--one must be "Central" and one "Information" at the
+central office, and one must receive your message and answer it. A
+number of the other children may join hands to make a long "wire" on
+each side of "Central"; they will repeat the message softly from one
+to another all down their "wire." 2. Now, suppose that you all
+represent the telephone system in the body. Could you act out this
+"Body-Telephone" call:--The eye sees a burning match on the floor, and
+sends the message to its center in the brain; this center consults the
+memory ("Information") as to what to do. Memory recalls that burning
+matches are likely to set fire to other things and ought to be put
+out. So the brain sends a message to the muscles of the foot to get to
+work and stamp out the flame. In this play, what will you each call
+yourselves? 3. Make up some other "Body-Telephone" plays. 4. What are
+some of the messages that are being carried by your nerves, that you
+know nothing about? 5. Think how many messages a baby stores away
+before he is ready to answer them; what are some of these? Why can he
+not answer them at once? What makes his brain and nerves and muscles
+grow? How can you take the best care of yours? 6. In the picture on p.
+96, point to the brain; to the spinal cord. How near the surface of
+your back is your spinal cord? What keeps it from being easily
+injured?
+
+
+"ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+
+I. KEEPING WELL. 1. Why do our bodies need "housecleaning"? How do we
+get rid of the waste part that is a gas? Of the part that is water?
+What carries the carbon dioxid to the lungs? What carries the waste
+water to the sweat tubes and the kidneys? What other waste is there to
+be gotten rid of? 2. Suppose that you and your chum each have an equal
+chance to take a bad cold from someone else; your chum catches it, and
+you don't. What might be one reason why you don't? Place your hand
+over your liver. How can you keep it in good working order? 3. What is
+the bladder? Why is it so very necessary to empty the bladder
+regularly? When you perspire freely, how does that help the kidneys?
+
+II. SOME FOES TO FIGHT. 1. You have seen moldy bread? What is, the
+mold? What makes it spread? 2. Suppose you take some pieces of moldy
+bread or potato and turn a glass jar or bowl over them. Catch a few
+flies and put them under the glass, and leave them to crawl over the
+moldy food. After a day, put the flies under another glass with some
+pieces of fresh bread or potato. If you find that the fresh food
+quickly becomes moldy, how will you think that the mold germs came to
+it? (If you keep the jars in a warm place, the germs will grow faster,
+and you won't have so long to wait before you can see the mold.) 3.
+What other kinds of germs do flies carry? How do they carry them? 4. A
+Board of Health caused a liveryman to be fined because he allowed a
+manure pile to remain behind his stable. Why was his act a
+misdemeanor? From what do flies come, and how do they grow? 5. On your
+way to and from school, what have you noticed that could breed or
+attract flies? How could these things have been avoided? 6. The next
+time you go into a butcher shop or grocery store, notice how the
+things are kept and be ready to tell the class what you think about
+it. 7. In what ways may germs be carried, besides by flies? 8. What do
+we mean by the "Great White Plague"? Why is it called this? What are
+people doing to try to cure it? 9. What can you do to help prevent it?
+10. Why ought you to stay away from other people when you have a cold?
+What do you need most in order to get well? 11. Do you always have
+your own towel to use? Why should you? 12. Write a little story about
+the picture on p. 112.
+
+III. PROTECTING OUR FRIENDS. 1. Is there a Board of Health in your
+town? If not, what takes its place? See if you can find out some of
+the things that the Board or the Officers have done for the town. 2.
+What do we mean by _quarantine_? What is the _quarantine station_ in
+ports where passenger steamers land? See if you can find out about any
+time when a city or port was guarding its people against an infectious
+disease. 3. Have you been vaccinated? How was it done? Why was it
+done? How do we all know that it is a very wise thing to have done? 4.
+How can you help the Health Officers to keep your town a healthful
+place?
+
+
+WORK AND PLAY
+
+I. GROWING STRONG. 1. When you play out of doors, what do you
+exercise? What do you exercise when you study? How ought you to play
+and study so as to get the most good from each? Why is it good to
+play, and work too, out of doors? 2. What games have you played in the
+last day or two? How did the players divide the muscle exercise of the
+game? Did they divide up the thinking part, too? 3. Why must the blood
+be sent to the muscles? Why must it be carried away again? When you
+feel tired, what is happening in your body? 4. What are muscles like?
+Show how the elastic bands of your legs work when you sit on your
+heels. What makes the muscles at the back of your legs feel thicker?
+5. What bones of your body can you feel? Put your hands on them, as
+you tell what you can about each. 6. Why do we need bones? What do we
+call our whole framework of bones? 7. Have you ever seen anyone who
+had to stay all the time in bed or sit in a wheeled chair? How did
+this person show the lack of exercise? 8. What is the meaning of the
+picture on p. 129? 9. Choose one of the other pictures in this chapter
+and write a story about it to show how to grow strong.
+
+II. ACCIDENTS. 1. When you hear the word _accident_, what do you think
+of? What have you to help you to prevent accidents? If you have used
+your "look-out department" as well as you can, and still the accident
+happens, what will you do then? 2. Show the class how to care for a
+very deep cut. What do we call a medicine that kills disease germs? 3.
+How would you treat a bruise? A burn? Frost-bitten ears? Chilblains? A
+bee sting? 4. If you are told to take some medicine from a certain
+bottle or box, do you always look at the label? Why is it dangerous
+not to? What do you think of having medicines about not labeled or
+poured into old bottles with wrong labels? 5. If you should happen to
+swallow something poisonous, what ought you to do right away? 6.
+Suppose your clothes or your hair should catch fire; what would you
+do? 7. How did you celebrate last Fourth of July? Write a short story
+about the picture on p. 144. 8. With one of your classmates, show how
+you would try to restore a person who had just been saved from
+drowning. How can you try to save yourself if you fall into the water?
+
+III. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL. 1. Have you a park near your home? When the
+people leave at the end of the day, how do the lawns and paths look?
+Are there cans in the park to hold the papers and scraps? 2. How are
+the streets in your town cleaned in winter? In summer? 3. How do the
+houses get rid of their waste? 4. If the waste goes into a river, is
+the river water used for drinking? Who decides where the drinking
+water for the town shall come from? 5. Why are drinks containing
+alcohol harmful to take (give four reasons)? What is a _narcotic_? How
+does drinking alcohol lead to crime? 6. Write down five ways in which
+you can help to keep your town or city beautiful. Five ways in which
+you can help to keep your own home beautiful. 7. Why should every city
+have parks for the children?
+
+
+THE EVENING MEAL
+
+1. Play housekeeping, and order the dinner. 2. Write down a list of
+things for a good supper. 3. Why does Nature give us so many different
+kinds of food? How does she teach us not to eat too much of one kind
+at a time? 4. Write down on the board as many of each of these kinds
+of food as you can:--meats; vegetables; fruits; breads; sweet foods;
+fish; grains; food (not fruit) that does not need cooking; food to
+drink. 5. How do you help to make meal times pleasant? Make up a story
+about the picture on p. 159, and tell it in class.
+
+
+A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+1. Just after a meal, what is your stomach doing? How can you help
+your digestion? 2. Have you played any of the games mentioned here?
+How did you play them? 3. Look at the picture on p. 165; why is this a
+good after-supper corner? How do you sit and hold your book when you
+read in the evening? 4. What parts of your body are you exercising and
+taking care of when you read? Of what use is a healthy, vigorous body
+without a healthy, vigorous mind? How can you keep your mind healthy?
+How can you keep it vigorous? 5. What kind of books do you like best
+to read? Tell the class the names of some good ones.
+
+
+GOOD NIGHT
+
+I. GETTING READY FOR BED. 1. At what hour do you go to bed? When do
+you get up? How many hours' sleep does this give you? Is this enough?
+Why do you need so much sleep? 2. As you undress, what do you do with
+the clothes you take off? Why should you air your clothes every night?
+How can you take an air bath? Is this as good as a wash? 3. How do you
+care for your hair at night? 4. Do you ever go to bed without brushing
+your teeth? If you do, what happens all night long to the food scraps
+that were left around and between your teeth? As these scraps decay,
+what harm do they do? What makes a tooth ache? 5. Draw a little
+picture of your own teeth as you see them in a looking-glass. Are
+there any spaces that you can see where food might lodge and stay? How
+can you keep your teeth quite free from scraps of food? 6. Why are
+teeth necessary? How must they grow to make good cutting tools? If
+they are not straight or sound, what can you do about it? 7. Why ought
+children's first teeth to be thoroughly brushed every day?
+
+II. THE LAND OF NOD. 1. When you are ready for bed, how do you
+fix your windows? Why is it even more necessary to have the air
+blowing through the room at night than in the daytime? 2. How else is
+your body being purified at night? Does your body do any work while
+you are sleeping? What work? 3. What kind of sleep should you have if
+you are perfectly well?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
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+"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 1 September 2005), see www.w3.org" />
+<meta http-equiv="content-type" content=
+"text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Child&rsquo;s Day, by Woods Hutchinson</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[*/
+    <!--
+    body {font-family:Georgia,serif;margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;}
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Child's Day
+
+Author: Woods Hutchinson
+
+Release Date: June 11, 2006 [EBook #18559]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD'S DAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure01.jpg" alt=
+"A girl ice skates." id="figure01" name="figure01" width="552"
+height="830" />
+<p>A GOOD SPORT FOR GIRLS AND BOYS</p>
+</div>
+<div id="TitlePage">
+<h3 class="superhead">THE WOODS HUTCHINSON HEALTH SERIES</h3>
+<h1 id="Title">THE CHILD&rsquo;S DAY</h1>
+<p>BY</p>
+<h2 class="Author">WOODS HUTCHINSON, A.M., M.D.</h2>
+<p>Sometime Professor of Anatomy, University of Iowa; Professor of
+Comparative Pathology and Methods of Science Teaching, University
+of Buffalo; Lecturer, London Medical Graduates&rsquo; College and
+University of London; and State Health Officer of Oregon. Author of
+&ldquo;Preventable Diseases,&rdquo; &ldquo;Conquest of
+Consumption,&rdquo; &ldquo;Instinct and Health,&rdquo; and &ldquo;A
+Handbook of Health.&rdquo;</p>
+<p class="Publisher">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br />
+BOSTON&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;CHICAGO</p>
+<p>COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY WOODS HUTCHINSON</p>
+</div>
+<hr />
+<div id="Foreword">
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+<p>&ldquo;If youth only knew, if old age only could!&rdquo;
+lamented the philosopher. What is the use, say some, of putting
+ideas about disease into children&rsquo;s heads and making them
+fussy about their health and anxious before their time?</p>
+<p>Precisely because ideas about disease are far less hurtful than
+disease itself, and because the period for richest returns from
+sensible living is childhood&mdash;and the earlier the better.</p>
+<p>It is abundantly worth while to teach a child how to protect his
+health and build up his strength; too many of us only begin to take
+thought of our health when it is too late to do us much good.
+Almost everything is possible in childhood. The heaviest life
+handicaps can be fed and played and trained out of existence in a
+child. Even the most rudimentary knowledge, the simplest and
+crudest of precautions, in childhood may make all the difference
+between misery and happiness, success and failure in life.</p>
+<p>Our greatest asset for healthful living is that most of the
+unspoiled instincts, the primitive likes and dislikes, of the child
+point in the right direction. There is no need to tell children to
+eat, to play, to sleep, to swim; all that is needed is to point out
+why they like to do these things, where to stop, what risks to
+avoid. The simplest and most natural method of doing this has
+seemed to be that of a sketch of the usual course and activities of
+a Child&rsquo;s Day, with a running commentary of explanation, and
+such outlines of our bodily structure and needs as are required to
+make clear why such and such a course is advisable and such another
+inadvisable. The greatest problem has been how to reach and hold
+the interest of the child; and the lion&rsquo;s share of such
+success as may have been achieved in this regard is due to the
+co&ouml;peration of my sister, Professor Mabel Hutchinson Douglas
+of Whittier College, California.</p>
+<p class="signature">The Author.</p>
+</div>
+<div id="Contents">
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#Ch_1">Good Morning</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_1_1">Waking Up</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_1_2">A Good Start</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_1_3">Bathing and Brushing</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_2">Breakfast</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_3">Going to School</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_3_1">Getting Ready</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_3_2">An Early Romp</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_3_3">Fresh Air&mdash;Why We Need It</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_3_4">Fresh Air&mdash;How We Breathe It</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4">In School</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_1">Bringing the Fresh Air In</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_2">Hearing and Listening</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_3">Seeing and Reading</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_4">A Drink of Water</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_5">Little Cooks</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_6">Tasting and Smelling</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_7">Talking and Reciting</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_4_8">Thinking and Answering</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_5">&ldquo;Absent To-Day?&rdquo;</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_5_1">Keeping Well</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_5_2">Some Foes to Fight</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_5_3">Protecting Our Friends</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_6">Work and Play</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_6_1">Growing Strong</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_6_2">Accidents</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_6_3">The City Beautiful</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_7">The Evening Meal</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_8">A Pleasant Evening</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_9">Good Night</a>
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#Ch_9_1">Getting Ready for Bed</a></li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_9_2">The Land of Nod</a></li>
+</ol>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#Ch_10">Questions and Exercises</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name=
+"page1"></a>1</span></p>
+<h1>THE CHILD&rsquo;S DAY</h1>
+<h2 id="Ch_1">GOOD MORNING</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_1_1">I. WAKING UP</h3>
+<p>If there is anything that we all enjoy, it is waking up on a
+bright spring morning and seeing the sunlight pouring into the
+room. You all know the poem beginning,&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&ldquo;I remember, I remember</p>
+<p>The house where I was born;</p>
+<p>The little window where the sun</p>
+<p>Came peeping in at morn.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>You are feeling fresh and rested and happy after your good
+night&rsquo;s sleep and you are eager to be up and out among the
+birds and the flowers.</p>
+<p>You are perfectly right in being glad to say &ldquo;Good
+morning&rdquo; to the sun, for he is one of the best friends you
+have. Doesn&rsquo;t he make the flowers blossom, and the trees
+grow? And he makes the apples redden, too, and the wheat-ears fill
+out, and the potatoes grow under the ground, and the peas and beans
+and melons and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name=
+"page2"></a>2</span>strawberries and raspberries above it. All
+these things that feed you and keep you healthy are grown by the
+heat of the sun. So if it were not for the sunlight we should all
+starve to death.</p>
+<p>While sunlight is pouring down from the sun to the earth, it is
+warming and cleaning the air, burning up any poisonous gases, or
+germs, that may be in it. By heating the air, it starts it to
+rising. If you will watch, you can see the air shimmering and
+rising from an open field on a broiling summer day, or wavering and
+rushing upward from a hot stove or an open register in winter. Hold
+a little feather fluff or blow a puff of flour above a hot stove,
+and it will go sailing up toward the ceiling. As the heated air
+rises, the cooler air around rushes in to fill the place that it
+has left, and the outdoor &ldquo;drafts&rdquo; are made that we
+call <em>winds</em>.</p>
+<p>These winds keep the air moving about in all directions
+constantly, like water in a boiling pot, and in this way keep it
+fresh and pure and clean. If it were not for this, the air would
+become foul and damp and stagnant, like the water in a ditch or
+marshy pool. So the Sun God, as our ancestors in the Far East used
+to call him thousands of years ago, not only gives us our food to
+eat, but keeps the air fit for us to breathe.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>3</span>In
+still another way the sun is one of our best friends; for his rays
+have the wonderful power, not only of causing plants that supply us
+with food&mdash;the Green Plants, as we call them&mdash;to grow and
+flourish, but at the same time of withering and killing certain
+plants that do us harm. These plants&mdash;the Colorless Plants, we
+may call them&mdash;are the <em>molds</em>, the <em>fungi</em>, and
+the <em>bacteria</em>, or <em>germs</em>. You know how a pair of
+boots put away in a dark, damp closet, or left down in the cellar,
+will become covered all over with a coating of gray mold. Mold
+grows rapidly in the dark. Just so, these other Colorless Plants,
+which include most of our disease germs, grow and flourish in the
+dark, and are killed by sunlight. That is why no house, or room, is
+fit to live in, into which the sunlight does not pour freely
+sometime during the day. The more sunlight you can bring into your
+bedrooms and your playrooms and your schoolrooms, except during the
+heat of the day in the summer time, the better they will be. The
+Italians have a very shrewd and true old proverb about houses and
+light: &ldquo;Where the sunlight never comes, the doctor often
+does.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>So you see that Nature is guiding you in the right direction
+when she makes you love and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page4"
+name="page4"></a>4</span>delight in the bright, warm, golden
+sunlight; for it is one of the very best friends that you
+have&mdash;indeed, you couldn&rsquo;t possibly live without it.</p>
+<p>In one sense, in fact, though this may be a little harder for
+you to understand, you are sunlight yourselves; for the power in
+your muscles and nerves that makes you able to jump and dance and
+sing and laugh and breathe is the sunlight which you have eaten in
+bread and apples and potatoes, and which the plants had drunk in
+through their leaves in the long, sunny days of spring and
+summer.</p>
+<p>So throw up your blinds and open your windows wide to the
+sunlight every morning; and let the sunlight pour in all day long,
+except only while you are reading or studying&mdash;when the
+dazzling light may hurt your eyes&mdash;and for six or seven of the
+hottest hours of the day in summer time. Perhaps your mothers will
+object that the sunlight will fade the carpets, or spoil the
+furniture; but it will put far more color into your faces than it
+will take out of the carpets. If you are given the choice of a
+bedroom, choose a room that faces south or southeast or southwest,
+never toward the north.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name=
+"page5"></a>5</span></p>
+<h3 id="Ch_1_2">II. A GOOD START</h3>
+<p>When you are really awake and have had a good look to see what
+kind of morning it is, you will feel like yawning and stretching,
+and rubbing your eyes four or five times, before you jump out of
+bed; and it is a good plan to take plenty of time to do this,
+unless you are already late for breakfast or school. It starts your
+heart to beating and your lungs to breathing faster; and it limbers
+your muscles, so that you are ready for the harder work they must
+do as soon as you jump out of bed and begin to walk about and bathe
+and dress and run and play.</p>
+<p>When you jump out of bed, throw back the covers and turn them
+over the foot of the bed, so that the air and the sunlight can get
+at every part of them and make them clean and fresh and sweet to
+cover you at night again. Though you may not know it, all night
+long, while you have been asleep, your skin has been at work
+cleaning and purifying your blood, pouring out gases and a watery
+vapor that we call <em>perspiration</em>, or <em>sweat</em>; and
+these impurities have been caught by the sheets and blankets. So
+after a bed has been slept in for four or five nights, if it has
+not been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name=
+"page6"></a>6</span>thrown well open in the morning, it begins to
+have a stuffy, foul, sourish smell. You can see from this why it is
+a bad thing to sleep with your head under the bedclothes, as people
+sometimes do, or even to pull the blankets up over your head,
+because you are frightened at something or are afraid that your
+ears will get cold. Your breath has poisonous gases in it, as well
+as your perspiration; and the two together make the air under the
+bedclothes very bad.</p>
+<p>Now you are ready to wash and dress. But before you do this, it
+is a good thing to take off your nightdress, or turn it down to
+your waist and tie it there with the sleeves, and go through some
+good swinging and &ldquo;windmill&rdquo; movements with your arms
+and shoulders and back.</p>
+<p>(1) Swing your arms round and round like the sails of a
+windmill; first both together, then one in one direction, and the
+other in the other.</p>
+<p>(2) Hold your arms straight out in front of you, and swing them
+backward until the backs of your hands strike behind your back.</p>
+<p>(3) Hold your arms straight out on each side, clench your fists,
+and then smartly bend your elbows so that you almost strike
+yourself on both shoulders, and repeat quickly twenty or thirty
+times.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>7</span>(4)
+Swing your arms, out full length, across your chest five or ten
+times.</p>
+<p>(5) Swing forward and down with your arms stretched out, until
+the tips of your fingers touch the floor.</p>
+<p>(6) Set your feet a little apart, swing forward and downward
+again, until your hands swing back between your ankles.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure02.png" alt=
+"A sketch of a boy stretching" id="figure02" name="figure02" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>STARTING THE DAY</p>
+</div>
+<p>When you come back from these down-swings, bend just as far back
+as you can without losing your balance, so that you put all the
+muscles along the front of your body on the stretch; and then swing
+down again between your ankles. This will help to tone up all your
+muscles, and limber all your joints, and set your blood to
+circulating well, and give you a good start for the day.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name=
+"page8"></a>8</span></p>
+<h3 id="Ch_1_3">III. BATHING AND BRUSHING</h3>
+<p>Now you are ready to wash and dress. You can easily take off the
+gown, or garments, that you have worn during the night; but there
+is one coat that you cannot take off&mdash;one that is more
+important and useful and beautiful than all the rest of your
+clothes put together, no matter of how fine material they may be
+made, or what they have cost.</p>
+<p>Do you remember the old Bible story about Joseph and his
+&ldquo;coat of many colors&rdquo;? Perhaps you&rsquo;ve wished you
+had one just as nice. Now, the fact is, your coat is more beautiful
+even than Joseph&rsquo;s; and, as for its uses, it is the most
+wonderful coat ever made!</p>
+<p>This coat of yours changes its color from time to time;
+sometimes it is pink, sometimes red, sometimes a soft milky white,
+and sometimes a dull dark blue, or purple. I wonder if you guess
+what it is. Sometimes it is dry and sometimes wet, sometimes it is
+hot and sometimes cold, sometimes rough and sometimes smoother than
+the softest silk&mdash;just run your hand gently over your
+cheek!</p>
+<p>Now you have guessed my riddle. This &ldquo;wonderful
+coat&rdquo; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name=
+"page9"></a>9</span>is your skin, which covers you from top to toe.
+It fits more closely than any glove, and yet is so easy and
+comfortable that it never rubs or binds or hurts you in any
+way.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure03.png" alt=
+"A drawing of magnified cross-section of sckin" id="figure03" name=
+"figure03" width="198" height="204" />
+<p>THE SKIN-STRAINER</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The little pores open in furrows of the
+skin. This drawing is many hundred times as large as the piece of
+skin itself.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Will the wonderful coat wash? Yes, indeed, and look all the
+prettier. In fact, to keep it white and clear you must bathe often,
+not only your hands and face, but your whole body. Your skin is a
+strainer, you know. It is a &ldquo;way out&rdquo; for some of the
+gases and waste water from the blood. What will happen, then, if
+you don&rsquo;t wash your skin? The little holes, or
+<em>pores</em>, that the sweat comes through may become clogged.
+The strainer won&rsquo;t let the poison out, and so it will stay
+inside your body. Then, too, if you do not wash the skin, the
+little scales that are peeling off the outside coat will not be
+cleared away. You have noticed them, haven&rsquo;t you, sometime
+when you were pulling off black stockings? You found little white
+pieces, almost as fine as powder, clinging to the inside of the
+stockings. These little scales are always rubbing off from your
+skin.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name=
+"page10"></a>10</span>So every morning it is good to splash the
+cool water all over yourself, if you can, as the birds do in the
+puddles. You don&rsquo;t need a bathtub for this, though of course
+it is much pleasanter and more convenient if you have one. Pour the
+water into a basin and splash it with your hands all over your
+face, neck, chest, and arms. Then rub your skin well with a rough
+towel. Next, place the basin on the floor; put your feet into it
+and dash the water as quickly as you can over your legs. Then take
+another good rub. But you must not do this unless you keep warm
+while you are doing it, and your skin must be pink when you have
+finished. If you are chilly after rubbing, you should use tepid,
+even very hot, water for your morning bath. In summer you can bathe
+all over easily; but in winter, unless your room is warm, it is
+enough to splash the upper half of your body. Once or twice a week
+you should take a good hot bath with soap and then sponge down in
+cool water. See how the birds enjoy their bath; and you will, too,
+if you once get into the habit of bathing regularly.</p>
+<p>Now let us take a good look at this coat and see if we can find
+out what it is like.</p>
+<p>The other day I saw some boys playing basketball. They wore
+short sleeves and short trousers. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page11" name="page11"></a>11</span>Four were Indians, and five
+were white boys, and one was a negro. The skin of the white boys
+seemed to shine, it looked so white; and the negro&rsquo;s shone in
+its blackness; but the Indian&rsquo;s looked a dull rich dusky
+brown.</p>
+<p>Yes, you say, they belong to different races.</p>
+<p>But what causes the difference in their color?</p>
+<p>Little specks of coloring matter, or <em>pigment</em>, which lie
+in the outer layer of the skin. Even white skins contain a little
+pigment, they are not a pure white. A Chinaman&rsquo;s skin has a
+little more of this pigment, so that it looks yellow; an
+Indian&rsquo;s has still more; and a negro&rsquo;s has most of all,
+making him black.</p>
+<p>Sunlight can increase the amount of pigment in the skin. The
+people who live in the torrid zone have much darker skins than
+those who live where the days are short and cold. You have noticed,
+yourself, that when you expose the skin of your face or arms to the
+hot sun, you become freckled, or tanned. This tanning, or browning,
+of the outer layer of the skin protects the more delicate coats of
+skin below from being scorched or injured by the strong light.</p>
+<p>When you are playing and running with your schoolmates, you see
+that their faces grow very red, and even their hands. Why is this?
+Because <span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name=
+"page12"></a>12</span>the heart has been pumping hard and has sent
+the red blood out toward the skin. The red color shines through the
+outer part of the skin. The pigment in the Indian&rsquo;s skin, or
+the negro&rsquo;s, prevents the red blood underneath from shining
+through, as it does through yours.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure04.jpg" alt=
+"A section of skin showing a folicle" id="figure04" name="figure04"
+width="179" height="512" />
+<p>THE PARTS OF THE SKIN</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The pore P on the surface of the skin is the
+end of a tube through which sweat flows out. At O are the oil sacs
+that feed the hair H. At B are the little blood vessels that make
+the skin look pink.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The skin, you see, is made up of different layers. When you burn
+yourself, you can see a layer of skin stand out like a blister. It
+is white; but if the blister is broken, underneath you see the coat
+that is full of tiny blood vessels, so tiny and so close together
+that this whole coat looks red. The skin, like every other part of
+the body, is made up of tiny animal cells. In the outer coat they
+become quite flat like little scales and then wear off; and their
+places are taken by the newer cells that are growing from beneath.
+The skin grows from beneath, and bit by bit it sheds its old outer
+coat. This is how it keeps itself nice and new on <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>13</span>the outside and
+&ldquo;grows away&rdquo; the marks of cuts and burns.</p>
+<p>Now hold up your hand and look across it toward the light. What
+do you see? It looks fuzzy, doesn&rsquo;t it? Ever and ever so many
+tiny little hairs are on it. The other day a little boy asked me
+what made his skin look so rough? I looked, and saw that all the
+little hairs were standing on end, so that his skin looked like
+&ldquo;goose-flesh.&rdquo; It was because he was cold. The muscles
+at the roots of the hairs had shortened, so that they pulled the
+hairs straight up and made the skin look rough.</p>
+<p>What part of the body has a great deal of hair on it? The head,
+of course. Isn&rsquo;t it strange that you have such long hair on
+the top of your head and none at all on the soles of your feet or
+the palms of your hands? The hair on your head protects you from
+cold and rain and the hot sun; but hair on your palms, would only
+be in the way.</p>
+<p>Now look at the ends of your fingers. There the skin has grown
+so hard that it forms <em>nails</em>. If you look at your toes, you
+will see that the same thing has happened there. These nails are
+little pink shells to protect the ends of your fingers and toes.
+You see what a wonderful coat it is that you are wearing.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name=
+"page14"></a>14</span>Does the skin coat keep you warm? Yes, and
+not only that, but it keeps you cool, too. You have often seen
+little drops of water on your skin, when you were very hot. This
+sweat, or perspiration, as we call it, cools the body by making the
+skin moist. You know how cold it makes you to be wrapped in a wet
+sheet. Well, the skin cools you in just the same way, when it
+becomes wet with sweat. The sweat comes from the blood under the
+skin; so that, as we saw before, by letting this moisture pass
+through, the skin acts as a sieve to let out the waste from the
+blood.</p>
+<p>Then, too, the skin covers and protects all the other parts. It
+is thin where it needs to be thin, so as not to interfere with
+quick movements, as on the eyelids and the lips; and thick where it
+needs to be thick, to stand wear and tear, as on the soles of the
+feet and the palms of the hands. I remember once taking a sliver of
+shingle out of the back of a little boy who had been sliding down a
+roof. I had to sharpen my knife and press and push and at last get
+a pair of scissors to cut out the sliver. It was just like cutting
+tough leather. But even if we do sometimes get cuts and burns and
+bruises, yet our skin coat protects us far more than we really
+think. It keeps out all sorts of <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page15" name="page15"></a>15</span>poisons and the germs of
+blood-poisoning and such diseases. These enemies can attack us only
+through a scratch or cut in the skin, for that is the only way they
+can get into the blood. The skin is better than any manufactured
+coat, too, because, if it is torn or scratched, it can mend
+itself.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure05.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of boys touch-reading a large book" id="figure05"
+name="figure05" width="537" height="347" />
+<p>READING BY TOUCH INSTEAD OF SIGHT</p>
+<p>These boys are blind; their books are printed with raised
+letters, which they read by feeling of them.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Does your skin ever talk to you? No, of course not; yet it tells
+you ever so many things. Shut your eyes and pick up a pencil. As
+you touch it, your skin tells you that it is round and smooth, and
+pointed at one end. You can feel the soft rubber on the other end,
+too. Is it wet? No. Is it hot? Of course not. Now place a book in
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name=
+"page16"></a>16</span>palm of your hand. Is it flat or round, light
+or heavy, rough or smooth? All these things your skin tells you
+through little nerve tips, which are scattered thickly all over it.
+Still another thing the skin does; if you touch anything sharp or
+hot, it says at once that it hurts. If your clothes are tight or
+uncomfortable, the skin soon lets you know. You see it is always on
+the lookout, always ready to tell you about the things around you
+and to warn you against the things that might hurt you. The fifth
+of your &ldquo;Five Senses,&rdquo; the sense of <em>touch</em>, is
+in your skin.</p>
+<p>There are some parts of your skin-coat that should have special
+care.</p>
+<p>I hardly need tell you about washing your face carefully around
+your nose and in front of your ears. Sometimes I have seen a
+&ldquo;high-water mark&rdquo; right down the middle of the cheek or
+just under the jaws or chin.</p>
+<p>Of course your mother has told you about washing your hands! You
+see, our hands touch so many dirty things, and handle so many
+things that other people&rsquo;s hands have touched, that we ought
+always to wash them before a meal for fear some of the dirt or
+germs on them may get into our mouths and cause disease.</p>
+<p>And we really need to clean our nails as often <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>17</span>as we wash our
+hands, for that little black rim under the nail is very dangerous.
+Dust and disease germs and dirt of all kinds find it a good place
+in which to hide. Trim your nails with a file, not a knife; and
+clean them with a dull cleaner, for a sharp-pointed one will scrape
+the nail and roughen it, or push the nail away from the skin of the
+finger underneath.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure06.png" alt=
+"A nail file, cuticle scissors, cuticle stick and nail brush" id=
+"figure06" name="figure06" width="100%" />
+<p>USEFUL TOOLS</p>
+</div>
+<p>Trim and clean the edges of your nails carefully and thoroughly,
+but don&rsquo;t fuss much with the roots of them. That little fold
+of skin there may strike you as untidy, but it covers the soft
+growing part of the nail; and if you push it back with a
+nail-cleaner, it may cause the nail to crack and roughen or become
+inflamed and start a &ldquo;hang nail&rdquo; or &ldquo;run
+around.&rdquo; If you push it back at all, do so only with the ball
+of your thumb or finger.</p>
+<p>The edges of the nails should be trimmed in a curve to match the
+curve of the end of the finger. Of course you know that you should
+never bite your nails, not only because it is a bad habit and will
+bring a good deal of dirt into your mouth, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>18</span>but because you
+may bite, or tear down into, the tender growing part of the nail,
+sometimes called the <em>quick</em>; and then this part may become
+inflamed, and you will have a troublesome sore on the end of your
+finger.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure07.png" alt=
+"A hand with neatly trimmed nails." id="figure07" name="figure07"
+width="100%" />
+<p>DO YOUR NAILS LOOK LIKE THESE?</p>
+</div>
+<p>Just as your nails are a part of your skin,&mdash;hardened from
+it and rooted in it,&mdash;so, too, are your teeth; and, like the
+rest of the skin, they should be kept thoroughly clean. Every
+morning and evening at least they should be carefully brushed. If
+you take good care of your first teeth and have them filled when
+they need it, you will probably have good permanent teeth, and you
+won&rsquo;t have to suffer with toothache.</p>
+<p>The skin of your head, which grows such beautiful hair, and the
+hair itself, should be kept clean. There are two things needed for
+this.</p>
+<p>First, the hair should be brushed and combed night and morning.
+The skin of your scalp is shedding tiny thin scales all day and all
+night, just as the rest of your skin is doing. Fortunately,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name=
+"page19"></a>19</span>your hair is growing from roots under the
+skin much in the same way as blades of grass grow from their roots;
+and, as it grows, it pushes up these scales from the surface of the
+scalp to where you can readily reach them with a good bristle
+brush. If they are not well brushed out, the dust and smoke from
+the air will mix with them, and the germs in the dust and smoke
+will breed in the mixture, and you will soon have
+&ldquo;scurf&rdquo; or <em>dandruff</em> on your head. So give at
+least fifteen or twenty strokes with the brush before you use the
+comb. It isn&rsquo;t necessary to brush or scrape the scalp, and a
+comb should be used only to part the hair or take out the
+tangles.</p>
+<p>The second thing is to wash the hair and the scalp. Boys ought
+to wash their hair every week; and girls, every two weeks; and
+girls, especially, should be careful to dry their hair very
+thoroughly afterwards. You will notice after washing your hair that
+it feels dry and fluffy, and sometimes rather harsh. This is
+because the soap and hot water together have washed out of the hair
+its natural oil, or grease, which kept it bright and soft; and this
+is why it is better not to wash the hair with soap and hot water
+oftener than once a week or so. But it shouldn&rsquo;t be shirked
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name=
+"page20"></a>20</span>when the time does come. Watch how hard your
+kitten works to keep her fur coat glossy, though it must be
+tiresome enough to lick, lick, lick.</p>
+<p>Sometimes in cold weather your lips and knuckles crack and
+bleed. That is because the skin on those parts is so thin and so
+often stretched and bruised. If you will take a little pure olive
+oil or cold cream and rub it on your lips and hands, it will make
+the skin softer and not so likely to break.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure08.png" alt=
+"A row of boots and shoes" id="figure08" name="figure08" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>SHOES THAT SHOW SENSE</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Low heels and plenty of room for the
+toes.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Sometimes your feet tell you that they need better care. Perhaps
+your shoes are too tight, or too loose and rub your toes. Soon the
+skin becomes very hard in one spot, and you have a
+&ldquo;corn&rdquo; on your toe. You must be very, very careful how
+your shoes and stockings fit. If you should find a corn, or the
+beginning of one, you had better tell your mother about it, and let
+her see that your stockings are not too big, so that they wrinkle
+into folds and chafe, or that your shoes are mended, or that you
+have a larger pair. And then, if you wash your feet in cold water
+every day, and put some vaseline or <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page21" name="page21"></a>21</span>sweet oil on the hard spot
+night or morning, the corn will probably go away.</p>
+<p>Not only your shoes, but all of your clothing must be
+comfortable if your skin and the parts under it are to do their
+work well. Your clothes as well as your skin must be washed often,
+because the sweat, which is oily and greasy as well as watery,
+soaks into them, and the little white scales cling to them, and
+often dust and disease germs, too.</p>
+<p>One winter a little boy came to my school. The other children
+told me they did not like to sit by him, his clothes had such an
+unpleasant smell. I talked to him about it, and what do you suppose
+he said! &ldquo;Why, I can&rsquo;t bathe; the creek&rsquo;s too
+cold in winter.&rdquo; He was waiting till summer time to take a
+bath! No wonder the other children did not like to sit near
+him.</p>
+<p>Yet, with all the bathing and rubbing and brushing, your skin
+won&rsquo;t be clean and beautiful and able to do all that it has
+to do, unless your stomach and heart and lungs are in good working
+order. So you must eat good food, sleep ten or twelve hours a day,
+and play out of doors a great deal, if you expect your skin to be
+healthy.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name=
+"page22"></a>22</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_2">BREAKFAST</h2>
+<p>When you are washed, it doesn&rsquo;t take you long to dress;
+and before you have finished brushing your hair, you begin to feel
+as if you were ready for breakfast. You know just where the feeling
+is&mdash;an empty sensation near the pit of your stomach, and you
+don&rsquo;t have to look at the clock to know that it is breakfast
+time.</p>
+<p>About this time something begins to smell very good downstairs;
+and down you go, two steps at a time, and out into the dining-room,
+or kitchen. You could do it with your eyes shut, just following
+your nose; and it is a pretty good guide to follow, too. If you
+will just go toward the things that smell good, and keep away from,
+or refuse to eat, those that smell bad, you will avoid a great many
+dangers, not only to your stomach, but to your general health; for
+a bad smell is one of Nature&rsquo;s &ldquo;black marks,&rdquo; and
+you know what they are.</p>
+<p>How nice and fresh and appetizing everything looks&mdash;the
+white cloth, the clean cups and saucers, and the shining spoons and
+forks. You are sure that a good breakfast is one of the best
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name=
+"page23"></a>23</span>things in the world. You sit down and begin
+to eat, and everything tastes as good as it looks.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure09.png" alt=
+"A boy moves a milk bottle from a porch." id="figure09" name=
+"figure09" width="100%" />
+<p>MILK AND SUNLIGHT DON&rsquo;T AGREE</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The early riser can help a great deal by
+taking the milk bottles in out of the sun. Milk spoils quickly if
+it is not kept cool.</p>
+</div>
+<p>A good breakfast would be an egg, or a slice of bacon or ham,
+with a glass of milk,&mdash;or two, if you can drink
+another,&mdash;and two or three slices of bread, or toast, with
+plenty of butter; and then some cereal with plenty of cream and
+sugar, or some fruit, to finish with. A breakfast like this will
+give you just about the right amount of strength for the
+morning&rsquo;s work. Don&rsquo;t begin with a cereal or breakfast
+food; for this will spoil your appetite for your real breakfast.
+Cereal has very little nourishment in proportion to its bulk and
+the way it &ldquo;fills you up.&rdquo; Bread or mush or potato
+alone is not enough. Any one of these gives you fuel, to be sure;
+but it gives you very little with which to build up your body. For
+that you must have milk or meat or eggs or fish.</p>
+<p>It is most important that children should eat <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>24</span>a good big
+breakfast. All the hundred-and-one things that you are going to do
+during the day&mdash;racing, jumping, shouting,
+studying&mdash;require strength to do; and that strength can be got
+only out of the power in your food, which is really, you remember,
+the sunlight stored up in it.</p>
+<p>Sometimes, when you come down in the morning, especially if you
+haven&rsquo;t had the windows of your bedroom well open so as to
+get plenty of air during the night, you may feel that you are not
+very hungry for breakfast. Or perhaps, if you have risen late, or
+are in a great hurry to get to school in time, you just swallow a
+cup of coffee or tea, and a cracker or a little piece of bread, or
+a small saucer of cereal. This is a very bad thing to do, because
+coffee and tea, while they make you feel warm and comfortable
+inside, have very little &ldquo;strength,&rdquo; or food value, in
+them, and simply warm you up and stir up your nerves without doing
+you any real good at all. A cracker or a single piece of bread or
+one large saucer of cereal has only about one fourth of the
+strength in it that you will need for playing or studying until
+noontime. So after you have started to school with a breakfast like
+this, about the middle of the morning you begin to feel tired and
+empty and cross, and wonder what is the matter with yourself.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name=
+"page25"></a>25</span>Children of your age are growing so fast that
+they need plenty of good, wholesome food. They get so hungry that
+they want to be eating all the time. For &ldquo;grown-ups&rdquo;
+three times a day is enough; but for you children, whose bodies use
+up the food so fast, it is well to take also a piece of bread and
+butter, or two or three cookies, or a glass of milk with some
+crackers, in the middle of the morning and again about the middle
+of the afternoon. It will not hurt your appetite for dinner or
+supper, and you won&rsquo;t be wanting to &ldquo;pick&rdquo; at
+cake and candy and pickles all day long.</p>
+<p>How does eating keep you alive and make you grow? Eating is
+somewhat like mending a fire. You put wood or coal on the fire, and
+it keeps burning and giving out heat; but if you do not put fresh
+fuel on, the fire soon goes out. Just so, putting food into your
+body feeds the &ldquo;body fires&rdquo; and keeps you warm, and at
+the same time makes you grow. Of course the &ldquo;body
+fires&rdquo; are not just like those you see burning in the stove:
+there are no flames. But there is burning going on, just the
+same.</p>
+<p>The food you put into your body must be made soft and pulpy
+before it can burn in your muscles. Now you can guess what your
+teeth are <span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name=
+"page26"></a>26</span>for. They chop, crush, and grind the food;
+and the tongue rolls it over and over and mixes it with the
+moisture in your mouth, until it is almost like very thick soup.
+Then you make a little motion with your tongue and throat, and down
+it goes.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure10.png" alt=
+"A diagram of the digestive system." id="figure10" name="figure10"
+width="100%" />
+<p>THE FOOD TUBE</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Note the arrows. This is the trip made by
+every mouthful of food.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Where does it go? It is passed down a tube that we call the
+<em>food tube</em>. While I tell you about it, you can look at the
+picture and then try to draw it yourself.</p>
+<p>The food goes quickly down the first part of the tube until it
+comes to a part much larger than the rest, which we call the
+<em>stomach</em>. Here it is churned about for a long time, and the
+meat you have eaten is melted, or dissolved. Then the food goes
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>27</span>on
+into the next part of the tube, which has become narrow again. This
+lower part, which is about twenty-five feet long, is coiled up just
+below the waist, between the large bones that you can feel on each
+side of your body. These coils of the food tube, we call the
+<em>bowels</em>.</p>
+<p>Winding all around the stomach and bowels are tiny branching
+pipes full of blood. They look somewhat like the creepers on ivy,
+or the tendrils on grapevines. These suck out the melted food from
+the bowels. They take what the body can use, and carry it away in
+the blood to all parts of the body. This is the fuel that keeps the
+&ldquo;body fires&rdquo; going. The tougher parts of the food,
+which the body cannot use, are carried down to the lower end of the
+bowels and pushed out by strong muscles.</p>
+<p>This waste should be passed out from the body once every day and
+at the same time each day. In the morning after breakfast is
+perhaps the best time. If you do not get rid of it every day, it
+makes poisons, which go into your blood and soon make you very sick
+indeed. You must keep clean inside as well as outside.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name=
+"page28"></a>28</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_3">GOING TO SCHOOL</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_3_1">I. GETTING READY</h3>
+<p>As soon as you have finished breakfast, and brushed your teeth
+and gone to the toilet, you are ready to run out of doors to play,
+if you have plenty of time, or, if not, to start for school.</p>
+<p>Doesn&rsquo;t it seem a nuisance, in winter time, to have to put
+on a coat and overshoes and a cap or a hood, and sometimes leggings
+and mittens, too? But your mothers know what is best for you; and
+when you are young and growing fast, you have so much more surface
+in proportion to your weight than when you are grown up, that you
+lose heat from the blood in your skin very fast; and unless you are
+warmly dressed, you become chilled.</p>
+<p>When you are chilled, you are using up, in merely trying to keep
+yourself warm, some of the energy that ought to be used for growing
+and for working. It has been found out by careful tests that
+children who are not warmly dressed, and particularly whose arms
+and legs are not warmly covered, do not grow so fast as they ought
+to, and more easily catch colds and other <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>29</span>infections. So
+take time to put on your cap and your coat, if the weather is cold;
+and, if it is snowy, to button on leggings over your stockings; and
+then you can play as hard as you like, and run through the snow,
+and keep warm and rosy and comfortable.</p>
+<p>Wool is one of the best stuffs for coats and dresses and
+stockings and gloves and caps, not only because it is warm, but
+also because it is lighter in weight than anything else you could
+wear that would be equally warm, and because it is <em>porous</em>;
+that is, it will let the air pass through it, and the perspiration
+from the body escape through it.</p>
+<p>Don&rsquo;t wear any clothes so tight that you cannot run and
+jump and play and fling your arms and legs about freely, or so fine
+and stylish that you are afraid of getting them soiled by romping
+and tumbling.</p>
+<p>It is best to wear fairly heavy, comfortable shoes with good
+thick soles; then you will not have to wear rubbers, except when it
+is actually pouring rain, or when there is melting snow or slush
+upon the ground. Felt, or buckskin, or heavy cloth makes very good
+&ldquo;uppers&rdquo; for children&rsquo;s shoes; but only leather
+makes good soles.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name=
+"page30"></a>30</span>It is best not to wear rubbers too much,
+because the same waterproofness, which keeps the rain and the snow
+out, keeps the perspiration of your feet in, and is likely to make
+them damp. When they are damp, they are as easily chilled as if
+they had been wet through with rain or puddle water. Always take
+off your rubbers in the house or in school, because they are
+holding in not only the water of perspiration, but the poisons as
+well; and these will poison your entire blood, so that you soon
+have a headache and feel generally uncomfortable.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_3_2">II. AN EARLY ROMP</h3>
+<p>The minute you are outside the door, the fresh morning air
+strikes your face, and you draw four or five big breaths, as if you
+would like to fill yourself as full as you could hold. If you have
+had a good night&rsquo;s sleep and a good breakfast, the very feel
+of the outdoor air will make you want to run and jump and shout and
+throw your arms about. This warms you up finely and gives you a
+good color; but if you keep it up long, you will notice that two
+things are happening: one, that you are breathing faster than you
+were before; the other, that your heart is beating harder and
+faster, so that you can almost feel it <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page31" name="page31"></a>31</span>throbbing without putting your
+hand on your chest.</p>
+<p>If you run too hard, or too far, you begin to be out of breath,
+and your heart thumps so hard that it almost hurts. What is your
+heart doing? It is pumping; it is trying to pump the blood fast out
+to your muscles to give them the strength to run with.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure11.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of boys and girls holding hands and running down the sidewalk"
+id="figure11" name="figure11" width="533" height="362" />
+<p>AN EARLY RUN IS A GOOD PREPARATION FOR THE DAY&rsquo;S WORK</p>
+</div>
+<p>Of course you have seen a pump? Perhaps some of you have to pump
+water every day at home. You take the handle in your hands, lift it
+up, then press it down, and out pours the water through the spout;
+and, as you keep pumping, the water spurts out every time you press
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name=
+"page32"></a>32</span>handle down. It is hard work, and your arms
+are soon tired; but, as you cannot drink the water while it is down
+in the well, you must pump to bring it up where you can reach
+it.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure12.png" alt=
+"Anatomical drawing of a heart." id="figure12" name="figure12"
+width="100%" />
+<p>THE HEART-PUMP</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The big tubes are the arteries and
+veins.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Just so the heart pumps to keep the blood flowing round and
+round, through the muscles and all over the body. If you put your
+finger on your wrist, or on the side of your neck, you can feel a
+little throb, or <em>pulse</em>, for every spurt from your
+heart-pump; and that means for every heart-beat.</p>
+<p>This heart-pump is made of muscle, and is about the size of your
+clenched fist. And just as you can squeeze water from a sponge or
+out of a bulb-syringe, by opening and shutting your hand around it,
+so the big heart muscle squeezes the blood out of the heart. It
+squeezes it out from one side of the heart; and then, when it lets
+go, the blood comes rushing in from the other side to fill the
+heart <span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name=
+"page33"></a>33</span>again. So the heart goes on squeezing out and
+sucking in the blood, all day and all night as long as we live.</p>
+<p>When the blood comes to the muscles, it is a beautiful bright
+red; but after the muscles have taken what they want of it for food
+to burn, and warm you up, the &ldquo;ashes&rdquo; and the
+&ldquo;smoke&rdquo; go back into the blood and dirty its color from
+red to purple. Then the blood is carried to the lungs, where the
+fresh air you breathe in blows away the &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; and
+makes the blood red again.</p>
+<p>The blood is pumped all over the body through tubes or pipes,
+called <em>blood vessels</em>. Those that carry the red blood out
+from the heart, we call <em>arteries</em>. They are deep down under
+the skin, and we cannot see them. The pipes that carry the purple
+blood from the muscles and other parts back to the heart again, we
+call <em>veins</em>; and some of these are so close to the surface
+that we can easily see them through the skin. Let your hand hang
+down a minute or two, then you can see the veins on the inside of
+your wrist, or on the back of your hand, if it is not too fat.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name=
+"page34"></a>34</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure13.png" alt=
+"A photograph of children playing in the snow outside of school."
+id="figure13" name="figure13" width="100%" />
+<p>IT IS GOOD TO PLAY OUT OF DOORS TILL THE BELL RINGS&mdash;EVEN
+IN WINTER</p>
+</div>
+<p>The muscles, the brain, the skin, and other parts of the body
+get liquid food from the blood by &ldquo;sucking&rdquo; it through
+the walls of the smallest <span class="pagenum"><a id="page35"
+name="page35"></a>35</span>of the blood vessels, for these walls
+are very thin. In the same way, when waste passes from the muscles
+or the skin into the blood, it, too, soaks through the thin walls
+of the tiniest blood tubes, called <em>capillaries</em>.</p>
+<p>Your heart beats or throbs about seventy-five times in a minute
+when you are well. Look at the second hand of a watch, while you
+count the beats in your wrist or in your neck.</p>
+<p>Does your heart ever become tired? Not while you keep well,
+unless you over-drive it by running or wrestling too hard. It can
+rest between the beats. But the heart muscle, like any other
+muscle, must have plenty of good red blood to feed on. You put food
+into the blood by eating good breakfasts and dinners. The more you
+run and jump and play, the more work the heart has to do and the
+stronger it grows; and a good morning romp before school will send
+the blood flowing so merrily round from top to toe that you will
+feel fresher and brighter all the day.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_3_3">III. FRESH AIR&mdash;WHY WE NEED IT</h3>
+<p>The heart is not the only thing that goes faster and harder when
+you run about in the morning and play hard. You are breathing
+faster and deeper as well, as if there were something <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>36</span>in the air
+outside that you needed in your body as much as food.</p>
+<p>But, of course, you know that air is not good to eat. It has no
+strength in it, as food has; it isn&rsquo;t even a liquid like milk
+or coffee or tea. It is so thin and light that we call it a
+<em>gas</em>. Indeed, I suppose it is pretty hard for you to
+believe that air is a real thing at all. But all outdoors is full
+of the gas called air, and everything that seems to be empty, like
+a room or an empty box, is full of it.</p>
+<p>You cannot even smell it, as you can that other gas which comes
+through pipes into our houses and burns at the gas jets; nor can
+you see it like the gas that comes out of a boiling kettle or from
+the whistle of a locomotive, and which we call <em>steam</em>. This
+is simply because air is so pure that it has no smell, and is so
+perfectly clear that we can see right through it. Almost the only
+way that we can recognize it is by feeling it when it is moving.
+But it is a very real thing for all that; and, like sunshine and
+food, is one of the most important things in the world for us.</p>
+<p>What is it that air does in the body? We must need it very much,
+for we die quickly when we cannot get it: it takes us only about
+three minutes to suffocate, or choke to death, if we can&rsquo;t
+get it.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name=
+"page37"></a>37</span>You remember that the blood is pumped out
+from the heart, all through the body. Everywhere it goes,&mdash;to
+the feet and the hands and the head,&mdash;it is carrying two
+things: food that it has sucked up from the food tube, and hundreds
+and hundreds of tiny red sponges called red <em>corpuscles</em>.
+These little sponges are full of air which they sucked up as the
+blood passed through the lungs. When we stop breathing,&mdash;that
+is, taking in air,&mdash;the little red sponges of course
+can&rsquo;t get any air to carry to the different parts of the
+body.</p>
+<p>The body is made up of millions of tiny, tiny animals, called
+<em>cells</em>,&mdash;so tiny that they can be seen only under a
+microscope. Each of these cells must have food and air, just like
+any other animal. They eat the food the blood brings to them, and
+they take the air from the red corpuscles in the blood. With the
+air as a &ldquo;draft,&rdquo; they burn up the waste scraps, as we
+burn scraps from the kitchen, in the back of the stove.</p>
+<p>Suppose you light a candle and place it under a glass jar and
+watch what will happen. The flame will become weaker and weaker,
+and at last it will quite go out. You might think at first that the
+wind blew it out; but how could the wind get through or under the
+jar? No, the glass keeps all <span class="pagenum"><a id="page38"
+name="page38"></a>38</span>the outside air away from the flame; and
+that is just the reason why it does go out. Unless it has fresh
+air, it cannot burn. There is something&mdash;a gas&mdash;in the
+air that makes the flame burn, and when it has used up all this gas
+inside the glass, and can&rsquo;t get any more, it stops
+burning.</p>
+<p>Now you will want to know what this gas in the air is. When we
+write about it, we use its nickname, the large capital letter
+<em>O</em>; but its whole name is <em>Oxygen</em>.</p>
+<p>Just as the candle flame must have oxygen to keep it burning, so
+our cells must have oxygen to burn their impurities, or waste; and
+if they don&rsquo;t get the oxygen, and can&rsquo;t burn their
+impurities, they are poisoned by them and &ldquo;go out,&rdquo; or
+die.</p>
+<p>You can see the flame when the candle is burning, but you
+can&rsquo;t see the fires that burn in our bodies; there are no
+real flames at all. I know it is hard for you to believe that there
+can be any burning when our bodies are so wet and damp. But if you
+can&rsquo;t see it, you can easily feel it. Blow on your hand. How
+warm your breath is! Touch your hand to your cheek. It is quite
+warm, too. If you run or play hard, you sometimes become so hot
+that you want to take off your coat. That is because your fires are
+burning <span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name=
+"page39"></a>39</span>faster. The muscles are using more food and
+making more scraps to be burned. You breathe faster and faster till
+at last you are &ldquo;out of breath&rdquo; and feel as if you
+would smother or choke. The blood has hard work to bring oxygen
+enough to keep the fires going.</p>
+<p>After the cells have burned the food scraps, they turn the
+&ldquo;ashes&rdquo; and &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; back into the
+blood-stream that is always flowing past them. If the cells did not
+do this, they would soon smother to death, just as you could not
+possibly live in a house without chimneys to carry off the smoke.
+And, of course, the blood wants to get rid of this waste just as
+quickly as possible.</p>
+<p>Part of the waste in the body is liquid, like water, and can
+flow away through the blood pipes without needing to be burned.
+Some of this watery waste comes out through the skin and stands in
+beads or drops upon it. That is the part we call perspiration, or
+sweat. The rest of it goes in the blood to another strainer called
+the <em>kidneys</em>, passes through this as <em>urine</em>, and is
+carried away from the body as the waste water from the bathtub and
+the sink is carried away from a house.</p>
+<p>For the &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; Mother Nature has still <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>40</span>another
+beautiful plan. She sends the blood-stream flowing through the
+<em>lungs</em>, where it can send off its &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; and
+then get fresh air to carry to the cells in the muscles. When you
+breathe out, you are sending out the &ldquo;smoke&rdquo;; and when
+you breathe in, you are taking in fresh air.</p>
+<p>Our body &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; is not brown or blue, like the
+smoke from a fire; it is a clear, odorless gas, called <em>carbon
+dioxid</em>. This is the same gas that makes the choke-damp of coal
+mines, which suffocates the miners if the mine is not well
+ventilated; and the same gas that sometimes gathers at the bottom
+of a well, making it dangerous for anyone to go down into the well
+to clean it. And this gas is poisonous in our bodies just as it is
+in the mine or the well.</p>
+<p>You see, then, how important it is that we should live much of
+our lives in the clear pure air out of doors, and should bring the
+fresh air into our houses and schools and shops. &ldquo;Fill
+up&rdquo; with it all you can on your way to school, for the best
+of air indoors is never half so good as the free-blowing breezes
+outside.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page41" name=
+"page41"></a>41</span></p>
+<h3 id="Ch_3_4">IV. FRESH AIR&mdash;HOW WE BREATHE IT</h3>
+<p>When you are running and breathing hard, and even when you are
+sitting still and breathing quietly, air is going into your lungs
+and then coming out, going in and coming out, many times every
+minute. How does the air get in and out of the lungs? It will not
+run in of itself; for it is light and floats about, you know. Here,
+again, Mother Nature has planned it all out. She has made us an air
+bellows, or air pump, to suck it into the lungs. First we&rsquo;ll
+see what shape this pump is, and then how it works.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure14.jpg" alt=
+"Diagram of the chest cavity." id="figure14" name="figure14" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>THE CHEST THAT HOLDS THE LUNGS</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Back of the lungs is the heart; its position
+is shown by the broken line. The black line across the chest shows
+how high the diaphragm rises when we breathe out quietly.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Stiff rings of bone called <em>ribs</em> run round your body,
+just like the hoops in an old hoop skirt, or like the metal rings
+round a barrel. Here is a picture of the bones of the chest.
+Perhaps your teacher can show you the skeleton <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>42</span>of some animal.
+You will notice how the rings, or ribs, slant and are joined by
+hinges behind to the backbone and in front to the breastbone. It
+looks somewhat like a cage, doesn&rsquo;t it? Put your hands on the
+sides of your chest and you can feel your own ribs. Do they slant
+upward or downward?</p>
+<p>This chest-cage is our breathing-machine. Before I tell you how
+it pumps, I want you to get a pair of bellows and see how they
+work. When you lift up the handle of the bellows, you make the bag
+of the bellows larger so that it sucks in air; and when you press
+the handle down again, the air puffs out through the nozzle.</p>
+<p>Our air machine, though it is somewhat different from the
+bellows in shape, works in exactly the same way. You remember that
+you found that the ribs slant down and can be moved on hinges.
+Suppose, now, you place your hands against your ribs and feel the
+ribs lift as you draw in a long breath. The air will be sucked into
+your nose just as it was into the bellows when you raised the
+handle. By lifting your ribs, you have made the chest-cage larger;
+and the air has rushed into your nose, down your windpipe, and
+filled your lungs. If you breathe very deeply, you will find that
+your stomach, too, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name=
+"page43"></a>43</span>swells out. This shows that the muscular
+bottom of the cage, called the <em>diaphragm</em>, has been pulled
+down, making the cage larger still.</p>
+<p>In this chest-cage are millions of tiny air bags that make up
+the lungs; and every time you take a breath, the air bags are
+puffed out with the fresh air that comes rushing in. By the time
+you let your ribs sink again, the air has given its oxygen to the
+blood, and the blood has poured its carbon-dioxid smoke into the
+air bags for you to breathe out. Nature, with the same bellows,
+pumps in the oxygen and pumps out the &ldquo;smoke.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Now, we breathe into our lung-bellows whatever air happens to be
+around us. So we should take care that the air around us is fresh
+air.</p>
+<p>Unless the air were kept in motion by the heat of the sun,
+causing breezes and winds, it would become stale and wouldn&rsquo;t
+do at all for our lung-bellows to use. The air we breathe must be
+kept moving and fresh if it is to make us feel bright and strong
+and happy. Mother Nature has given us miles upon miles and oceans
+upon oceans of this clear, fresh air to breathe&mdash;&ldquo;all
+outdoors,&rdquo; in fact, as far as we can see around us and for
+miles above our heads. She sends the winds to move the air about
+and blow away the dust and dirt; and the sunshine, you remember,
+not only <span class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name=
+"page44"></a>44</span>to warm the air and keep it moving, but to
+burn right through it and kill the poisons. But this brings us to
+something else.</p>
+<p>You have learned that the air we breathe out would soon smother
+us, just as smoke would; and now we will see why. If you blow
+against the window pane on a cold day, the glass is no longer
+clear; and when you look at it closely, you see that it is covered
+with tiny drops of water. This is part of the breath you have just
+blown out. If the room is cold enough, you can see your breath in
+the air; that is, the steam in your breath becomes cold and appears
+as tiny water-drops. You have seen how in the same way, the steam,
+an inch or so from the spout of the teakettle, cools, making little
+water-drops that float in the air like clouds. Part of the breath,
+then, is water; but most of it is a gas, and you can&rsquo;t see it
+at all as it floats away into the air about you.</p>
+<p>If your teacher has a glass of limewater, and will let you
+breathe into it through a tube, you will see that your breath soon
+makes the water look milky. This shows that the gas in your breath
+is not like the air about you; because air was all over the top of
+the limewater, yet did not change it at all. The milky look is
+caused <span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name=
+"page45"></a>45</span>by carbon dioxid, one of the poisons in your
+breath.</p>
+<p>When some people come close to you, you want to turn away your
+head, because you do not like the smell of their breath. Even when
+one is quite well, the breath has a queer &ldquo;mousey&rdquo;
+odor, so that we never like to breathe the breath of another
+person. This disagreeable odor comes not only from the lungs but
+from the teeth.</p>
+<p>We are always breathing out poisons into the air. One of these
+you can see in the milky limewater, and others you can smell when
+you happen to come close to anyone else.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure15.png" alt=
+"A girl blows through a straw into a glass of water." id="figure15"
+name="figure15" width="100%" />
+<p>PROVING THAT THE BREATH IS NOT LIKE THE AIR</p>
+</div>
+<p>If you blow on your fingers, you feel that your breath is much
+warmer than the air. If people are crowded together in rooms with
+doors and windows shut, their breath soon heats and poisons the
+air, until they begin to have headache, and to feel dull and drowsy
+and uncomfortable. If they should be shut in too long, without any
+opening to let in the fresh air, as in a prison cell, or in the
+hold of a ship during a storm, the air would become so poisonous as
+to make them <span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name=
+"page46"></a>46</span>ill, and would even suffocate them and kill
+them outright. Even the bees found this out thousands of years ago;
+and in their hives in hot weather they station lines of
+worker-bees, one just behind another from the door right down each
+of the main passages, whose business it is to do nothing but keep
+their wings whirring rapidly, so that they fan a steady current of
+fresh air into every part of the hive.</p>
+<div class="figcen">
+<div style="float:left;"><img src="images/figure16a.png" alt=
+"A girl dusts with a feather duster, and clouds of dust are everywhere."
+id="figure16a" name="figure16a" width="228" height="336" />
+<p>Breathing Dust.</p>
+</div>
+<div style="float:right;"><img src="images/figure16b.png" alt=
+"A girl dusts with a cloth. No clouds ensue." id="figure16b" name=
+"figure16b" width="199" height="336" />
+<p>Catching the dust in a cloth.</p>
+</div>
+<p style="clear:both;">DUSTING&mdash;HOW SHALL WE DO IT?</p>
+</div>
+<p>How does Mother Nature get rid of these poisons from our breath?
+Of course, you say, &ldquo;She uses the wind and the
+sunshine.&rdquo; Yes, the winds can whisk up the poison and blow it
+away so fast, and the sunshine can burn up the horrid <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>47</span>smell so
+quickly, that even the air above big cities, and in their streets,
+is quite clean enough for us to breathe, except where the people
+are very closely crowded together and very dirty. Mother Nature
+wants all of us to help in keeping the air clean. This we can do by
+keeping ourselves and our houses clean, and by being careful not to
+leave scraps of waste, or dirty things, in the streets and cars and
+parks and other public places. And you children ought to be very
+careful about your school yard and the halls and the classrooms,
+where you spend so much of your time.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name=
+"page48"></a>48</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_4">IN SCHOOL</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_1">I. BRINGING THE FRESH AIR IN</h3>
+<p>The only place where air is absolutely sure to be fresh is out
+of doors. There, as we have seen, the sun and the winds keep it so
+all the time. But, unluckily, we cannot spend all our time
+outdoors, either when we are little or after we have grown up. So
+we must try in every way that we can to bring the outdoors
+indoors&mdash;to get plenty of fresh air and light into the houses
+that we live in, especially the bedrooms we sleep in and the
+schoolrooms we study in when we are children, and the offices or
+shops we work in when we are grown up.</p>
+<p>After you have your lungs and your blood well filled with air,
+either by walking briskly to school or by chasing one another about
+the school playground, you will suddenly hear the bell ring, and
+you march indoors and sit down at your desks. Here, of course, the
+air cannot blow about freely from every direction, because the
+walls and doors and windows are shutting you in on every side. The
+room, to be sure, is full of air; but if the doors and windows are
+shut, this air has no way <span class="pagenum"><a id="page49"
+name="page49"></a>49</span>of getting outside, nor can the fresh,
+pure air out of doors&mdash;even though it be moving quite fast, as
+a wind or a breeze&mdash;get inside.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure17.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of a classroom." id="figure17" name="figure17" width=
+"542" height="438" />
+<p>A CLASSROOM ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE OUT-OF-DOORS</p>
+<p>Notice the windows open top and bottom, and the high windows
+under the roof. Why are these good?</p>
+</div>
+<p>We must let the fresh air come in and the stale air go out. This
+is one of the things that windows are for; and this is why they are
+hung upon pulleys and made to slide up and down easily. Of course,
+even when the windows are not open, they are letting in light,
+which, you remember, is a deadly enemy to germs and poisons.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name=
+"page50"></a>50</span>Bright sunlight is best for purifying the air
+of a room, but even ordinary daylight has a good deal of
+germ-killing power. Therefore, a room that is well lighted is not
+only much pleasanter to live in, but much healthier, than one that
+is dull and gloomy. You see why we need plenty of windows and
+doors: we must let in the breezes and the sunshine, and let out the
+poisons and the dirt. Then, too, we must make the air in the
+building move about in order to keep it fresh; for if the air is
+not fresh, we soon grow tired and sleepy and have headaches. That
+is why your teacher keeps the windows open at the top a foot or so.
+You can easily see that when there are twenty or thirty of you
+breathing out poisons, and each one of you needing about four
+bushels of fresh air every minute, the old air ought to be going
+out and the fresh air coming in all the time.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure18.png" alt=
+"A candle at the bottom of an open window has the flame pointing in, while one at the top has a flame pointing out."
+id="figure18" name="figure18" width="100%" />
+<p>VENTILATION</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Watch the candle flames. Which way is the
+air moving, and why?</p>
+</div>
+<p>That is also why your teacher gives you a recess, so that you
+can run out of doors and get some fresh air. Then she can throw
+open all the windows and doors and have the air in the room
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name=
+"page51"></a>51</span>clean and fresh when you come back again. So
+when recess comes, don&rsquo;t hang about in the hallways or on the
+stairs or in the basement, but run right out of doors into the
+playground and shout and throw your arms about and run races to
+fill your lungs full of fresh, sweet air and stretch all your
+muscles, after the confinement and sitting still. Don&rsquo;t
+saunter about and whisper secrets or tell stories, but get up some
+lively game that doesn&rsquo;t take long to play, such as tag or
+steal-sticks or soak-ball, or duck-on-a-rock or skipping or
+hopscotch. These will blow all the &ldquo;smoke&rdquo; out of your
+lungs and send the hot blood flying all over your body and make you
+as &ldquo;fresh as a daisy&rdquo; for your next lesson.</p>
+<p>When you come back into the schoolroom after recess, the air
+will seem quite fresh and pure; but unless you keep the windows
+open, it will not be long before your head begins to be hot, and
+your eyes heavy, and you feel like yawning and stretching, and
+begin to wonder why the lessons are so long and tiresome. Then, if
+your teacher will throw open all the windows and have you stand up,
+or, better still, march around the room singing or go through some
+drill or calisthenic exercises, you will soon feel quite fresh and
+rested again.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name=
+"page52"></a>52</span>In the mild weather of the spring or early
+fall, all you need to do to keep the air fresh in the schoolroom is
+to keep the windows well open at the top. But in the winter, the
+air outdoors is so cold that it has to be heated before it is
+brought in; and this, in any modern and properly built schoolhouse,
+is usually arranged for. The fresh air is drawn in through an
+opening in the basement and is either heated, so that it rises, or
+is blown by fans all over the building. This sort of fresh air,
+however, is never quite so good as that which comes directly from
+outdoors; so it is generally best to keep at least two or three
+windows in each room opened at the top as well, and never to depend
+entirely upon the air that comes through the heating system.</p>
+<p>Sometimes this may mean a little draft, or current of
+uncomfortably cool air, for one or two of you who sit nearest the
+windows; but your teacher will always allow you to change your seat
+if this proves very unpleasant. If you have plenty of warmth in the
+room you sit in, unless the air outside is very cold, this
+&ldquo;breeze&rdquo; won&rsquo;t do you any harm at all; on the
+contrary, it will be good for you. Instead of catching cold from a
+draft like this, it is from foul, stuffy, poisonous air, loaded
+with other people&rsquo;s breaths and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page53" name="page53"></a>53</span>the germs contained in them,
+that you catch cold.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure19.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of a boy planting in a garden" id="figure19.jpg"
+name="figure19.jpg" width="538" height="333" />
+<p>GARDENS TAKE US OUT OF DOORS</p>
+</div>
+<p>In fact, staying indoors is usually the reason why people are
+sick. They don&rsquo;t go out into the clean fresh air for fear
+they&rsquo;ll be too cold! It seems a pity we can&rsquo;t just live
+out of doors all the time. Perhaps we shall some day; for doctors
+are finding out that fresh outdoor air and good food are the very
+best medicines known, and the only &ldquo;Sure Cures.&rdquo; They
+are pleasant to take, too. Many cities are providing outdoor
+schools for children who have weak lungs or are not strong in other
+ways. Perhaps some day all school children will be allowed to study
+in the open air at least part of every school day.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name=
+"page54"></a>54</span></p>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_2">II. HEARING AND LISTENING</h3>
+<p>Now you are all ready to go to work. What are you going to work
+with? Books? pencils? paper? Yes, but you have something better
+than those and all ready for use. It is that little kit of tools
+that are sometimes called our &ldquo;Five Senses.&rdquo; You
+remember that we have already talked about one of them, the sense
+of touch in the skin. Now which one are you going to use first this
+morning? If your teacher talks to you, I hope it will be the one we
+call the sense of hearing. Suppose we try to find out something
+about this sense of hearing, and begin with a little
+experiment.</p>
+<p>Take a piece of cork in your hand and lift it up high and then
+let it drop into a large basin or tub of water. What happens? The
+cork strikes and then goes bob-bob-bobbing up and down on its own
+waves. Now watch the little waves all around the cork. Where do
+they stop? They don&rsquo;t stop until they touch the edge of the
+pan; and no matter how big the pan is, the waves go on and on until
+they reach the edge.</p>
+<p>We can see these waves of water, and so we easily believe that
+they are there. Now there are, just as truly, waves of air all
+around us. We cannot see the waves, because they are too small
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>55</span>and
+roll too quickly. But some of these, when they roll against our
+ears, make us hear. They make what we call <em>sound</em>. You have
+heard about sending messages through the air, without telegraph
+wires. Wireless messages are often sent to ships out in the middle
+of the ocean. This is done by starting tiny electric waves, which
+travel through the air much as the waves of water are traveling
+across the ocean beneath. Of course there must be a machine, called
+a <em>receiver</em>, to catch the waves and &ldquo;hear&rdquo; the
+message.</p>
+<p>Mother Nature has given each of you two very delicate little
+receivers to catch the sound waves and carry them to your brain.
+You know what they are&mdash;you can name them. But how are these
+wonderful little machines made?</p>
+<p>You have never seen the whole of your ear. The part on the
+outside of the head, of course, you can easily see and feel.
+Sometimes you notice a deaf person put his hand behind his ear and
+press it forward so as to catch the sound waves better. These waves
+roll in at the little hole you can see, and travel along a short
+passage till they come to a round <em>drum</em>, a piece of very
+thin skin stretched tight like a drumhead.</p>
+<p>Have you ever beaten a drum with a stick? You felt the drumhead
+quiver under the blow, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name=
+"page56"></a>56</span>did you not? Well, when the sound waves beat
+against the drum in the ear, it quivers and starts little waves
+inside the ear. Each little wave in turn beats against a little
+bone called the <em>hammer</em>; the hammer beats against another
+called the <em>anvil</em>, and this against a third called the
+<em>stirrup</em>; and the quiver of the stirrup is passed on to a
+little window, opening into a little room with a spiral key-board;
+and from this, the wave travels along a nerve to the brain. As the
+waves reach the brain, the brain hears. In this way we hear all
+sorts of sounds, from the tick of a watch to the whistle of a
+train.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure20.png" alt=
+"A diagram of the structure of the ear." id="figure20" name=
+"figure20" width="100%" />
+<p>THE WAY BY WHICH SOUND WAVES REACH THE BRAIN</p>
+<p class="morecaption">A section through the right ear.</p>
+</div>
+<p>There is a sensible old saying, &ldquo;Never put anything
+smaller than your elbow into the inner part of your ear.&rdquo;
+Now, of course, you can&rsquo;t put your elbow into such a tiny
+hole! So the old saying means, never put anything in. The eardrum
+is very thin and can easily be broken. Even a slap on the ear, or a
+loud sound too close to it, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page57"
+name="page57"></a>57</span>might crack and spoil the drum and make
+one deaf.</p>
+<p>The outside ear needs careful washing; there are so many little
+creases that gather dirt and dust. The deep crease behind the ear,
+too, will become sore if it is not kept clean.</p>
+<p>Besides cleaning your ears, you must train them to listen. Some
+boys and girls hear just a word or two of what is said, and then
+guess at the rest and think they are listening, or else ask to have
+it repeated. We should try to hear exactly what is said; and if we
+listen carefully, it will soon be much easier to understand at
+once.</p>
+<p>Of course, if you really cannot hear, the doctor can tell you
+what is the matter, and usually can help you very much. Sometimes
+people become deaf simply because the throat is swollen. Indeed,
+most deafness comes from colds and catarrhs and other inflammations
+of the nose and throat. These spread to the ear through a little
+tube that runs up to the drum cavity from the back of the throat.
+Sometimes, when you are blowing your nose, you may feel your ear go
+&ldquo;pop&rdquo;; and that means that you have blown air up into
+the ear through this little tube. Be sure to see a doctor if you
+don&rsquo;t hear well; and be sure, too, to tell your teacher, so
+that she <span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name=
+"page58"></a>58</span>may know why it is you do not hear what she
+says, and ask her to give you a seat near her, so that you can
+hear.</p>
+<p>Then, too, you should learn to notice outdoor sounds&mdash;the
+songs of the birds, the noises that the animals make, the wind in
+the trees, and the patter of the rain. The old Norsemen have a
+story that their god Heimdall had such keen ears that he could hear
+the grass growing in the meadow and the wool growing on the backs
+of the sheep! Your ears can never be so keen as that; but there are
+many, many happy outdoor sounds that you should listen for. They
+will help to make you happy, too.</p>
+<p>Careful listening may sometime save your life. You can hear the
+car or the train coming, and you can learn to tell from which
+direction a sound comes. You can learn to tell one sound from
+another in the midst of many sounds. In more ways than you can
+think of now, this habit of listening will protect you from
+danger.</p>
+<p>The Germans have a proverb, &ldquo;Hear much and say
+little.&rdquo; What does it mean?</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name=
+"page59"></a>59</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure21.jpg" alt=
+"A group of children with their teacher stand in the forest and stare at a tree."
+id="figure21" name="figure21" width="537" height="768" />
+<p>&ldquo;DO YOU HEAR IT? CAN YOU SEE IT?&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_3">III. SEEING AND READING</h3>
+<p>You can learn a great deal through your ears, but think how much
+more you can learn through <span class="pagenum"><a id="page60"
+name="page60"></a>60</span>your eyes. Just count over all the
+things that you have had to get your eyes to tell you to-day, and
+then shut your eyes for a minute and think what it would mean never
+to be able to see. Don&rsquo;t you think you ought to take very
+good care of your eyes? You are going to keep them very busy all
+your life, and they deserve the very best care you can give
+them.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure22.png" alt=
+"A girl reads with her back to a window." id="figure22" name=
+"figure22" width="100%" />
+<p>THE LIGHT ON THE PAGE, NOT IN THE EYES</p>
+</div>
+<p>Just as soon as lessons begin, you get out your books; and a
+good share of the day in school you have a book before you, reading
+it or studying it or copying from it. It makes a great difference
+to your eyes how you hold the book and how the light falls. In
+reading, you should always hold your book so that the light falls
+upon the page from behind you, or from over one of your shoulders.
+In this way, the brightest light that comes into your eyes is not
+from the window, but from the page of your book.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name=
+"page61"></a>61</span>If the light comes from a window in front of
+you, or if you sit in the evening with your face toward the lamp
+when you read, the light coming straight from the lamp or the
+window, as well as the light coming up from the pages of the book,
+pours into your eyes; and this dazzles and confuses your eyes, so
+that you can&rsquo;t see plainly and comfortably and are very
+likely after a while to find that your head aches. At home, of
+course, you can seat yourself with your back to the light when you
+read; and usually at school your seats are so arranged that the
+light falls from behind you or from one side. If not, by turning a
+little in your seat, you can get the light from over your
+shoulder.</p>
+<p>Notice how the light falls upon the blackboard. When the light
+comes from the windows behind you, or from one side, you can see
+what is written there quite plainly. But if the blackboard happens
+to be between two windows, and especially if this is the lightest
+side of the room, you will find that the light dazzles you so that
+you cannot see the writing clearly.</p>
+<p>You must have noticed, too, that if, after you have been reading
+from the blackboard you look down again suddenly to the page of
+your book, for an instant you will not see the letters plainly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name=
+"page62"></a>62</span>Then, almost before you have time to notice
+it, you feel a little change take place inside your eyes, and the
+print upon the page of your book becomes quite plain. This is
+because your eye has to change the shape of one of the parts inside
+it, called the <em>lens</em>, before you can see clearly the things
+that are near you. This change, which is called
+<em>accommodation</em>, is made by a little muscle of the eye; and
+if you keep your eyes working at close work, like reading or
+writing or fancy-work, too long at a time, or if your eyes need
+glasses to make them see clearly, and you haven&rsquo;t them on,
+this little muscle becomes tired. Then the print of your book, or
+your writing, or the stitches you have taken begin to blur before
+your eyes. Your eyes begin to feel tired, and your head begins to
+ache. This is what we call <em>eye strain</em>.</p>
+<p>Sometimes this eye strain upsets your appetite or your digestion
+and makes you sleepless and worried. The trouble may be caused by
+your own carelessness: you may have been reading too long, or in a
+poor light, or with the light shining right in your face instead of
+coming over your shoulder. But sometimes it is caused by the fact
+that your eyes are not just the right shape; and then the only way
+to relieve it is to have proper <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page63" name="page63"></a>63</span>glasses, or spectacles, fitted,
+which will make up for this too flat or too round shape, or too
+large or too small size, of your eyes.</p>
+<p>If you cannot see clearly what is written on the blackboard when
+the light falls upon it from behind you, or above; or if, in a good
+light, you cannot read the words in your book quite easily, without
+straining at all, when you hold the book either at arm&rsquo;s
+length or a foot from your face; or if your head aches or your eyes
+begin to feel tired or uncomfortable, or the letters begin to blur,
+after you have read steadily&mdash;say, for half an hour,&mdash;it
+is a pretty sure sign that there is some trouble with your eyes.
+Then you had better have them examined at once by your family
+doctor or by the school doctor. In many schools now there are
+doctors to test the children&rsquo;s eyes, and ears, too, so that
+each child may have a chance to see and hear everything that the
+other children can see and hear.</p>
+<p>Not very many years ago people thought that glasses were only
+for old people, but now we know that many children&rsquo;s eyes
+need glasses, too. I knew a little girl whose sight was so poor
+that when she was standing and looked down at the grass, she
+couldn&rsquo;t see the green blades. She thought that the grass
+looked like a green blur <span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name=
+"page64"></a>64</span>to everyone, just as it did to her; and so
+she never said anything about it. She was twelve or thirteen years
+old before she found out that she couldn&rsquo;t see clearly. Of
+course, trying hard to see things gave her a headache and made her
+tired and cross. So some one took her to a doctor, and he saw at
+once what was the matter and fitted her with glasses. Soon she was
+quite well and strong; and how glad she was to see the leaves and a
+hundred other things she had not seen before!</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure23.png" alt=
+"A diagram of an eye." id="figure23" name="figure23" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>THE EYEBALL IN ITS SOCKET</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The muscle from M to M, which helps to turn
+the eyeball, has been cut away to show the optic nerve.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Here we have a picture of the <em>eyeball</em>, as we call it.
+The little bands fastened to it are the bands of muscle; and as
+soon as I say <em>muscle</em> you know what they are for&mdash;to
+move the eyeball about, up and down and from side to side. There
+are muscles outside the eye as well as inside. Coming out from the
+back of the eyeball is a pearly white cord quite different from the
+muscle bands. This is what we call a <em>nerve</em>. This nerve in
+your eye carries to your <em>brain</em>, or <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>65</span>thinking
+machine, picture-messages of whatever you look at.</p>
+<p>The nerve in your eye gets messages of light much as the nerve
+deep in your ear gets its messages of sound&mdash;from tiny waves
+in the air. The light waves are smaller and faster even than the
+sound waves, and the eye nerve is the only nerve that can get
+pictures of them. You know that, for wireless messages, the
+receiving machines are not all alike and cannot all take the same
+messages, if the messages are sent with different sorts of electric
+waves; and neither can our receiving machines. Some get messages of
+sight, and some of sound, and some of touch, or taste, or
+smell.</p>
+<p>Now shut your eyes as quickly as you can. How long did it take
+you? A minute? No, not a quarter of a second. It is about the
+quickest thing you can think of&mdash;&ldquo;the twinkling of an
+eye.&rdquo; You shut your eyes &ldquo;quick as a wink&rdquo;
+whenever anything seems likely to fly or splash into them, and this
+is what the eyelids are for. If anything gets into the eye before
+the lids can shut, the eye &ldquo;waters,&rdquo; and <em>tears</em>
+pour out of it. These are made by a gland-sponge up under the upper
+lid, so as to wash any dust or sand or other harmful speck out of
+the eye before it can hurt the sensitive eyeball.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name=
+"page66"></a>66</span>Now look at some one&rsquo;s eyeball. It is
+like the picture, isn&rsquo;t it?&mdash;bright white around the
+edge and then a ring of color, brown or blue or gray; and inside
+the color-ring, or <em>iris</em>, a little round black hole that we
+call the <em>pupil</em>. Watch the little hole change as you turn
+the face toward the window. It becomes ever so much smaller. Now
+turn the face away from the window, back again into the shadow. How
+did the pupil change this time?</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure24.png" alt=
+"A cat in shadow and a cat in light." id="figure24" name="figure24"
+width="434" height="169" />
+<p>EYES PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST THE LIGHT</p>
+</div>
+<p>The iris, or color-ring, acts like a curtain, like the
+ring-shutter of a camera, and closes up the hole, or pupil, when
+the light is too bright and would dazzle or burn the inside of the
+eye; but when the light is dim, the iris opens again, so as to let
+in light enough with which to see. Look at the little window in
+your kitten&rsquo;s eyes. It is not the same shape as yours; but
+when you carry her to the light, you see how the iris closes in and
+leaves just a little black slit or line.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name=
+"page67"></a>67</span>You remember the blind children? Isn&rsquo;t
+it wonderful how they can play games and study, too, even though
+they are blind! They have to make their senses of touch and hearing
+tell them many things that you learn through your sense of sight.
+Many of these children <em>need not have been blind</em>, if the
+nurse who first took care of them when they were born had known
+enough to wash their eyes properly, not with soap and water, of
+course, but with just one or two drops of a kind of
+medicine&mdash;an <em>antiseptic</em>, as we call it&mdash;that
+makes the eye perfectly clean.</p>
+<p>But you children who have good eyes that can see, do you really
+see things when you look at them? You can train your eyes just as
+you can train your ears. You can teach them to read quickly down a
+page, and to find things in pictures, and, better still, to see
+things out of doors, in the garden and the woods and on the
+seashore. We hear a great deal about &ldquo;sharp eyes,&rdquo; but
+most of us see very little of all we might see. Our eyes are on the
+lookout, too, to protect us from dangers that may come; with our
+skin and nose and ears, they are constantly on the watch; so the
+better we see the safer we are.</p>
+<p>Even if your eyes are perfect now, you will need to take good
+care of them to keep them <span class="pagenum"><a id="page68"
+name="page68"></a>68</span>strong. Don&rsquo;t let any story, no
+matter how interesting it is, tempt you to read in a dim light or a
+light that is too strong. And if you can&rsquo;t see the blackboard
+easily, or can&rsquo;t read big print, like the school calendar,
+across the room, tell your mother or your teacher, so that she can
+ask the doctor to find out what the matter is.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_4">IV. A DRINK OF WATER</h3>
+<p>It is astonishing what thirsty work studying is! Scarcely is the
+second recitation over before your throat begins to feel dry, and
+up goes your hand&mdash;&ldquo;May I get a drink?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>If anyone even says the word &ldquo;water,&rdquo; it makes you
+thirsty. It is so good that just the thought of it makes you want
+some. I should like you to notice how much water you drink every
+day. Perhaps a glass in the morning when you get up, and one at
+night before you go to bed, and three or four in between.</p>
+<p>Why do we need so much water? Well, how much do you weigh?
+Perhaps you will find it hard to believe, but more than half of
+that weight is water; and because we are always giving off water
+from the skin and from the body, we need plenty more to take its
+place.</p>
+<p>No living thing can grow without water. Take <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>69</span>a bean, for
+instance, and put it in an empty glass on the window sill; and even
+if the sun shines full upon it, nothing will happen, except that
+after a few days it will shrivel and dry up. But fill the glass
+with water, and in a few hours the bean will begin to swell; and in
+a few days it will burst, and a little shoot will grow out of one
+end of it and a tiny root at the other. The water and the warmth
+together have made it sprout and grow.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure25.png" alt=
+"A sheet of paper folded into a cone." id="figure25" name=
+"figure25" width="100%" />
+<p>A DRINKING-CUP EASILY MADE</p>
+</div>
+<p>Children at school and people on trains should have their own
+private cups, for serious diseases may be caught from the mouths of
+other people. You can get a metal pocket folding cup for ten or
+fifteen cents, or paper ones for a few cents a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>70</span>dozen. If you
+don&rsquo;t have your own cup, I hope you will get one and carry
+it. Here is a pattern for a paper cup that you can easily make for
+yourselves. Try it and see. When you have once learned how, you can
+make it very quickly and have a fresh cup every time you want one;
+but of course you should be sure first that the paper itself is
+clean.</p>
+<p>If you drink milk, this takes the place of some of the water and
+gives you food as well. It is both drink and food; and a very good
+food for children it is, too. You know, babies can live on it
+because it has everything in it to make them grow.</p>
+<p>Do you know why it is that people are so careful nowadays about
+having milk and drinking-water very clean? It is because they have
+found that the tiny plants, called germs, that make people sick are
+often carried about in these drinks. A disease called <em>typhoid
+fever</em> is carried in this way.</p>
+<p>Fifty years ago, cities and towns used to be very careless about
+where they got their water supply, and would often take it out of
+streams into which other cities emptied their sewage. Now, however,
+they are much more particular; and the health officers, or Boards
+of Health, are insisting that public water supply, such as is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name=
+"page71"></a>71</span>brought into our houses in pipes, shall be
+taken either from some spring or deep-flowing well, or from a
+stream or lake up in the hills, into which no drainage from houses
+or farmyards, and no dirty water from factories, empties.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure26.jpg" alt=
+"A pipe in a trench." id="figure26" name="figure26" width="544"
+height="366" />
+<p>A PIPE FOR THE CITY WATER SUPPLY</p>
+<p>This pipe is laid for many miles to bring water from the distant
+hills.</p>
+</div>
+<p>We are still, however, far from being as careful as we should be
+about this; and I am sorry to say that America has had more deaths
+from typhoid fever than any other civilized country. Germany,
+which, of all countries in the world, is the most particular about
+keeping its water supply pure, has the fewest deaths from this
+cause, in proportion to its population&mdash;scarcely one fifth as
+many as we have.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name=
+"page72"></a>72</span>Therefore, by taking proper care, it would be
+quite possible to prevent at least two thirds of our nearly 400,000
+cases of typhoid fever and 35,000 deaths from typhoid, every
+year.</p>
+<p>It is not only cities and towns that ought to be careful of
+their water supply. In fact, now, out on the farms and in the
+healthy country districts, the death rate from typhoid fever has
+actually become higher than it is in our large cities. The main
+cause of this is the custom of digging the well in such a place
+that the waste water thrown out from the house, or the drainage
+from the barnyard or the pigpen or the chicken-house may wash into
+it, soaking down through the porous soil. Far more typhoid fever
+now is spread by means of infected well water than by any other
+means.</p>
+<p>Most dangerous of all is the leakage from the privy vault; as,
+by this means, the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases that
+affect the food tube and digestion may drain through the soil till
+they reach the drinking water in the well. These dangers can be
+avoided either by having the well dug at some distance from the
+house and in higher ground, or by having the drainage from the
+house, barns, and out-buildings piped and carried to a safe
+distance from the well.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name=
+"page73"></a>73</span>Fortunately, there are only a few kinds of
+germs that make us sick. Most germs are helping us all the time; we
+could not live without them. Some of them make our butter taste
+good, and others make our crops grow, and others eat up the dirt
+that would make us sick. But since disease germs are so tiny that
+we cannot possibly see them with the naked eye, we must know where
+the water and milk that we use come from, and whether or not they
+are perfectly clean. Boiling the water will kill these germs and
+make the water pure. It is better not to boil milk if it can be had
+from a dairy where the stable and the cows and the milkmen and the
+pails and bottles are quite clean.</p>
+<p>The fruits and fruit juices&mdash;lemon and orange and raspberry
+and lime and grape&mdash;give nice wholesome drinks. Home-made
+juices are much better than those you buy; you can be sure that
+they are pure and really made from fruit. And just here I want to
+caution you against buying &ldquo;pink lemonade&rdquo; or soda
+water or any other drink of that sort from the penny venders and
+open stalls on the street. The drinks they sell are not made from
+pure fruit juices, but from different flavoring extracts that are
+made to taste like the fruit and are colored with cheap
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name=
+"page74"></a>74</span>dyes. Even the sweetening in them is not pure
+sugar, and they are often made or handled in a careless, dirty
+manner, or exposed to the dust of the street, and to flies.</p>
+<p>Not long ago I was at the home of a friend where for supper we
+had the nicest grape juice I ever tasted. When I said, &ldquo;How
+good it is!&rdquo; one of the little girls piped up, &ldquo;Billy
+and I picked the grapes, and sister made it all by herself. She
+learned how at cooking school.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>When I was packing my suitcase to leave, this little girl
+brought out a big bottle of grape juice and wanted me to take it
+with me to remember her by. It was all beautifully sealed with wax,
+and even this she had done by herself! Do you think I could have
+kept it that way very long? Perhaps not, it was so good; but if I
+had wanted it for a keepsake, I could have kept it, sealed as it
+was, for years and years, and it would have been just as sweet and
+fresh as when it was given to me.</p>
+<p>Suppose, instead of keeping it in its bottle, I had poured it
+out into a glass. Can you tell me what would have happened to it
+then?</p>
+<p>In a few days little bubbles would have come, one after another,
+up to the top of the juice; and soon it would have been all full of
+bubbles. What <span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name=
+"page75"></a>75</span>causes the bubbles? Floating all about in the
+air and sunshine are tiny specks called <em>spores</em>. These are
+to the tiny <em>yeast</em> plants what seeds are to other plants.
+Seeds fall into the ground and grow, but these yeast spores fall
+into the grape juice and grow. While they are growing in the grape
+juice, they eat what they want from the juice; and, as they eat,
+they make bubbles of carbon dioxid,&mdash;which, you remember,
+forms in our lungs and looks like air,&mdash;and of another
+substance called <em>alcohol</em>. Of course, when they have
+changed the juice in this way, it tastes very different. It is then
+what we call <em>fermented</em>.</p>
+<p><em>Fermented drinks are harmful</em>; but some people like
+bubbling drinks so much that they leave good fresh grape juice open
+on purpose to let the little yeast plants get into it and make it
+into what we call <em>wine</em>. They treat apple juice in just the
+same way to make <em>cider</em>; and they even take fresh rye and
+barley and corn, and mash them up, and put yeast plants into the
+mash to ferment them and make them into <em>whiskey</em> and
+<em>beer</em>. It does seem a pity, doesn&rsquo;t it, to take good
+foods like wheat and apples and grapes and make them into these
+things that really do us harm if we drink them.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page76" name=
+"page76"></a>76</span>A very wise man named Solomon, who lived
+thousands of years ago, warned people not to drink wine, not even
+to look at it when it sparkled in the cup. He said no really wise
+man would drink it. Of course not; the wise man uses the food and
+drink that make his body grow strong and his brain work true, and
+no fermented drink can do that.</p>
+<p>There is no better drink for anyone than clear pure water, and
+no better food and drink in one than pure fresh milk.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name=
+"page77"></a>77</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure27.jpg" alt=
+"Children in smocks and chef hats are busy at big tables." id=
+"figure27" name="figure27" width="100%" />
+<p>A SCHOOL KITCHEN WHERE BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS LEARN TO COOK</p>
+</div>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_5">V. LITTLE COOKS</h3>
+<p>If you have to come so far to school that you cannot go back to
+dinner and so must bring a luncheon with you, be sure to take
+plenty of time to sit down and eat it slowly and chew every piece
+of food thoroughly. Many children who bring luncheons to school
+just grab a piece of food in each hand and &ldquo;bolt&rdquo; it
+down as fast as they can possibly bite it off and swallow it, and
+then rush out to play.</p>
+<p>Play is good and very important, but you had better spare ten or
+fifteen minutes of it in order to chew your lunch thoroughly and
+swallow it slowly, and then to sit or move about quietly for a few
+minutes before starting to play hard. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page78" name="page78"></a>78</span>This will give your stomach a
+chance to get all the blood it wants to use in digesting the food;
+for, you remember, when you romp and play, your blood moves outward
+toward your skin and away from your stomach. Don&rsquo;t think
+that, just because you &ldquo;picnic&rdquo; at lunch, it is not as
+important as any other meal.</p>
+<p>I hope, however, that it will not be long before almost every
+school will have a school kitchen and a lunch room; first, so that
+every girl at least can learn to cook. It is well worth while being
+able to do; indeed, no girl ought to be considered properly
+educated until she has learned to cook, and no boy either, for that
+matter. Then, if the school has this kitchen, it can be used to
+furnish hot luncheons, or dinners, for those children who cannot
+conveniently go home in the noon recess. Hot lunches are much more
+digestible than cold ones, and they taste much better, and are much
+less likely to be eaten in a hurry.</p>
+<p>But why should we learn to cook? Why shouldn&rsquo;t we eat our
+food raw instead of taking all this trouble and pains to cook
+it?</p>
+<p>I know of a boy&mdash;a big lazy fellow&mdash;who is always
+forgetting to do things. He used to go away in the morning without
+leaving wood enough for the kitchen fire. So his mother said
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>79</span>to
+herself one day, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll teach him to remember.&rdquo;
+The next morning he went off again and left no wood. At noon he
+came back &ldquo;hungry as a hunter.&rdquo; She called him in to
+dinner; and in he came, sat down, picked up the carving
+knife&mdash;then he stopped! What do you suppose was the matter?
+The beef was raw! Then he lifted the cover of the potato dish, and
+there lay the potatoes raw! Then he tried another dish and found
+nice green peas, but hard as little bullets. They were raw, too!
+Not even the bread had been cooked; it was a soft, sticky mass of
+dough. His mother, who is a jolly old lady, fairly shook with
+laughter when she told me about it. She said she never again had to
+tell him to split wood.</p>
+<p>Now that boy didn&rsquo;t need to be told one reason for
+cooking. We don&rsquo;t like our food raw; it doesn&rsquo;t taste
+so good. At first, perhaps, that doesn&rsquo;t sound like a very
+good reason; but it is more important than you think. For it is a
+fact that, just as soon as you smell food, your stomach begins to
+get ready the juice that is to digest it. If this very first juice,
+which is called the <em>appetite juice</em>, is not poured out,
+then the food may lie in the stomach some little time before it
+begins to be digested at all. So it is quite important that our
+food should smell and taste <span class="pagenum"><a id="page80"
+name="page80"></a>80</span>and look good, as well as have plenty of
+strength and nourishment in it.</p>
+<p>Another reason for cooking is that it either softens or crisps
+our food so that we can chew it better and digest it more readily.
+You know what a difference there is between trying to eat a raw
+potato and a nice, mealy, well-baked one, or trying to eat popcorn
+before it is popped and after.</p>
+<p>Another good thing, too, cooking does, which is very important.
+It kills any disease germs, or germs of decay, that may happen to
+have got upon the food from dust or flies, or from careless, dirty
+handling.</p>
+<p>Of course, some of our food, such as apples and other ripe
+fruits, and celery and lettuce and other green vegetables, we can
+eat raw and digest quite well; but we should be careful to see that
+they have been thoroughly washed with water that we know to be
+pure. Grocers often have a careless way of putting fruit and
+vegetables out upon open stands in front of the shop, or in open
+boxes or baskets inside the store, and leaving them there all day.
+This is very dangerous, because dust from the street, which
+contains horse manure and all sorts of germs, may blow in upon
+them; flies, which have been eating garbage <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page81" name="page81"></a>81</span>or feeding at
+the mouths of sewers, may come in and crawl over them. You ought to
+be very sure that anything that you are going to eat raw, or
+without thorough cooking, has been well washed. And you ought to
+ask your mother to speak to your grocer, if he is careless in this
+way, and have him keep his fruit and vegetables, as well as sugar
+and crackers and beans and dried fruit, either under glass or well
+screened from flies and dust.</p>
+<p>More important than almost anything else in good cookery is to
+keep the food and the kitchen and the dishes and your hands
+perfectly clean all the way through, so that nothing that will
+upset your digestion can get into the food. After things are well
+cooked, it is very important that they should be nicely served on
+clean dishes, on a clean table cloth, with polished knives and
+shining spoons and forks. This means not only that everything about
+the table and the food will be perfectly clean and wholesome, but
+that you will enjoy eating it a great deal more. And when you enjoy
+your food, you remember, your stomach can <em>secrete</em> the
+juice that is needed to digest it, very much faster and better than
+when, as you say, you are just &ldquo;poking it down.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>If you have a school kitchen and a lunch <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page82" name="page82"></a>82</span>room, you can
+learn the best way of cooking and serving things; and then,
+perhaps, you can do these same things at home and be a real help.
+Most children are fond of trying to cook, and I am glad that they
+are. Everyone, boys and girls both, should know how to cook simple
+things. Perhaps some day you will be stranded, like Robinson
+Crusoe, on a desert island! Perhaps the rest of the family may be
+sick. How nice it would be for you to be able to prepare breakfast
+for them. I know a family where the youngest boy often rises early
+and gets breakfast for five. He can fry the bacon and boil the eggs
+and make the coffee and mush and biscuit just as nicely as his
+mother can; and he takes pride in it and enjoys it.</p>
+<p>Cooking is what we call an art. Everyone, of course, can learn
+to do it; but some people can do it much better than others, just
+as some boys and girls can draw better than others. I hope some of
+you will be what we might call &ldquo;artist cooks.&rdquo; Take
+pride in the art and learn all that you can about it. There are so
+many things a cook should know.</p>
+<p>A great deal of good food is spoiled by bad cookery,
+particularly by frying slowly in tepid grease, or fat, so that it
+becomes soaked with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name=
+"page83"></a>83</span>grease. You should have the frying pan just
+as hot as possible before you begin to fry; and then the meat or
+potatoes or cakes will be seared, or coated over, on the outside,
+so that the fat cannot soak into them, and they will not only taste
+better, but will be much more digestible.</p>
+<p>In baking you will have to be careful not to let the oven become
+too hot, or else the meat or bread will be burned or scorched. Even
+if the heat does not do this, it may harden and toughen the outside
+of the meat so that it is almost impossible either to chew or
+digest.</p>
+<p>Sugar is really a very good food if you do not eat too much at
+once, and so pure candy is good for you if you do not eat too much.
+The very best time to eat it is at the end of a meal. If you learn
+to make it at school or at home, you can always have some to eat
+after your luncheon without having to buy it. If you do buy candy,
+don&rsquo;t get the bright colored kind; it looks pretty, but it
+may hurt you. And be sure to see that it has been kept under a
+cover, where the dust and flies could not get at it. Dust is dirty,
+and flies don&rsquo;t wipe their feet. You want clean, pure
+candy.</p>
+<p>Of course, after cooking, you will always be very careful to
+wash up all the pots and pans and dishes that you have used. Food
+and scraps <span class="pagenum"><a id="page84" name=
+"page84"></a>84</span>that are left sticking to dishes and cooking
+utensils very quickly turn sour and decay; and then the next time
+the dishes are used, you will perhaps have an attack of
+indigestion, and wonder why.</p>
+<p>There are two things you should always notice: Whether the bread
+you eat is sweet and thoroughly baked; if it is soggy and sour, it
+will make trouble in your stomach. Whether all your food is clean
+and fresh before it is cooked; this you can tell by your eyes and
+nose.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_6">VI. TASTING AND SMELLING</h3>
+<p>When, at home, you give the baby a ball or a key or a watch to
+play with, what does he do with it the very first thing? He is
+never quite happy, is he, until he has put it into his mouth? Does
+he want to eat it? No, he wants to feel it; and he has not yet
+learned to feel very carefully with his hands, as you do.</p>
+<p>Can you feel with your mouth? If you have the least little hole
+in one of your teeth, you know it as soon as you rub your tongue
+against it. How big it feels and how rough the edges seem! If you
+take a looking-glass, you find, if you can see the hole at all,
+that it is just a tiny, tiny hole.</p>
+<p>Your tongue and lips, like the rest of your skin, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>85</span>are always
+touching and feeling things for you and sending messages to the
+brain. They say whether your milk is hot or cold, and whether the
+food you eat is soft enough and quite right in other ways. Your
+tongue is a very busy little &ldquo;waiter&rdquo;: he passes the
+food about in your mouth for the teeth to chew, and he rolls it
+about at a great rate. But he does more than this; he tells you
+something about how it tastes&mdash;not everything, as you may
+think, but only whether it is <em>bitter</em>, <em>sweet</em>,
+<em>sour</em>, or <em>salty</em>. Queer as it may seem, your nose
+tells you the other &ldquo;tastes,&rdquo; which are really smells.
+It is your nose that says whether you have a strawberry or a piece
+of onion in your mouth, whether it is coffee or cocoa that you are
+drinking.</p>
+<p>Of what other use is your nose?&mdash;for only a little patch in
+the upper part is for smelling and tasting. The greater part of the
+nose is to breathe through. You see, your nose warms and moistens
+the outside air that you take in, so that, by the time it reaches
+your throat, it is as warm as your body and does not hurt your
+throat. Your nose also strains, or filters, out of the air the
+dust, lint, and germs that may be floating in it.</p>
+<p>You should always keep your lips closed and breathe through your
+nose. Whenever you cannot <span class="pagenum"><a id="page86"
+name="page86"></a>86</span>breathe through your nose, there is
+something the matter. It may be that your nose is swollen shut with
+a &ldquo;cold&rdquo;; but that will last only a few days. If,
+however, your nose often feels &ldquo;stuffed up,&rdquo; there is
+probably something in it or behind it, that ought to be taken away.
+A throat doctor can easily cure you; and, when he has, you&rsquo;ll
+be surprised how much better you feel and how much faster you
+grow.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure28.jpg" alt=
+"A side-view diagram of the mouth, nose and throat." id="figure28"
+name="figure28" width="100%" />
+<p>A CLEAR PASSAGE TO THE LUNGS</p>
+<p>(Follow the arrows.)</p>
+</div>
+<p>I once knew a little girl whose nose was always blocked up. She
+had headache and felt tired most of the time and was behind in her
+classes. The doctor told her what was the matter, but her father
+and mother were afraid that it might hurt her to have the doctor
+take out what was clogging her nose. Well, what did she do? Instead
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name="page87"></a>87</span>of
+crying and being afraid, one day she walked right into the
+doctor&rsquo;s office and asked him to take out the
+<em>adenoids</em>, as we call these growths that block up the nose.
+And after the doctor had taken them out, she began to grow well and
+fat and strong so fast that she soon &ldquo;caught up&rdquo; in her
+classes.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure29.jpg" alt=
+"A diagram of the nose and the back of the throat." id="figure29"
+name="figure29" width="100%" />
+<p>A PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ADENOIDS</p>
+</div>
+<p>When you breathe well through your nose, you can smell and taste
+better, too. In fact, when your nose is clogged, you cannot smell
+at all.</p>
+<p>How does this sense of smell help us? You say we can smell the
+flowers and the fresh air after the rain, and cookies baking, and
+all the things that we like so well. Yes, and these give us
+pleasure; but how about the bad smells? The bad smells are
+warnings. If there is a dead mouse or rat about, we smell it; and
+that leads us to look for it and take it away. We smell the dirt
+and get rid of it, and thus keep away sickness. When we walk into a
+room, if the air is bad we <span class="pagenum"><a id="page88"
+name="page88"></a>88</span>smell it at once and open a window or a
+door, and so save ourselves from being poisoned.</p>
+<p>Some people hurt their noses by smoking tobacco. The inside skin
+of the nose is very delicate, and the smoke going back and forth
+through the nose and the throat keeps them from doing their work
+properly. It is very bad for little children even to smell tobacco
+smoke. It seems in some way to keep them from growing as they would
+in clear fresh air. What a silly habit smoking is! It does no one
+any good. It hurts not only the people who make the smoke, but the
+people who have to smell it. Most of the people who smoke tobacco
+have to learn to like it. It almost always makes them very sick
+when they first begin.</p>
+<p>Sir Walter Raleigh, or the men he sent to America, first taught
+our great-great-great-grandfathers to smoke. His men bought tobacco
+of the Indians here and took it back to England; and Sir Walter
+himself learned to smoke and made smoking fashionable. The first
+time that Sir Walter&rsquo;s servant saw him smoking, he thought
+his master was on fire; so what did he do but bring a big bucket of
+water and throw it all over him! I wish that that bucket of water
+had settled the matter, so that Sir Walter had stopped <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page89" name="page89"></a>89</span>smoking and had
+never taught anyone else to smoke. If it had, think how much money
+might have been put to better use, for smoking is a very costly
+habit. And it is not only wasteful of money, but, worse still, of
+health; for it is the cause of a great deal of poor health and
+disease.</p>
+<p>Remember that you want the air you breathe perfectly fresh and
+clean and not spoiled and poisoned by tobacco smoke.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_7">VII. TALKING AND RECITING</h3>
+<p>When I was little and playing with my brothers, I did not always
+do what they wanted. So they&rsquo;d sometimes say,
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll put him in Coventry, then he&rsquo;ll do
+it.&rdquo; They did not really <em>put</em> me anywhere. They
+simply would not speak to me or answer anything I said. It was just
+as if I were entirely alone. Of course it was a quick way to make
+me ready to take my part in the game again.</p>
+<p>How do you think you would feel if you never, never could speak
+to anyone, and no one could speak to you? What a quiet world
+we&rsquo;d have! Almost every day I meet a boy who can&rsquo;t hear
+and can&rsquo;t speak. How does he ask for things? He makes letters
+and spells words with his fingers, and his friends watch his
+fingers and read what <span class="pagenum"><a id="page90" name=
+"page90"></a>90</span>he says. Is that the way you do? &ldquo;No,
+indeed,&rdquo; you say, &ldquo;I talk.&rdquo; &ldquo;What do you
+talk with?&rdquo; &ldquo;I talk with my mouth.&rdquo; Yes,
+that&rsquo;s true enough; but if you did not use something besides
+your mouth, you&rsquo;d never make a sound.</p>
+<p>Where does the sound come from? Feel gently with your finger and
+thumb along the front of your neck. Do you find something harder
+than the rest of your throat? That is the large tube called your
+<em>windpipe</em>. Do you feel a ridge sticking out from this? Now
+sing or talk a little. You can feel the ridge move up and down, and
+the sound thrill in it. That is where the sound comes from. That is
+your voice-and-music box, or <em>larynx</em>.</p>
+<p>You have seen the little red rubber balloons, haven&rsquo;t you?
+You blow into them until they are big and round; and then, when you
+take your mouth away, out comes the air, making a squawking or
+whistling sound. Now, if you look closely at the mouthpiece, you
+see a tiny piece of rubber tied across it. The air rushing past
+this rubber is what makes your balloon sing.</p>
+<p>Your own music box is made on the same plan. When you breathe
+out, the air is pushed from your lungs up the pipe that we call the
+windpipe. In the upper part of this is the little box, a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page91" name=
+"page91"></a>91</span>corner of which you can feel with your thumb
+and finger. Across the box, inside, are stretched two folds of skin
+and muscle, just as the rubber is stretched across the opening of
+the balloon. Whenever you like, you can blow out your breath
+between these folds of skin in your voice box. Blow it out in one
+way, and what happens? You are singing. Blow it out in another way,
+and you are talking; in still another way, and you are just making
+a noise&mdash;perhaps mewing like a kitten, or neighing like a
+horse. If you pull these folds of skin close together, you can
+close your windpipe and &ldquo;hold your breath.&rdquo; A cough is
+made by filling your chest with air, holding the folds close shut,
+and then suddenly &ldquo;letting go.&rdquo; How many sounds you can
+make from one tiny music box! Of course the muscles of the mouth
+and throat, and the teeth and the tongue all help the voice box as
+much as they can.</p>
+<p>One of the best ways to keep your voice clear and strong is to
+dash cold water every morning on your throat and chest, then to rub
+with a coarse towel till your skin is pink and warm. Gargle your
+throat with cold water if your voice is husky. Singing is very good
+for you, too; but don&rsquo;t try to sing too hard. Sing easily and
+gently, and see how many words you can sing without <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page92" name="page92"></a>92</span>taking a
+breath. That is good for the lung-bellows as well as the voice box.
+Always sing in fresh air, but not in cold air.</p>
+<p>When you talk, try to make all the words clear and distinct;
+open your mouth and let the sound out. Once I had a big grown boy
+in one of my classes who did not open his lips properly when he
+spoke. So I asked him to prop his mouth open with a piece of stick
+and then talk. I made him do it until he learned to speak much more
+clearly. A famous Greek orator, named Demosthenes, who had a habit
+of mumbling his words, trained himself to speak clearly by putting
+pebbles in his mouth and then reciting in a loud voice.</p>
+<p>When you want your voices to sound pleasant,&mdash;and that is
+always, of course,&mdash;you must call on your brain to help. That
+is your thinking machine. Always think twice before you let
+anything unpleasant or unkind come out of your voice box. How happy
+we could make everyone about us if we followed this rule!</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_4_8">VIII. THINKING AND ANSWERING</h3>
+<p>Suppose, as you are walking home from school to-day, you are
+about to cross the street when you see an automobile coming very
+fast. What do you do? You stop, of course; wait for it to go
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page93" name="page93"></a>93</span>by,
+and then start on again. Why do you stop? &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; you
+say, &ldquo;if I didn&rsquo;t, the automobile might run over
+me.&rdquo; Something of that sort would just flash through your
+mind, wouldn&rsquo;t it, in the very same second that you first saw
+the automobile coming. Now, as you know, you think with your brain.
+But what was it this time that set your brain to thinking?
+&ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; you say, &ldquo;I just saw the automobile
+coming.&rdquo; And that is true in a way: you didn&rsquo;t need
+anything more than your eyes to tell you.</p>
+<p>But how did your eyes get the message to your brain, and how did
+your brain tell your legs to stop walking? We must have in our
+bodies a kind of telephone system. And that is, in fact, just what
+we have. Our <em>brain</em> is our &ldquo;central office&rdquo;;
+and our <em>nerves</em> are the wires, running from all parts of
+our body to the brain, carrying messages back and forth.</p>
+<p>An old man and an old woman lived out on the very edge of a
+little town. One day their house caught fire and was blazing away
+before they noticed it. They rushed to their neighbor&rsquo;s
+telephone and rang up &ldquo;Central&rdquo; to tell her to
+&ldquo;phone&rdquo; for the firemen and hose cart. <em>Kling
+a-ling-a-ling!</em> went their bell, but no &ldquo;Central&rdquo;
+answered; and while a man was running to town <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page94" name="page94"></a>94</span>to get the
+firemen, the fire got such a good start that the house burned
+down.</p>
+<p>You can see from this why we need a central office in good
+working order, when we use the &ldquo;phone.&rdquo; All the wires
+run into the one building, and there must be some one there to
+receive calls and see that they are sent out to their proper
+places. In this case, you see, &ldquo;Central&rdquo; should have
+been at her post to see that the message went on to the engine
+house, and then the fire would have been put out
+&ldquo;double-quick.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;central office&rdquo; of our Body Telephone System is
+just as important and just as necessary to keep in good working
+order. It would be very little use to have even the keenest of eyes
+and the sharpest of ears, with the readiest of nerve wires to carry
+their messages into the center of the body, unless we had some
+<em>organ</em>, or headquarters, there for switching the messages
+over to the nerves running to the right muscles to tell them what
+to do. If the brain-&ldquo;Central&rdquo; should fail in its duty,
+or get out of order, then the body would be in serious trouble at
+once.</p>
+<p>Every day we read in the papers of accidents because somebody
+didn&rsquo;t think, as well as see or hear. People see cars and
+automobiles coming, but don&rsquo;t give them a thought and so are
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page95" name="page95"></a>95</span>run
+down and hurt. They hear the whistle of the engine at the crossing,
+but drive on just the same, without seeming to have heard it at
+all. They are absent-minded; the operator in the &ldquo;central
+office&rdquo; seems to be off duty, or busy about something else.
+But if we are going to get on in this world of cars and automobiles
+and all sorts of unexpected things, we must always &ldquo;have our
+wits about us,&rdquo; as the saying goes, ready to send the
+messages out to the muscles in our legs and arms and fingers just
+as soon as any one of our &ldquo;Five Senses&rdquo; &ldquo;rings
+up&rdquo; the &ldquo;Central&rdquo; in our brain.</p>
+<p>Our body wires do not look at all like telephone wires; and the
+brain, if you could see it, would never suggest to you a central
+office.</p>
+<p>The nerves are fine white cords, the smallest ones finer than a
+hair, and the largest so big and strong that you could lift the
+body by it; and their branches run all over the body, to the
+muscles and the blood tubes and the skin and all the other parts,
+as the picture shows. You have already read how the skin can tell
+you when you feel warm and when you feel cold and when something
+hurts you.</p>
+<p>The brain is a soft wrinkled mass, partly gray and partly white.
+It is in the head; and because <span class="pagenum"><a id="page96"
+name="page96"></a>96</span>it is very soft and easily hurt, Mother
+Nature has put around it a strong wall, or shell, of bone&mdash;the
+<em>skull</em>, or brain box. Feel your head and see how very hard
+this bone is. Solomon, the Hebrew poet-king, called it the
+&ldquo;golden bowl.&rdquo; I suppose he called it a
+&ldquo;bowl&rdquo; because it is round like one, and
+&ldquo;golden&rdquo; because it is so precious. People do not often
+grow well again if the &ldquo;golden bowl&rdquo; is broken or even
+cracked.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure30.jpg" alt=
+"A diagram of the nerves from the brain through the upper body."
+id="figure30" name="figure30" width="100%" />
+<p>THE NERVOUS SYSTEM&mdash;OUR BODY TELEPHONE</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The picture shows the brain, or
+&ldquo;Central,&rdquo; and the thick nerve cord that runs down
+through the backbone, and the principal nerves of the back and the
+arms.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The big <em>nerve cable</em>, called the <em>spinal cord</em>,
+that connects the brain with the rest of the body, and carries all
+the messages backward and forward, runs down the back and is
+protected by the backbone, or <em>spine</em>, which <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page97" name="page97"></a>97</span>is hollow, so
+that the cord can run down through it. This backbone is jointed
+together so beautifully, too, that you can bend your back about and
+stoop over, and carry heavy weights on your back, and yet the bony
+tube still protects the cord inside. Solomon calls this the
+&ldquo;silver cord,&rdquo; because it is so white and shiny that it
+looks like silver. You see, our bodies are full of beautiful as
+well as wonderful things.</p>
+<p>Probably sometime when your teacher has asked you to recite a
+poem you have all learned, someone in the class has answered,
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember it,&rdquo; or has stood up and
+recited the first few lines and then stopped, and thought, and
+finally had to say, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go on.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Now what is the matter with this boy, or girl? He looks bright
+enough, and you will probably remember that he was in the class
+when you learned the poem. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; you say, &ldquo;the
+poem didn&rsquo;t stay in his head.&rdquo; No, it didn&rsquo;t
+&ldquo;stick&rdquo; in his memory; but why didn&rsquo;t it?</p>
+<p>Some of the messages that the Five Senses carry to the brain are
+answered at once, as when we move away from danger, or reach out
+our hands and help ourselves to butter, or take off a shoe to shake
+out a pebble. But there are other messages that do not call for an
+immediate <span class="pagenum"><a id="page98" name=
+"page98"></a>98</span>reply, and are just stored away for future
+use in the big &ldquo;central office&rdquo; of our Body Telephone,
+in what we call our <em>memory</em>. And later, when the proper
+message is sent in by our eyes or ears, or other sense organs,
+which reminds us of this message which they sent before, perhaps
+several weeks, months, or even years ago, it wakes up the old
+message stored away in the memory, and we say we
+&ldquo;remember&rdquo; what happened to us, or what we learned at
+that time.</p>
+<p>So, when your teacher asks you to recite a certain poem, and
+your ears hear the title or the first line, you recall the rest of
+the verses and the lesson about it. How many things does the word
+&ldquo;Christmas&rdquo; wake up out of your memory? or the sight of
+soldiers marching? or the first taste of strawberries in May?</p>
+<p>You think about a great many things that you never <em>do</em>.
+Really you are thinking almost all the time you are awake. And
+besides the messages that &ldquo;Central&rdquo; just stores away
+for future use, there are a great many messages being carried back
+and forth along the &ldquo;telephone system&rdquo; all the time,
+that you don&rsquo;t keep track of at all&mdash;the messages that
+keep the stomach and the heart and the lungs and everything in your
+body working together properly.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page99" name=
+"page99"></a>99</span>How are we to take care of the telephone
+lines and &ldquo;Central&rdquo; of our <em>nervous system</em>?
+Whatever you do to build up and help the other parts of the body
+will help your brain to <em>feel</em> and <em>think</em> and
+<em>remember</em>; and will help your muscles and nerves to answer
+promptly and truly whatever the message may be. Plenty of good
+food, plenty of sleep and fresh air, plenty of play, will keep your
+nerves and brain healthy and growing.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name=
+"page100"></a>100</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_5">&ldquo;ABSENT TO-DAY?&rdquo;</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_5_1">I. KEEPING WELL</h3>
+<p>How many times have you been absent this term? No oftener than
+you were obliged to be, I am sure; for it&rsquo;s almost as bad as
+being &ldquo;put in Coventry&rdquo; to come back and hear about the
+good time the rest of the class have been having, and feel that you
+&ldquo;weren&rsquo;t in it.&rdquo; Of course, sometimes, when you
+are not well, you have to be absent; it is best that you should be.
+But it is better still to know how to keep well, so you won&rsquo;t
+have to be absent, and won&rsquo;t have to miss any good times in
+work or play all your life.</p>
+<p>You remember that all the parts of your body are fed and
+ventilated by the blood, which is pumped to them from the heart. So
+long as this blood is pure and has plenty of oxygen in it, it does
+good to every part of the body to which it comes. But the moment
+that poisons and dirt and waste begin to pile up in the blood, then
+the blood that comes to the different parts of the body may be
+poisonous to them, instead of helpful.</p>
+<p>Such poisons in the blood are particularly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>101</span>harmful to
+the nerves and the brain, because these are among the most delicate
+and sensitive of all the structures in the body.</p>
+<p>Often we think of the body as a beautiful house. Now a house
+does not look very beautiful when it has dust and crumbs on the
+floor, buckets of greasy dishwater in the kitchen, and smoke from
+the furnace in the air! You could not live in such a place. No, the
+smoke must go out up the chimney, the dust and crumbs must be swept
+away, the dirty water must be drained off in pipes; the house must
+be not only cleaned, but kept clean all the time. This is true of
+your body, too.</p>
+<p>Now Mother Nature sends the smoke from the body out through the
+lungs, and the crumbs and solid dirt down and out by means of the
+food tube. But the waste water&mdash;how does she get rid of that?
+The waste water, you remember, is in the blood vessels, mixed with
+the blood. How does she get it out of the blood? She sends it
+through three magic cleaners, or strainers,&mdash;the
+<em>skin</em>, the <em>liver</em>, the <em>kidneys</em>.</p>
+<p>That the skin is a strainer, you already know; for you know how
+the skin lets out the waste water in perspiration, or sweat, and
+how important it is that we keep the little holes of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name=
+"page102"></a>102</span>strainer open and clean. And you know, too,
+that most of the water that passes out of the body goes first to
+the kidneys.</p>
+<p>The liver, however, is the largest cleaning machine of all and
+has to work very hard. The blood comes to it full of foods and
+poisons. This wonderful cleaner picks out the food it needs and
+takes up many of the poisons, too. &ldquo;What does it do with the
+poisons?&rdquo; you ask. Some of them it changes into good food,
+and others it makes harmless and sends away down the food tube in a
+fluid called <em>bile</em>. If we are strong and healthy, the liver
+has the power to kill many of the disease germs that get into the
+body. That is why sometimes, when you have had a chance to take
+mumps or grippe or some other &ldquo;catching&rdquo; disease, you
+don&rsquo;t take it. Your liver kills the germs, or seeds. See how
+carefully Mother Nature has planned that we may be clean inside as
+well as outside.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure31.png" alt=
+"A diagram of the liver, stomach and colon." id="figure31" name=
+"figure31" width="100%" />
+<p>THE POSITION OF THE LIVER</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Compare this with the diagram on <a href=
+"#page26">page 26</a>, and see how the liver partly overlaps the
+stomach.</p>
+</div>
+<p>But you must not over-work your liver. If you do, it may become
+too tired to do anything <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103"
+name="page103"></a>103</span>at all. Then all these poisons will
+spread through the body; the skin and the whites of the eyes will
+grow yellow, and you will be what is called &ldquo;bilious.&rdquo;
+When this happens, the poisons go to your brain, too, and make you
+feel sad; your tongue looks white instead of pink, and you have a
+disagreeable taste in your mouth. Your happiness depends very much
+on your liver.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How shall I keep my liver rested and in good working
+order?&rdquo; By eating only sound, wholesome, pure food, and
+avoiding dirty milk; by going to the toilet regularly every morning
+after breakfast; by keeping your windows open and avoiding the
+poisons and disease germs in foul air. Then, if you run and play
+and work out of doors, so that the muscles move a great deal and
+you breathe in plenty of oxygen to keep the body fires burning
+briskly, that will help a great deal.</p>
+<p>Last summer up in the mountains I saw a big log close by the
+path. It had been sawed across so that the end was smooth. It was
+brown and weather-stained, so of course I knew that it had lain
+there a long time. How surprised I was to see a pile of fine fresh
+sawdust on the ground beside it. As I came nearer, I saw piece
+after piece of sawdust dropping, dropping, dropping, one after the
+other, from a hole in the log. I <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page104" name="page104"></a>104</span>looked into the hole, and
+what do you think I saw? Hundreds of little brown ants, busy as
+could be carrying the sawdust, throwing it out, and then scurrying
+back to get some more. Several feet inside the log, other ants were
+cutting the sawdust, hollowing out the rooms of their house; and in
+another part others were getting food for the workers, and still
+others taking care of the baby ants. They were all helping one
+another, and whatever one ant did helped all the rest. That is the
+way with the parts, or organs, of the body. When one part works
+well, it helps all the rest; when one squad of tiny cells in the
+muscles or liver or heart is doing its duty, like the little ants,
+it helps all the other cell-workers in the body to keep
+healthy.</p>
+<p>If you eat proper food, you help not only your stomach but your
+liver, too; for it has not so many poisons to get rid of. While you
+are helping your stomach and your liver, you are helping your heart
+and your brain, and so on. So what you do to help one helps
+all.</p>
+<p>There are, however, some poisons that the liver cannot get rid
+of; but these the skin or the kidneys carry away. Have you ever
+seen kidney beans? The bean is the shape of a kidney. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name=
+"page105"></a>105</span>kidneys are in the middle of your back,
+packed close to your backbone, on a line with your waist. This is a
+picture of them. Do you see the little tubes leading down from the
+kidneys, carrying the waste water and poison down into a kind of
+bag? The walls of this bag, called the <em>bladder</em>, will
+stretch, and it will hold about a pint of waste water. From the
+bladder a tube carries the water down out of the body.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure32.png" alt=
+"A diagram of the kidneys, ureter and bladder." id="figure32" name=
+"figure32" width="100%" />
+<p>THE KIDNEYS AND THE BLADDER</p>
+<p class="morecaption">The large tubes are the artery and the vein
+that carry blood to and from this part of the body.</p>
+</div>
+<p>You can help your kidney-strainers by emptying your bladder at
+certain times each day. Some children have to empty the bladder
+much oftener than others, but most children can form what we call
+<em>regular habits</em> about it, by trying to do it at the same
+times each day. If you are quite strong, five times a day is often
+enough: when you first get up, at recess, at noon, at four
+o&rsquo;clock, and at bedtime. Many children do it much oftener
+than this; but as they grow older and the muscles grow stronger,
+they slowly outgrow this trouble, if they try to form the right
+habits.</p>
+<p>There are many diseases of the kidneys; for, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>106</span>like the
+liver, they are sometimes over-worked and do not carry the poisons
+from the body. You are helping your kidneys when you drink plenty
+of fresh clean water every day, and also when you play or work hard
+enough to get into a good perspiration; for, as perspiring carries
+out some of the poisons, it leaves less for the kidneys to pour
+out. You ought to get into a good perspiration at least once every
+day, or better, three or four times, if you wish to keep healthy.
+The Bible says, &ldquo;In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat
+bread&rdquo;; and you must earn health and happiness at the same
+price.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_5_2">II. SOME FOES TO FIGHT</h3>
+<p>You have seen that sitting or sleeping in rooms where the air is
+bad, or eating the wrong kind of food, or working after you are
+badly tired, will poison your blood and hinder the proper working
+of that beautiful machine, your body. These poisons are made inside
+your body, and you can prevent them by living healthfully and
+wholesomely. But there are other poisons, which may get into the
+blood from outside the body; and while it is best for you not to
+think too much about these, or to worry over dangers that may never
+come, yet it is well to know just enough <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>107</span>about some
+of them to be able to keep out of their way, as far as
+possible.</p>
+<p>The most dangerous form of poisons from outside the body are
+those made by the germs of some rather common diseases, which,
+because you can &ldquo;catch&rdquo; them from some one else who has
+them, are called &ldquo;catching,&rdquo; or <em>infectious</em>, or
+<em>contagious</em>.</p>
+<p>Some of the germs of these &ldquo;catching&rdquo; diseases, like
+the germs of typhoid fever, of which we have spoken in connection
+with our drinking water, are carried in the water or milk that we
+drink, or upon the food that we eat; and one of the worst carriers
+of germs is the ordinary household fly.</p>
+<p>Not so very many years ago, people did not know that <em>dirt
+makes people sick</em>. You see, they did not know anything about
+the disease seeds (germs) that grow so fast in dirt. They did not
+like to have flies about, because flies look so dirty and bite
+people and crawl over things and spot them. But nowadays, we will
+not have flies about because we know that they have been in dirty
+places where disease germs live, and that one little fly can carry
+thousands and thousands of these germs on his feet.</p>
+<p>Have you ever looked at a fly through a magnifying <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>108</span>glass or
+under a microscope? If you haven&rsquo;t, try it sometime. You will
+see that his legs are covered with little hairs; and it is on these
+little hairs that the germs lodge. They are too small for you to
+see except with a very powerful glass; but scientists have proved
+that they are there, and they have found that there are always
+typhoid germs among them.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure33.jpg" alt=
+"A diagram of a very large version of a house fly." id="figure33"
+name="figure33" width="429" height="348" />
+<p>THE COMMON HOUSE FLY</p>
+<p>As he appears through a magnifying glass.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Did you ever see a fly wipe his feet before he came into the
+house? No, indeed; and he goes anywhere he pleases, over the bread
+and into the cream. Yet he was born in dirt and bred in dirt, and
+he lives in dirty places all the time he is not crawling over your
+clean things and spoiling them.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name=
+"page109"></a>109</span>Flies are hatched from eggs; and these eggs
+can hatch only in piles of dirt, such as heaps of manure, or places
+where garbage and scraps from the house are dumped or thrown. We
+call the common fly the "domestic" or "house" fly, because he lives
+only in the neighborhood of houses and barnyards where heaps of
+manure and piles of dirt are allowed to gather.</p>
+<p>When the fly first hatches from the egg, it is a little white,
+wriggling worm called a <em>maggot</em>, like those that some of
+you may have seen in decaying meat or fish or cheese. The maggots
+must have decaying substances to eat and live upon while they are
+growing, and this is why the eggs are laid in manure heaps and
+garbage piles.</p>
+<div class="figright"><a href="images/figure34.png"><img src=
+"images/figure34.png" alt=
+"A diagram of a finger-like worm emerging from a disc." id=
+"figure34" name="figure34" width="100%" /></a>
+<p>A MAGGOT HATCHING FROM THE EGG</p>
+<p>(Greatly magnified.)</p>
+</div>
+<p>It takes the maggot about five days to grow to its full size,
+and then it turns into a <em>chrysalis</em>. That is, it is shut up
+in a kind of case that it has spun for itself, like the cocoon of
+the silkworm or the caterpillar. In about five days more it breaks
+out of this cocoon and appears as a fly with wings.</p>
+<p>So, you see, the eggs must stay in that manure heap about two
+weeks if they are to hatch. If, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page110" name="page110"></a>110</span>within that time, the manure
+is carted away and thrown out somewhere where it will dry, the
+little unhatched flies will be killed, or prevented from hatching.
+All we have to do, then, to be entirely rid of flies about our
+houses is to see that the heaps of manure and all piles of cans and
+garbage are taken away at least once a week.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure35.png" alt=
+"An illustration; the maggots are each about twice the size of the printed letters."
+id="figure35" name="figure35" width="100%" />
+<p>FLY MAGGOTS ON OLD NEWSPAPER</p>
+<p class="morecaption">Note the size of the maggot compared with
+the newspaper type.</p>
+</div>
+<p>If manure heaps or piles of dirt cannot, for any reason, be
+carried away as often as this, then they can be sprinkled with
+something that is poisonous to flies, such as arsenic or kerosene.
+This will kill the maggots. If we keep every kind of waste and
+scraps from the house, and all the manure from the barn and the
+pig-pen and the hen-house carefully cleaned up, or sprinkled with
+some poison, we shall get rid of flies entirely and never need to
+use screens at the doors and windows. Until we do this, it is best
+to put screens at the doors and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page111" name="page111"></a>111</span>windows in the summer time,
+and particularly to screen carefully any place where food is kept
+or cooked; for we know that a great many cases of typhoid and of
+other diseases of the stomach and bowels, such as <em>summer
+sickness</em>, or summer <em>diarrhea</em>, and <em>cholera
+morbus</em>, are carried to our food by the dirty feet of
+flies.</p>
+<p>Many of the germs of &ldquo;catching&rdquo; diseases&mdash;most
+of them, in fact&mdash;are carried in the air, in scales that have
+rubbed off the skin of the persons sick with them, or in spray that
+they have coughed into the air, or in saliva that they have spit
+upon the floor.</p>
+<p>There is one sickness of this kind that I ought to tell you
+about, because it kills so many thousand people here in our own
+country every year. We sometimes call it the &ldquo;Great White
+Plague.&rdquo; Its common name is <em>consumption</em>, and the
+doctors call it <em>tuberculosis</em>. I dare say you have heard of
+it and wondered what it meant.</p>
+<p>A few years ago people thought it could not be cured. They
+thought that children had it because their parents had had it
+before them. But now, the cheering thing about it is that we have
+found that Mother Nature herself can cure it with fresh air and
+sunshine and wholesome food. We have found, too, that people catch
+it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name=
+"page112"></a>112</span>from others who are sick with it, and need
+not have it just because their parents did.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name=
+"page113"></a>113</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure36.jpg" alt=
+"Hospital beds outdoors on the ledge of a building." id="figure36"
+name="figure36" width="100%" />
+<p>FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT ARE GOOD DOCTORS</p>
+</div>
+<p>This means, then, that thousands of people who have it need not
+die, but can be cured simply by living and sleeping out of doors
+and eating plenty of milk, eggs, and meat, nuts and fruit. There
+are camps for them in almost every state in the Union now. The
+fresh air gives them such a big appetite that they can eat more
+than most healthy people, and they soon get strong and well.</p>
+<p>If all the people who now have consumption were taken out into
+the country and cured, there would be no one left for the rest of
+us to catch it from, and the disease would soon die. Some day our
+Boards of Health will decide to do this, and then consumption will
+become as rare as smallpox is now, and will kill only a few hundred
+people a year in the United States instead of 150,000 every year,
+as it does now.</p>
+<p>People and governments are giving great sums of money, not only
+to cure the people who now have consumption, but to do something
+towards stopping the disease by keeping things so clean and people
+so strong that no one will ever have it. Even little children can
+help to fight and kill this &ldquo;Great White Plague,&rdquo; and
+I&rsquo;ll tell you how.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name=
+"page114"></a>114</span>We know that, when people have consumption
+in their lungs, what they cough and spit out of their mouths and
+blow out of their noses (we call it <em>sputum</em>) has the germs,
+or seeds, of the disease in it. So, to keep other people from
+catching the disease, they must hold something before the face when
+they cough, and they must catch the sputum in paper (newspapers or
+paper napkins are very good for this) and burn it, for burning
+kills the germs. Then, too, they must not kiss other people on the
+mouth, and others must not kiss them. They must use their own
+drinking-cups, and never lend or borrow a cup. You see, you can
+look out for these things, yourselves. When grown people kiss you,
+just turn your cheek to them, instead of your mouth. Your cheek
+will not carry anything to your windpipe and lungs. And be sure to
+carry your own drinking-cup, or, better still, make the one for
+which you already have the pattern, every time you need one.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure37.png" alt=
+"A drawing of a boy with a towel over his shoulder and a cup in his hand."
+id="figure37" name="figure37" width="143" height="311" />
+<p>HIS OWN CUP AND TOWEL</p>
+</div>
+<p>This sounds easy enough; and it is, too. But sometimes people
+don&rsquo;t know when they have this &ldquo;plague,&rdquo; and of
+course they do not feel <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name=
+"page115"></a>115</span>that they must be careful. What is to be
+done, then?</p>
+<p>If people won&rsquo;t take care of themselves, then the
+government has to make health laws to protect them, and the health
+officers have to see that the laws are obeyed. In many of the
+states and cities, laws have been made so that nobody is allowed to
+spit on the sidewalk or in the cars or in any other public place;
+and common drinking-cups are forbidden at all park fountains and at
+the water-coolers in schools and trains and stations and other
+public places.</p>
+<p>You ought to know about these things, because, as I have just
+said, other sicknesses, too, are carried about in the nose and
+mouth. <em>Grippe</em>, <em>pneumonia</em> or lung fever, and what
+we call <em>colds</em> are caught in exactly the same way. We used
+to think we caught them by being chilled; but we are much more
+likely to take them by being shut up in a hot, stuffy room with
+other people who already have them. Mother Nature never gave us
+such things in her beautiful, clean outdoors. We must wear clothes
+enough to keep us warm when we go out, and have bedclothes enough
+to keep us warm while we sleep; but we need not be afraid of
+catching any sickness from the clean outside air, either by day or
+by night. Drafts <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name=
+"page116"></a>116</span>are not dangerous, except when our blood is
+already full of poisons and germs from foul air.</p>
+<p>Of course it is foolish even for strong, healthy people to run
+any risks that can be avoided, and there is one other thing that
+you should keep on the watch against doing; and that is, touching
+or kissing or playing with other children who may be sick. It is
+better not even to sit in the same room with them if you can avoid
+it.</p>
+<p>Many of the infectious diseases&mdash;and nearly three fourths
+of all the diseases that children have are infectious&mdash;are
+caught, as we have seen, from germs that are carried in the air.
+That is one reason why so many infectious diseases are likely to
+begin with running at the nose, or sneezing, or cold in the head,
+or sore throat. The germs, having been breathed in with the air,
+catch on the sides of the nostrils or at the back of the throat,
+and start inflammation and soreness wherever they land. This is
+just the way that <em>measles</em>, <em>scarlet fever</em>,
+<em>chicken pox</em>, <em>whooping cough</em>, and
+<em>diphtheria</em> begin. Nearly all colds in the head, and sore
+throats with coughing, are infectious; so the best thing to do
+whenever you have a bad cold in the head, or a sore throat, is to
+keep out in the open air as much as you can, until it is better. Of
+course, a cold is not such a serious <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page117" name="page117"></a>117</span>thing in itself; but, if it
+is neglected, it may lead to some very dangerous troubles,
+particularly to inflammation of the lungs, and sometimes even of
+the kidneys or the liver or the heart. Several of these infectious
+diseases&mdash;measles, chicken pox, and scarlet fever, for
+instance&mdash;have a rash, or breaking-out, called an
+<em>eruption</em>, upon the skin. This is another thing easy to
+look out for; and if you see anyone with a rash upon his face and
+hands, it is a good thing to keep away from him and not let him
+touch you. Even if he should not have measles or scarlet fever or
+chicken pox, but only a disease of the skin itself, he still might
+spread the infection of that; for most diseases that cause a
+breaking-out upon the surface of the skin are infectious.</p>
+<p>Some of these infectious diseases are so common among children
+that they are called <em>Children&rsquo;s Diseases</em>, or the
+<em>Diseases of Infancy</em>, just as if it were natural for you to
+have them while you are children, and as if they were something
+that you have to have as a matter of course, before you grow
+up.</p>
+<p>But it isn&rsquo;t necessary at all to have them, if you will
+take care of yourselves and help your doctors and the Board of
+Health of your county or town or city to prevent their spreading.
+These <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name=
+"page118"></a>118</span>diseases, although usually very mild, never
+do anyone any good whatever, and may do serious harm; for their
+poisons may stay in the blood and injure the heart or the kidneys
+or the nerves.</p>
+<p>One thing I should like to urge you to do if you happen to get
+one of these &ldquo;children&rsquo;s diseases&rdquo;; and that is,
+to stay in bed or out of school or away from work just as long as
+your doctor tells you to. This is important, because it is very
+dangerous indeed to become over-tired or overheated or chilled, or
+to get your feet wet or romp too hard or sit up too late, before
+you have fully recovered; and you will not have fully recovered
+until at least three or four weeks after you are able to be out of
+bed. But if you take good care of yourselves for three or four
+weeks after measles or chicken pox or whooping cough or a very bad
+cold, you will avoid almost all danger of their poisons injuring
+your heart or kidneys or nerves, and causing chronic diseases, like
+Bright&rsquo;s disease or heart disease, later in life.</p>
+<p>Perhaps now I have told you enough about poisons and sickness.
+You must not be frightened about them. I have told you these things
+so that you may understand why you must bathe, and brush your
+teeth, and wash your face and hands, and wear clean clothes, and
+breathe fresh air, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name=
+"page119"></a>119</span>and keep your windows open, and play out of
+doors&mdash;in fact, keep your bodies clean inside and out. I know
+you will be glad enough to do these things, troublesome though some
+of them may be, if you know the reason why. The best of it is that
+when you keep perfectly clean and healthy, not even the
+&ldquo;Great White Plague&rdquo; and cold seeds, or germs, can hurt
+you, even though they get into your mouth or nose; for Mother
+Nature gives healthy bodies the power to kill germs, and quite
+without our knowing it.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure38.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of boys playing in a pond." id="figure38" name=
+"figure38" width="533" height="328" />
+<p>ENJOYING &ldquo;ALL OUTDOORS&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Very discouraging to disease germs!</p>
+</div>
+<h3 id="Ch_5_3">III. PROTECTING OUR FRIENDS</h3>
+<p>If you knew that some of your little friends were sick with an
+infectious disease like measles <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page120" name="page120"></a>120</span>or scarlet fever, of course
+you would keep away from them, so as to avoid catching the disease.
+And if they knew that they had a disease that was infectious, of
+course they would want to let all their friends know of it, so as
+to prevent them from coming and catching it. But how can they let
+all their friends know? Sick people don&rsquo;t feel like writing
+letters; and, even if they did, some diseases can be carried in
+letters. So that might not be at all a friendly thing to do.</p>
+<p>This has always been the greatest difficulty in preventing the
+spread of infectious diseases&mdash;how to let other people know.
+So about fifty or sixty years ago, people got together and decided
+that the best thing to do was to appoint an officer known as a
+<em>Health Officer</em>, or a committee known as a <em>Board of
+Health</em>, in each town and in each county, whose business it
+should be to find out cases of infectious disease, and to warn
+other people against them.</p>
+<p>These officers first ask all the doctors in the town to report
+to this Central Health Office, or Board of Health, every case of a
+patient with an infectious disease. Then, when the case has been
+reported, that office sends some one with a card on which the name
+of the disease is printed in large letters, and he tacks the card
+upon the front <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name=
+"page121"></a>121</span>of the house or upon the fence around the
+lot, so that everyone who goes near the house may know that there
+is danger, and keep away from it. Then, sometimes, a messenger from
+the Board of Health goes into the house and talks to the family,
+and tells them how they can keep the patient in a room by himself,
+so as to prevent the rest of the family from catching the disease;
+and how they can best take care of the patient, and keep from
+carrying the infection through clothing or food or anything
+else.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure39.jpg" alt=
+"A form with SCARLET FEVER in large letters on it." id="figure39"
+name="figure39" width="537" height="362" />
+<p>ONE WAY IN WHICH THE BOARD OF HEALTH PROTECTS US</p>
+</div>
+<p>Then, because anyone who has been sick with an infectious
+disease will still be shedding the germs of the disease and
+spitting or coughing, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name=
+"page122"></a>122</span>not only as long as he is sick, but for two
+or three weeks after he is beginning to feel better, the messenger
+will tell the family that the patient must stay either in his own
+room or within his own house or yard, for so many days or weeks.
+This is called keeping <em>quarantine</em>. The word comes from the
+Italian word <em>quaranta</em>, &ldquo;forty&rdquo;; because in the
+early days when the practice was first begun, the patients used to
+be kept by themselves in this way for forty days. While sometimes
+this is very inconvenient and hard and troublesome, it is really
+the only safe way of stopping the spread of these diseases; and I
+am sure anyone of you would be willing to take this extra trouble
+sooner than let any of your friends catch a disease from you, and
+perhaps die of it. Quarantine is also the best and safest thing for
+the patient, because it keeps him quiet and at rest until he has
+completely recovered, and until all danger that the poison of the
+disease will attack his lungs or heart or kidneys is over.</p>
+<p>In some of the best schools now there is an examination of all
+the children every morning, by a visiting doctor sent by the Board
+of Health. If the doctor finds any child that has red and watery
+eyes, or is running at the nose, or sneezing, or coughing, or has a
+sore throat, he usually sends <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123"
+name="page123"></a>123</span>him home at once, so that the other
+children will not catch the infection. The school doctor is not
+thinking only about what seems to be a cold, although, as you know,
+it is very important that anyone with a cold should take good care
+of himself and should not let others catch it from him. The doctor
+sends the child home because this is just the way in which several
+other infectious diseases may begin&mdash;<em>measles</em>,
+<em>scarlet fever</em>, <em>chicken pox</em>, <em>whooping
+cough</em>, and <em>diphtheria</em>. For most infectious diseases,
+as you will remember, are caught from germs floating in the air and
+breathed into the nose and throat.</p>
+<p>The Board of Health takes care of the public in many ways
+besides these. It keeps a very careful watch upon the water supply
+of the town, or city, so as to keep the houses and factories from
+running their drainage, or <em>sewage</em>, into it; for this, as
+you already know, might cause the spread of typhoid fever and of
+other diseases of the bowels and stomach.</p>
+<p>The Board of Health sends men to examine, or inspect, the milk
+the dairymen bring, to see that it is sweet and pure, and that
+there are no infectious germs in it. And it sends men out into the
+country to examine the dairy farms and see that the cows are
+properly fed, and that the barns <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page124" name="page124"></a>124</span>in which they are milked are
+kept clean; and that the water in which the milk pans and bottles
+are washed comes from clean, pure wells or springs.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure40.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of cows in a barn." id="figure40" name="figure40"
+width="532" height="377" />
+<p>WHAT MILK INSPECTION MEANS</p>
+<p>Clean barns, cows, pails, and milkers mean clean milk. The cows
+here stand in fresh, clean sawdust.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Another thing that the Board of Health does is to send an
+inspector round to look very carefully at all the meat that is sold
+in the butcher shops, and at all the fruits and vegetables at the
+grocers&rsquo;. If he finds any meat that is diseased or tainted or
+bad, or any fruit or vegetables that are beginning to spoil, or any
+flour, sugar, or canned goods that have been mixed with cheaper
+stuffs that are not good to eat,&mdash;in fact, are what the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name=
+"page125"></a>125</span>law calls <em>adulterated</em>,&mdash;he
+may seize the bad and dangerous foods and destroy them, and summon
+to court the dealers who are trying to sell them. Then the dealers
+are fined or perhaps sent to prison.</p>
+<p>So, you see, the Board of Health is one of the very best friends
+that you have, trying to keep your food pure and good, the water
+that you drink clean and wholesome, and the milk sweet and free
+from dirt or disease germs. You ought to help these officers and
+their inspectors in every way that you can. I know that it is
+sometimes troublesome to obey all their rules; and perhaps when you
+don&rsquo;t know what the dangers are which they are trying to
+guard you against, it seems to you that they are too particular
+about a great many things. But just see what they have done already
+to make our cities and houses healthier and pleasanter places to
+live in.</p>
+<p>Only one hundred and fifty years ago, for instance, that
+terrible disease called <em>smallpox</em> killed hundreds of
+thousands of people every year in Europe; and it attacked the eyes
+and blinded so many of those who recovered from it, that nearly
+half the poor blind people in the blind asylums had had their sight
+destroyed by it. In smallpox there is a terrible eruption, or
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name=
+"page126"></a>126</span>breaking out, upon the skin, which is
+likely to leave it pitted and scarred; and even fifty years ago it
+was exceedingly common to see people who had been pitted by
+smallpox, or, as the expression was, &ldquo;pock-marked.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Cows have a disease somewhat like this, but much less dangerous,
+called cow-pox. Years ago, before dairies were inspected as they
+are now, dairy maids often caught this disease from the cows they
+milked, so that their hands would break out with pock-marks.</p>
+<p>About a hundred years ago, a Dr. Richard Jenner discovered that
+the dairy maids in the country district in which he lived, who had
+caught this mild infection from the cows they milked, never caught
+smallpox even when they were exposed to it. So after studying over
+the subject for some years, he took a little of the matter, or pus,
+from the eruption on the udder of a cow that had cow-pox, scratched
+the arm of a little patient of his, and rubbed some of the pus into
+it. Only a short time after, the family of this little boy was
+exposed to smallpox, and all the other children took it badly, but
+he escaped.</p>
+<p>This was the beginning of what we call <em>vaccination</em>; and
+as soon as it was found that this scratching of the arm and putting
+a little of this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name=
+"page127"></a>127</span><em>vaccine</em> matter into it would cause
+only a few days of feverishness, and then after that give complete
+protection against smallpox, the Boards of Health all over the
+civilized world took it up and insisted upon everybody&rsquo;s
+being vaccinated when a baby.</p>
+<p>As a result, smallpox has become one of the rarest, instead of
+the commonest, of our infectious diseases. Only a few dozen people
+die of it each year in Europe, instead of several hundred
+thousands; scarcely one one-hundredth of the people now in our
+blind asylums have been sent there by smallpox, and I dare say that
+many of you have never even seen a pock-marked person.</p>
+<p>Another disease that used to be very dangerous to little
+children is <em>diphtheria</em>. It was not only very infectious,
+but very deadly; and nearly half of the children who took it died
+of it, and the doctors didn&rsquo;t know anything that would cure
+it. About twenty years ago, two great scientists, one a Frenchman
+named Roux&mdash;a student of the great Professor Louis Pasteur, of
+whom I am sure you have heard&mdash;and the other, a German, named
+Behring, discovered an <em>antitoxin</em> for diphtheria; that is,
+something to defeat the poison of the diphtheria germ. When this
+antitoxin is injected into the blood, it will cure diphtheria.</p>
+<p>The doctors and the Boards of Health took <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>128</span>this up too,
+and insisted upon its being used in all cases; with the result that
+where the antitoxin is used early, scarcely one in twenty of the
+patients dies, instead of eight or ten out of twenty, as
+before.</p>
+<p>You know how careful we are all trying to be not to let
+consumption spread. By insisting that all houses shall be built so
+as to give plenty of light and fresh air to everyone; and by
+forbidding spitting upon the streets; and by insisting that food to
+be sold, especially milk, shall be clean,&mdash;by preventing the
+spread of the disease in every way, our Boards of Health have cut
+down the number of deaths from this disease nearly one half; and
+people in the United States, for instance, or in England, where
+these health laws are enforced, live now almost exactly twice as
+long on the average as they did one hundred years ago, or as they
+do now in India and in Turkey, for instance, where the people are
+ignorant and dirty and careless.</p>
+<p>So you see that even if some of the health regulations do seem
+rather troublesome and fussy, it is well worth while to try to
+follow them and help the health inspectors in every way. Even
+little children can help very much in keeping the houses and the
+cities in which they live clean and healthful and beautiful.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name=
+"page129"></a>129</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_6">WORK AND PLAY</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_6_1">I. GROWING STRONG</h3>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure41.jpg" alt=
+"Gardening implements." id="figure41" name="figure41" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>BETTER TO TAKE THAN MEDICINE</p>
+</div>
+<p>When school is over, out you go with a rush, into the open air.
+You have worked hard all day, and now you have two hours before
+supper to do just as you like.</p>
+<p>Perhaps you will play tag, or prisoner&rsquo;s base, or stealing
+sticks, or town ball. They are all fine fun, and they exercise
+every muscle in your body and make your lungs breathe deeper and
+your heart beat faster, and make every part of you grow
+stronger.</p>
+<p>Perhaps you have a few chores to do or errands to run; but even
+these are almost as much fun as play and give you good exercise in
+the open air and, what is better still, a feeling that you are
+being of some use in the world, which is one of the happiest and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name=
+"page130"></a>130</span>most satisfactory feelings that you will
+ever have, if you live to be a hundred years old.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name=
+"page131"></a>131</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure42.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of a school group in a park." id="figure42" name=
+"figure42" width="100%" />
+<p>OUT FOR AN AFTERNOON IN THE PARK</p>
+</div>
+<p>But when you have finished your work, you must not forget to
+play real, lively, jolly games out of doors&mdash;ball and tag and
+hide-and-seek, and all those games that children love.</p>
+<p>Hide-and-seek is a good game, because, when you are caught, you
+can stand still a few minutes and rest. When you are hiding, you
+can take a good breath for the home-run you have to make. Most
+games, in fact, are planned like this&mdash;a run and a rest, and
+then another run. While you rest, some one else is taking his turn
+at the bat, or at being &ldquo;It,&rdquo; or whatever is the
+hardest part of the work. This is one reason why games are so good
+for you to play.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure43.jpg" alt=
+"A drawing of a skeleton" id="figure43" name="figure43" width=
+"100%" />
+<p>SKELETON OF A MAN</p>
+</div>
+<p>You see, when you run, you are working your muscles and
+heart-pump very hard; and if you kept running all the time, you
+would burn up so much food in the muscles that the heart
+couldn&rsquo;t pump blood fast enough to wash away all the waste,
+and would just chug-chug-chug till it tired itself out. When you
+are tired, it is time to stop and rest; for being tired means that
+the poisons are not being carried away from the muscles fast
+enough, and that your heart is working too hard.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name=
+"page132"></a>132</span>What is it in your body that gives it
+stiffening to stand upright, and makes levers in your legs and arms
+to move it about? When you feel your body and arms and head with
+your fingers, what are they like? Isn&rsquo;t there something hard
+and then a soft kind of pad over it? We call the hard things
+<em>bones</em>. Your teacher will show you some. These are white
+and chalky looking; but when they were alive, they were a beautiful
+pinkish white color.</p>
+<p>So you have a pretty pearl-colored framework, the shape of your
+body. This, which is called your <em>skeleton</em>, makes you stiff
+enough to stand up and walk about. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page133" name="page133"></a>133</span>Now bend your arm and turn
+your wrist and open and close your hand. You find that your
+frame-work is jointed. When you are tired standing, you can bend
+your joints and sit down. If you want an apple, you can close your
+fingers and pick it up.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure44.jpg" alt=
+"A diagram of an extended arm, showing the muscles." id="figure44"
+name="figure44" width="546" height="184" />
+<p>THE MUSCLES OF THE ARM</p>
+</div>
+<p>What are the soft pads that you felt over the bones of your arms
+and legs? Stretch your right arm straight out in front of you and
+take hold of the upper part of it with your left hand. Now clench
+your right fist and bring it toward your shoulder. Can you feel the
+elastic pads, or bands, moving? What are they doing? They are
+pulling your hand up to your shoulder. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page134" name="page134"></a>134</span>When you walk, you can feel
+the elastic bands moving your legs along. So every move we make,
+these elastic ropes are at work pulling us about and letting us sit
+down and making us run and jump. We call them <em>muscles</em>.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure45.png" alt=
+"A diagram of an arm with elbow bent." id="figure45" name=
+"figure45" width="100%" />
+<p>WHEN THE MUSCLES SHORTEN</p>
+</div>
+<p>You have perhaps seen jointed dolls. The strings and rubber
+bands on their joints help to make them move; but the dolls
+don&rsquo;t act as if they were alive. They have no telephone
+system to tell their bodies how to move.</p>
+<p>If you will stop and think how many &ldquo;moves&rdquo; you make
+in a day, you&rsquo;ll know how hard your muscles have to work.
+They&rsquo;d be quite tired out if they did not have plenty to feed
+on all the time and did not rest at least nine hours a day. I told
+you how the food is melted and carried about in the blood. It is
+the blood that brings the muscles their food and keeps them alive
+and makes them strong enough to move the joints and the bones.</p>
+<p>What does all this playing do for you? It makes you grow not
+only big, but strong, too. What puny little things you&rsquo;d be
+if you couldn&rsquo;t get out and run and play and make your
+muscles strong and your nerves do just what you tell them to
+do.</p>
+<p>I know of ten or twelve little chickens that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>135</span>hatched a
+few weeks ago. There are so many cats about, that the poor little
+chicks have to be shut up in the barn all day. At first they ran
+and played and jumped on their mother&rsquo;s back, but now they
+hump their shoulders and hang their heads and don&rsquo;t seem
+hungry and look sad and sick. They are not so big as some that
+hatched later. Can you tell me why? Of course you can. You know
+that it is outdoor exercise and play that chickens need, and that
+you need to make you grow big and strong, too. Of course, you will
+have to keep your backbone straight and your chest out and your
+head up; but all these things will be easy for you if you are
+perfectly well and strong.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure46.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of a skating area." id="figure46" name="figure46"
+width="530" height="313" />
+<p>A SKATING POND MADE OUT OF A GARDEN</p>
+<p>The school garden is flooded in winter&mdash;a fine place to
+skate right after school.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The school tries to take just as good care of your health and
+growth as it can. Your lessons are short, and you change from one
+to another frequently, with perhaps drills or calisthenic exercises
+between, so that you need not sit still too long at a time; and the
+seats and desks are of different sizes so that you need not sit at
+a desk that does not fit you. When your teacher urges you to go out
+of doors and play at recess time, even if you do not want to, you
+must think to yourself, &ldquo;It will rest me and make me grow big
+and straight and strong.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name=
+"page136"></a>136</span>When you come home from school, go out of
+doors and stay out just as long as you can. Don&rsquo;t let dolls
+or toys or picture books tempt you to stay in the house. The
+pictures out of doors are ever so much prettier, as soon as you
+learn to see them. But some of you live in crowded cities. I hope
+you are near a park or a playground, where you can have a good romp
+with other children, and use the swings and see-saws and bars, and
+the skating pond in winter, and the swimming pool in summer.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure47.jpg" alt=
+"Boys playing in a swimming pool." id="figure47" name="figure47"
+width="100%" />
+<p>SPLENDID EXERCISE FOR LUNGS AND MUSCLES</p>
+</div>
+<p>What fun swimming is! You can learn easily if you have a safe
+place and an older person to teach you the stroke. You can roll
+over on your back in the water, and float, and dive; but you
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name=
+"page137"></a>137</span>must not stay in longer than twenty
+minutes, and not so long as that sometimes. As soon as you begin to
+feel chilly, come out. Swimming not only cleans your skin, but is
+splendid exercise for your lungs and muscles.</p>
+<p>All this play out of doors will help your appetite, and that
+will make you ready to eat the right kind of food, and this food
+will get into your blood and keep your muscles firm and strong.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_6_2">II. ACCIDENTS</h3>
+<p>I am going to tell you what to do in the case of some of the
+little accidents that may happen to anyone, and especially of the
+kind that children meet with in playing; but I don&rsquo;t want you
+to stop playing for fear you&rsquo;ll be hurt. Mother <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>138</span>Nature can
+usually heal all the bumps and cuts and scratches that come from
+wholesome play.</p>
+<p>You can, however, help her very much by keeping the
+<em>scratch</em> or <em>cut perfectly clean</em>. This is the chief
+thing to remember. Wash it thoroughly in clean water. Hold it under
+the pump, or faucet, and let the water pour down on it.</p>
+<p>If you can, pour some <em>antiseptic</em>, or germ killer, over
+the cut, and wrap it up in a clean cloth. There is a medicine
+called <em>peroxid of hydrogen</em>, which is good for cuts and
+wounds, but an older person will have to put it on for you.</p>
+<p>If the scratch is from a finger nail or the claw of a cat, or if
+the wound is the bite of some animal, you must be sure to have your
+mother or a doctor clean the wound with strong medicine. You see,
+nails and claws and teeth are, as a rule, dirty, and have on them
+germs that will get into the cut and make it swell and be very sore
+indeed.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure48.png" alt=
+"A drawing of an arm with a bandage on it." id="figure48" name=
+"figure48" width="179" height="338" />
+<p>THE TIGHT BANDAGE HIGHER THAN THE CUT</p>
+</div>
+<p>Sometime you may have a cut that is deep. You will see the
+bright red blood spurt from it. This means that you have cut one
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name=
+"page139"></a>139</span>of the blood pipes called arteries. If the
+cut is on the arm or the leg, you should take a cloth or bandage
+and tie it tightly around the arm or leg <em>above</em> the cut;
+and if that does not check the blood, put a piece of stick under
+the cloth and twist the stick, as in the picture. For a cut like
+this you must get help as soon as possible, and keep quiet, or else
+you will increase the flow of blood.</p>
+<p>If you get anything in your eye, be sure not to rub the eye;
+don&rsquo;t even wink hard if you can help it. You will only make
+the pain worse, because you will scratch the eyeball. Let some one
+take out the bit of dust or the cinder or the fly, or whatever it
+is, as quickly as possible. Often, if you close the lids gently and
+hold them so, the tears will wash the speck down for you.</p>
+<p>If you should bruise yourself, the best way to treat the bruise
+is to pour either quite cold or quite warm water over it, and keep
+this up for several minutes; or to put it into a bowl of hot water.
+Then tie it up in a bandage of soft cotton cloth or gauze and pour
+over it a lotion containing a little alcohol&mdash;about one sixth
+or one fourth. This, by evaporating, cools off the bruise and
+relieves the pain.</p>
+<p>If your ear, or nose, or a finger should happen to be frozen or
+frost bitten, the best thing to do <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page140" name="page140"></a>140</span>is to rub it hard with snow
+until it thaws out and becomes pink again. Above all, don&rsquo;t
+go too near the fire, and don&rsquo;t go into a very warm room too
+soon.</p>
+<p>If you get one of those uncomfortable itchy swellings on your
+feet called <em>chilblains</em>, which come from cold floors in
+your houses, or from wet feet, or from wearing too thin shoes and
+stockings, don&rsquo;t put your feet too near the fire, but rub
+them well with turpentine just before going to bed at night. This
+will often take all the pain and itching out of them.</p>
+<p>Sometimes people make the mistake of drinking something that is
+poisonous. Of course, one good way to prevent this is to have
+<em>every bottle in the house carefully marked</em> and never to
+take anything from a bottle without reading the mark, or label.
+Another good way is <em>not to have poisons about</em> any more
+than we actually need to.</p>
+<p>Still, even so, sometimes a mistake is made. If you ever make
+such a mistake, the best thing to do is to drink as much warm water
+as you can, and into the second cupful to put a tablespoonful of
+dry mustard or two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. This will make
+you vomit, and up will come the poison. The water makes the poison
+weaker. If this doesn&rsquo;t make you throw up the poison,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name=
+"page141"></a>141</span>have some one tickle the back of your
+throat with a feather. There are a great many kinds of poison and
+as many things to take to cure them; but this is the only remedy I
+shall tell you about, because, by the time you have tried this,
+some older person will probably have come to help you.</p>
+<p>All the medicines that you see advertised as &ldquo;Headache
+Cures&rdquo; are dangerous poisons if taken in too large doses; and
+most of them in small doses weaken the heart. They are what we call
+narcotics; they just deaden the nerves to pain without doing
+anything whatever to relieve or remove the cause.</p>
+<p>If you have a headache, the best thing to do is to go and lie
+down quietly and rest or sleep, until it goes away. A headache
+always means that something is wrong; it is one of Nature&rsquo;s
+most valuable danger signals. When your head aches, Nature is
+telling you that you have been over-straining your eyes, or
+breathing foul air, or eating some food that does not agree with
+you, or forgetting to go to the toilet regularly, or not getting
+sleep enough. The sensible thing to do is not to swallow some
+medicine to deaden your nerves to the pain, but to find out what
+you have been doing that is unhealthful for you, and then stop
+it.</p>
+<p>Most of the medicines called &ldquo;patent medicines,&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name=
+"page142"></a>142</span>which are advertised to &ldquo;cure&rdquo;
+all sorts of pains and troubles, contain poisons, and are
+particularly dangerous because they easily lead one to form the
+habit of taking them. Nine tenths of them are either absolute
+frauds,&mdash;of no strength or use whatever,&mdash;or else they
+contain alcohol, or opium, or some of the dangerous drugs made out
+of coal tar.</p>
+<p>Now about <em>burns</em>. You need not wash them, because the
+heat has killed the troublesome germs. They need to be covered from
+the air, if the blister is broken. Cover them thickly with olive
+oil or vaseline, or common baking soda mixed with a few drops of
+water. This makes a good paste to put over them, and it will ease
+the pain. (This is the way to treat a <em>wasp</em> or <em>bee
+sting</em>, too, after you have pulled out the
+&ldquo;stinger.&rdquo;) If the blister of the burn is not broken,
+just keep putting vaseline or sweet oil on it every half hour or
+so, and the blister won&rsquo;t break; for the oil will make it
+limber and prevent it from bursting.</p>
+<p>If ever your clothes should catch fire, <em>do not run</em>; the
+wind you make will only fan the flames, so that they burn faster.
+<em>Lie down and roll over and over</em>, as fast as you can. If
+there is a rug or a quilt handy, wrap yourself up tight in it. My
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name=
+"page143"></a>143</span>youngest brother once saved a little
+child&rsquo;s life this way. He was not very old, but he remembered
+to put the child on the floor and roll him up in a rug.</p>
+<p>However, the best way to prevent accidents with fire is to let
+fire and lamps and matches and kerosene and sparklers and
+firecrackers alone.</p>
+<p>I am so glad that people are becoming sensible about keeping our
+nation&rsquo;s birthday, the Fourth of July, and are doing away
+with the firecrackers that have killed so many thousands of
+children. The burns you get from firecrackers are much more
+dangerous than other burns. A dirt-germ often gets into them that
+may cause <em>lockjaw</em>. The name tells what it is: it locks the
+jaws together so that its victim cannot eat; and, of course, if he
+cannot eat, he cannot live very long. Next Fourth of July try
+getting flags and bunting and drums and horns, if you like, instead
+of these dangerous fireworks.</p>
+<p>In keeping the Fourth one year not long ago, one hundred and
+seventy-one children lost one or more fingers; forty-one lost a
+leg, an arm, or a hand; thirty-six lost one eye, and sixteen lost
+both eyes; and two hundred and fifteen children were killed! This
+accounts for only the children; counting everybody, five thousand
+three hundred <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name=
+"page144"></a>144</span>and seven people were killed or hurt. No
+wonder we begin to think that we ought to keep the Fourth in some
+other way.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure49.png" alt=
+"A boy lies in bed with a bandage over his eyes." id="figure49"
+name="figure49" width="100%" />
+<p>A RESULT OF CELEBRATING THE FOURTH IN THE OLD WAY</p>
+</div>
+<p>In the City of Washington, on one Fourth of July, one hundred
+and four people were taken to the hospital; but the following year
+when no fireworks were allowed to be sold, the hospitals did not
+have a single patient from the accidents of the day.</p>
+<p>Water, as well as fire, has its dangers. If you ever fall into
+the water, <em>be sure to keep your mouth shut and your hands below
+your chin</em>. Then paddle with your hands gently, and
+you&rsquo;ll swim, just as any other young animal does when first
+thrown into the water. Even your cat, who hates water, can swim
+easily when she falls in. If you keep your wits as she does, you
+will get along as well. Some people learn to swim just by trying by
+themselves.</p>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/figure50.png" alt=
+"Two drawings, showing one boy pushing the back of another boy lying face down."
+id="figure50" name="figure50" width="100%" />
+<p>WORKING TO START HIS BREATHING AGAIN</p>
+</div>
+<p>If anyone in your party, when you are out boating or swimming,
+should be nearly drowned, the best way to revive him is to lay him,
+as quickly as possible, flat on his face on level <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>145</span>ground, just
+turning his head a little to one side so that his nose and mouth
+will not be blocked. Then, kneeling astride of his legs, put both
+your hands on the small of his back and press downward with all
+your weight while you count three. This squeezes the abdomen and
+the lower part of the chest so as to drive the air out of the
+lungs. Then swing backward so as to take the weight off your hands,
+while you count three again; and then swing forward again and press
+down, again forcing the air out of the lungs. Keep up this
+swing-pumping about ten or fifteen times a minute for at least ten
+or fifteen minutes, unless the person begins to breathe of himself
+before this. Don&rsquo;t waste any time trying to hold him up by
+the feet, or roll him over a barrel so as to get the water out of
+his lungs. Just turn him over on his <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page146" name="page146"></a>146</span>face as quickly as possible
+and get to work making a weight-pump of yourself on his back.</p>
+<p>If there is any life left in the body at all when it is taken
+out of the water, you will succeed in saving it. It is very seldom,
+however, that anyone who has been under water more than five
+minutes can be revived.</p>
+<p>And now the thing that I want you to be sure to remember, I have
+saved for the last. No matter what kind of accident happens, keep
+your wits about you and keep cool. Be calm and <em>think</em> what
+it is best to do, instead of letting yourself be frightened. Of
+course, get some one to help you as soon as you can and, if need
+be, call for help as loud as your lungs will let you. But use that
+wonderful &ldquo;phone&rdquo; system to send in and out the
+messages that will help you to help yourself by telling your
+muscles what to do.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_6_3">III. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL</h3>
+<p>One morning I stopped a moment on the street to speak to a
+friend. Her little nephew had just finished eating some candy, and
+down went his candy-bag on the pavement. His aunt happened to see
+it. &ldquo;Oh, no, Claude,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you
+see the big green can there? Better put it into that.&rdquo; But
+Claude was only three years old; and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page147" name="page147"></a>147</span>the can was so tall that he
+could not tell what it was, till we led him up to it.</p>
+<p>Do you have cans like these in your town, too? It is good to
+think that every one of us, even such little fellows as Claude, can
+help to keep the city beautiful. But it is not simply to make
+things look nice that we have so many cans&mdash;cans for ashes,
+cans for papers, cans for food scraps. No indeed, it is to keep the
+city clean and make it fit for people to live in; for if dirty
+papers and scraps were left to blow about the streets, they would
+fill the air with germs and filth.</p>
+<p>Any dust that blows about the streets is likely to be carrying
+disease germs with it. That is why we have sprinklers driven
+through the streets to wet them and to keep down the dust; and why,
+in large cities, the streets are thoroughly flooded at night. If
+the streets are kept damp and clean, then the air above them is
+cool and fresh and pure.</p>
+<p>How does the city get rid of all the dirt and waste? From every
+house there are two kinds of waste. Some is taken away in pipes
+from the sink and bathroom out into pipes that run under the
+street, and these carry it away from the city to some stream or
+deep water that takes it entirely away from the town.</p>
+<p>The waste stuffs that are not watery, but <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page148" name=
+"page148"></a>148</span>solid&mdash;cabbage leaves, apple cores,
+potato parings, and other scraps from the kitchen are carted away
+and burned or fed to pigs. The ashes and tin cans are carted away,
+also, and used in making new land or filling up hollow places.</p>
+<p>Besides taking away the dirt, cities are careful to get clear,
+pure drinking water. They are very, very careful about this; and
+they usually have the water tested often, because, as you have
+learned, even water that looks perfectly pure may give people
+typhoid fever. That is why, when you are out in the country, on a
+picnic perhaps, you must not drink from the streams. They may
+receive the drainage from a farmer&rsquo;s barnyard, or the sewage
+from some house.</p>
+<p>The more we all learn about these things, the more careful will
+the city be to protect her people. To be sure, most cities now have
+Boards of Health who employ men and women to go about and see that
+the food in the stores is clean&mdash;no flies, no dust, and no
+tobacco smoke on it. They have laws, too, about keeping milk clean;
+and in New York alone these laws have saved the lives of thousands
+of babies. And they have laws about the care of streets and
+buildings and cars and parks and a great many other things.</p>
+<p>In all these things we have been talking about, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>149</span>I want you
+to be thinking how you can help. For a city is made up of
+people&mdash;boys and girls and men and women. The city is what its
+people make it; and everyone must help, even the smallest children,
+no older than little Claude.</p>
+<p>The first and most important thing for you to do is to keep
+yourself clean and tidy. And the next thing is for you to keep your
+back yard as well as your front yard and the school yard and the
+street free from papers and sticks and cans and old playthings. You
+can put away your things when you are through playing; or, if you
+are making a railroad or a town or a playhouse, you can leave it
+looking nice and tidy. You can help chiefly by putting away your
+own things. You know the old saying, &ldquo;A workman is known by
+his chips&rdquo;; and a good workman always works in an orderly
+way.</p>
+<p>When you eat apples or bananas or oranges, don&rsquo;t throw the
+skins or peelings about, but put them in a garbage can or swill
+bucket or cover them with soft dirt in the garden or stable yard;
+and don&rsquo;t throw peanut shells, or scraps of paper and the
+like, about the streets or parks. You should begin to notice all
+these things and talk about them, and that will make other people
+begin to think about them, too.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name=
+"page150"></a>150</span>Then you can make gardens instead of
+leaving bare, untidy back yards. I think that nicely kept vegetable
+gardens are almost as pretty as flower gardens. If you cannot mow
+the lawn, you can at least cut the long grass on the edges; and
+that makes such a difference! It is wonderful how much boys and
+girls can do in making and keeping a city really beautiful.</p>
+<p>I hope that you have plenty of room to play in now. Of course,
+when you grow up, you will see that there are plenty of playgrounds
+and parks for the children. We are beginning to find out that the
+richest and the most beautiful city is the one whose streets are
+lined with families of happy, rosy-cheeked children. So, you see,
+the &ldquo;City Beautiful&rdquo; is the one that takes best care of
+her children, and she can do this only by keeping her streets and
+houses perfectly clean and seeing that the food her people get is
+fresh and good, and their drinking water pure. If the city or town
+you live in is not like this, be sure you do your very best to make
+it better.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name=
+"page151"></a>151</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure51a.jpg" alt=
+"An unkempt house and garden." id="figure51a" name="figure51a"
+width="532" height="420" />
+<p>WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A BACK YARD LIKE THIS?</p>
+</div>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure51b.jpg" alt=
+"The same house and garden, neatly trimmed and cleaned." id=
+"figure51b" name="figure51b" width="532" height="425" />
+<p>OR LIKE THIS?</p>
+</div>
+<p>There is one great evil that for hundreds and hundreds of years
+has been known wherever people are crowded together, and even in
+the open country, too; and which has been the cause of more
+untidiness and uncleanliness and unhappiness <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>152</span>and disease
+than any other evil ever known. And that is the drinking of
+alcohol. People don&rsquo;t drink clear alcohol, but they can get a
+great deal of it&mdash;enough to poison them badly&mdash;in the
+fermented drinks you learned about some time ago.</p>
+<p>In the days when your grandfather was a little boy, every man
+thought that ale and wine and whiskey were good foods for him when
+he was well; and good medicine when he was sick. He believed that
+they gave him an appetite, and increased his strength. But now we
+have found, by carefully studying the effects of alcohol, in
+laboratories and in hospitals, that these beliefs were almost
+entirely mistaken. We know that all that wine, beer, and whiskey do
+is to make people feel better for a little while, without making
+them actually stronger or better in any way. In fact, in most
+respects these drinks make them weaker and worse instead.</p>
+<p>Perhaps you will ask, &ldquo;How do whiskey and wine and beer do
+us harm?&rdquo; And here is only part of the answer: (1) They tire
+the heart and, by enlarging the blood pipes in the skin, make the
+heart pump too much of the blood out to the skin. In this way they
+make a person feel warmer when he really is not any warmer. (2)
+They make the liver work too hard. (3) They dull the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>153</span>brain, so
+that it cannot think so clearly or so well. (4) If one drinks them
+frequently, it is harder for him to get well when he is sick; more
+people die out of those who drink alcohol than out of those who do
+not.</p>
+<p>Alcohol is a <em>narcotic</em>; that is, it deadens our nerves,
+for the time being, to any sensations of pain or discomfort, much
+in the same way that a very small dose of <em>morphine</em> or
+<em>opium</em> would. We may imagine it does us good because, for a
+little while after drinking it, we may cease to feel pain or
+fatigue or cold; but, instead of making us really better and able
+to do more work, it is dulling our nerves so that we work more
+slowly and more clumsily. Men who have carefully measured the
+amount of work that they do have found that they do less work on
+days when they take one or two glasses of beer or wine than they do
+on days when they drink only water.</p>
+<p>The great insurance companies have found that those of their
+policy holders who drink no alcohol at all live nearly one fourth
+longer and have nearly one third fewer sicknesses than those who
+drink alcohol even in moderate amounts.</p>
+<p>Indeed, so strong is the evidence as to the bad effects of
+alcohol, and so steadily is it increasing, that it will probably
+not be very many years <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name=
+"page154"></a>154</span>more before the drinking of wine or beer by
+intelligent, thoughtful people will have become less than half as
+common as it is now.</p>
+<p>Strong, healthy men may be able for a long time to drink small
+amounts of liquor without noticing any harmful effects; but all the
+time the alcohol may be doing serious harm to their nerves and
+brain and kidneys and liver and blood vessels, which they will not
+find out until it is too late to stop the trouble.</p>
+<p>Useless and bad as alcohol is for full-grown men and women, it
+is even worse for young and growing children; and no child, and no
+boy or girl under the age of twenty-one, should ever touch a drop
+of it, except in those rare instances where it may be prescribed as
+a medicine by a doctor, just as many other drugs are, which in
+larger doses would be poisons.</p>
+<p>Fortunately, it will be no trouble for you children to let it
+alone entirely; for not one of you would like the taste of it the
+first time&mdash;or, indeed, for the matter of that, for the first
+ten or twelve times&mdash;that you tried to drink it, if you should
+be so foolish. This is one striking difference between alcohol and
+all other foods and drinks. Children have absolutely no natural
+liking, or taste, for the drinks that contain it, as <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>155</span>they have
+for meat, milk, sugar, apples, and the other real foods. This is
+Nature&rsquo;s way of telling them that it is not a real food, and
+not needed in any way for their growth and health. Let it alone
+absolutely, until you are at least twenty-one years old; and by
+that time you will probably have become so convinced of the harm
+that it is doing that you will never begin using it at all.</p>
+<p>What we have been saying so far applies, of course, only to the
+moderate use of alcohol. How terrible the effects of the long or
+excessive use of alcohol are, you don&rsquo;t need to learn from a
+book. All you have to do is to keep your eyes open on the streets,
+and see the drunken men reeling along the sidewalk, and the wrecks
+of men that hang around the saloons. The poorhouses and the jails
+and the insane asylums are filled with them. The most terrible
+thing that can happen to anyone is to become a drunkard. The best
+and safest and only sensible thing to do is to keep away from the
+only stuff that makes drunkards. It may do you the most terrible
+harm, and it cannot do you the slightest good.</p>
+<p>Your city can never become the &ldquo;City Beautiful&rdquo; so
+long as this evil mars it; and, as you grow up, I hope you will do
+all you can toward making the right kind of city and home.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name=
+"page156"></a>156</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_7">THE EVENING MEAL</h2>
+<p>When you have had some good games of play after school, and have
+finished whatever errands you may have to run, or have done the
+chores about the barn or the garden or the house, you will begin to
+feel as if there were something missing somewhere. It won&rsquo;t
+take you very long to discover where that missing feeling is; and
+when you hear a call from the house, or a ring of the bell in the
+hall, you come running in for supper. If you have worked well in
+school and played hard and done your chores well, you will have a
+splendid appetite. In fact, you will think there is no other meal
+in the day that tastes quite so good.</p>
+<p>Is your evening meal supper or dinner? If you have had a hot
+dinner at noon, you probably do not want anything more than a good
+supper. But if you had only luncheon, then you are ready to eat
+something hot and hearty about six o&rsquo;clock.</p>
+<p>What are some of the things that you like for dinner? Meat and
+eggs and bread and butter and jam and rice and potatoes and onions
+and celery and cookies and apples and oranges and oh, so many, many
+other things! Mother Nature <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157"
+name="page157"></a>157</span>has given us all these good things,
+that we may have not only enough to eat but plenty of different
+kinds. We soon grow tired of one kind, and that is how she tells us
+that we need many kinds.</p>
+<p>When I was little, oranges were not so common as they are now;
+and I never but once had as many as I wanted. That once, my father
+told me to eat all I liked, and I did; but for weeks afterwards I
+didn&rsquo;t want even to see an orange! Did you ever feel that way
+too, though perhaps not about oranges? Nature sometimes has to
+teach us not to eat too much of one kind at a time.</p>
+<p>Some people like one thing, and some another. Do all of you like
+onions? I think not; but those who do, like them very much. The
+same thing is true of tomatoes and sweet potatoes and red
+raspberries and oysters and many other things. But there are some
+things that almost everybody likes; and our grandfathers and
+great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers ate them. One of
+them is called the &ldquo;staff of life&rdquo; because we lean, or
+depend, on it so much; we have it for breakfast, dinner, and
+supper. That is bread, of course. Meat and eggs and milk and
+butter, too, are among the foods that we all like.</p>
+<p>These might be called our &ldquo;main foods,&rdquo; and we
+should eat one or two or even three of them <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>158</span>at each
+meal. Meat and milk and eggs and butter, animals give us. But these
+are not enough; we need besides some of the foods that plants give
+us, because, as I have told you, we need different kinds of food at
+one time to keep the body fires going briskly.</p>
+<p>What are some of the foods that plants give us? Bread is made
+from a plant&mdash;from wheat. Oatmeal comes from the oat plant;
+and hominy, from corn. Some of our plant foods, such as potatoes,
+turnips, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and radishes, grow under
+ground. Some, such as peas and beans, grow on vines. Then there are
+lettuce and cabbage and celery. And there are
+fruits&mdash;cherries, apples, peaches, plums, pears, melons,
+tomatoes, berries.</p>
+<p>Nature has given us all these foods, and many more; and she
+wants us to use them all. She wants us to use, every day and every
+meal, some foods that come from plants and some that come from
+animals.</p>
+<p>A good dinner would be a slice of roast beef or mutton, a
+potato, a helping of some sort of vegetable like peas or beans or
+onions or tomatoes or celery; and a dish of milk pudding or apple
+dumpling, or stewed fruit with bread and butter, or pie that has
+only an upper crust or its under <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page159" name="page159"></a>159</span>crust very well baked. When
+you are eating bread, remember that the crusts are the very best
+part, because they are well cooked and really taste the best. They
+are good for your teeth, too.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name=
+"page160"></a>160</span></p>
+<div class="figfull"><img src="images/figure52.jpg" alt=
+"An illustration of a family at table." id="figure52" name=
+"figure52" width="543" height="811" />
+<p>ONE OF THE HAPPIEST TIMES OF THE DAY</p>
+</div>
+<p>Perhaps, while I am talking about a good meal, I ought to talk a
+little about the way to eat and how to make mealtime pleasant.</p>
+<p>Of course, to make our food soft, we must take little bites, eat
+slowly, and chew each mouthful a long time. Be sure to remember
+this. So many of the children I know eat so fast that you&rsquo;d
+think they had to catch a train! Did you ever see anyone try to
+talk and chew at the same time or forget to shut his mouth while he
+was chewing? Wasn&rsquo;t it a very awkward, disagreeable sight?
+Think a moment, if you are tempted to talk with your mouth full, or
+put your knife into your mouth, or make a noise while you are
+eating, that these things are not pleasant for your neighbors.</p>
+<p>Do you tell funny stories at the table and talk about happy
+tramps you have taken or games you have played, or about your pets
+or your books? If you do, your food will do you more good, and you
+will be helping the other people at the table, too. Mealtimes
+should be the happiest times in the day.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name=
+"page161"></a>161</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_8">A PLEASANT EVENING</h2>
+<p>When the supper things have been cleared away, you have two
+hours or so before going to bed, and I dare say you look forward to
+these as one of the pleasantest parts of the day.</p>
+<p>It is always best for you to take things rather easily and
+quietly and pleasantly for at least fifteen or twenty minutes after
+every meal; and after the heaviest meal of the day, whether this
+comes at noon or in the evening, it is better to stretch the time
+to half or three quarters of an hour. If you try to work or play
+hard right after a hearty meal, you will be drawing away to your
+brain or to your muscles, the blood that the stomach is trying to
+get for the digesting and melting of your food. I suppose that you
+have all found this out for yourselves; for, if you run and play
+too hard right after dinner, you are very soon out of breath, and
+if you keep up the exercise, you are quite likely to have an attack
+of indigestion or stomach ache. If you sit down to study directly
+after a meal, you soon feel heavy and lazy, and what you read
+doesn&rsquo;t seem clear to you, and in a little while you probably
+have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name=
+"page162"></a>162</span>a headache and an unpleasant taste in your
+mouth. If you try to do two important things like digestion and
+hard work with your brain or the muscles of your arms and legs at
+the same time, you will be very likely to do both of them
+badly.</p>
+<p>Even if you have studying to do at night, it will be much better
+for you to spend half an hour or an hour in laughing and chatting,
+or in reading some good story, or in playing some of the many
+pleasant parlor games that rest you instead of tiring you, before
+you settle down to your books. You will find that when you do start
+to work, you get your lessons much more quickly and easily than if
+you had started in after eating.</p>
+<p>Perhaps your sister is just waiting to show you that girls can
+play checkers better than boys can&mdash;&ldquo;So there!&rdquo; Or
+some of your friends have come in for a game of dominoes or authors
+or snap or parcheesi or stage coach or pussy-wants-a-corner, or to
+try that new song you learned last week; and you will be surprised
+how quickly the time flies away and bedtime or study hour
+comes.</p>
+<p>Most evenings, however, you will probably get out your favorite
+magazine, or that good story that you are reading, and you will all
+sit <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name=
+"page163"></a>163</span>around the big lamp on the center table and
+go off on adventures to the uttermost parts of the earth, with the
+best and most lasting friends that you will ever make&mdash;friends
+who will never grow tired of you and will always come when you want
+them and are always willing to talk or play&mdash;the people that
+live in books. Be sure to pick out the best of them for your
+chums&mdash;the bravest and the kindest and the most courteous, and
+the cleanest and the most honorable. You have the whole world to
+choose from; and it is never worth your while to get acquainted
+with cheap, badly behaved, second-rate people when you can have
+your pick of the best. Your mother and your father and your teacher
+will help you to choose, and you will soon find that what they call
+&ldquo;good literature&rdquo; is good stories, and about the right
+sort of men and women and boys and girls&mdash;the kind that you
+would like to know, and that you would want to be like. Once try
+it, and you find that you like that kind of reading better than you
+do the cheap, slangy, trashy stuff, just as you like, and never get
+tired of, good bread and butter and roast beef and apples and milk
+and cream and pudding and pie. Good sound stories of home life and
+adventure and travel are just as important in making <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>164</span>your minds
+wholesome and happy as these good foods are in keeping your bodies
+strong and healthy.</p>
+<p>Be sure that the paper of the books and magazines you read is
+white and <em>not</em> glossy, and is fairly thick and firm; for
+this makes them much easier to read and strains your eyes less.
+See, too, that the type is large and clear; for small, close type
+and yellow or shiny paper are very hard on the eyes.</p>
+<p>Be sure, of course, when you sit down to read <em>not</em> to
+sit with your face to the lamp and your head bending forward; but
+settle yourself in a comfortable chair with your back to the light,
+and hold your book so that you can keep your chin up and your head
+erect while you read. You can breathe better, and read better, and
+enjoy what you read better in this position than in any other.</p>
+<p>Even if you have sums or writing to do, it is better to sit with
+your back, or at least your left side, toward the light; and often
+you will find it a great help to sit down with your back to the
+light in a large easy chair and do your writing on a big, thin
+book, or light piece of board, on a cushion on your knee.</p>
+<p>In winter, you will find that for the first half <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>165</span>hour or so
+that you are reading after supper, you will want to keep fairly
+near the fire, because the blood is being drawn in from your skin
+to your stomach for purposes of digestion; but be sure to see that
+at least one, and better two, windows in the room are open six
+inches or so at the top, so that there is plenty of fresh air
+pouring into the room.</p>
+<div class="figcen"><img src="images/figure53.jpg" alt=
+"A photograph of a living room with fireplace." id="figure53" name=
+"figure53" width="353" height="314" />
+<p>A COZY NOOK WHEN EVENING COMES</p>
+</div>
+<p>When study hour comes, take up your books and go briskly to
+work, forgetting that there is anything else in the world, and you
+will be astonished how quickly you will learn your lessons.
+Besides, you will be learning one of the most valuable lessons in
+life&mdash;to do with your might whatever your hands, or minds,
+find to do.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name=
+"page166"></a>166</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_9">GOOD NIGHT</h2>
+<h3 id="Ch_9_1">I. GETTING READY FOR BED</h3>
+<p>By and by the clock strikes eight or nine, and your mother says,
+&ldquo;Children, time to go to bed!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Sometimes you will have just come to the interesting point in
+the story, and would give anything to go on and finish it. But
+often you will be just nodding over your book, or beginning to
+wonder why the story is not quite so interesting as it was, or why
+the lines seem to be running into one another, and the book
+inclined to swing up and bump your nose.</p>
+<p>If you have had a lively, busy, happy day, you are quite sleepy
+enough to be ready for bed&mdash;that is, if you could drop into it
+with all your clothes on, without all the bother and fuss of
+undressing. So you pull yourself together bravely and answer,
+&ldquo;All right, mother,&rdquo; and say &ldquo;Good night&rdquo;
+to everybody, and upstairs you go.</p>
+<p>Of course, you must take off your clothes, because you would
+find them most uncomfortable to sleep in. Besides, the little pores
+all over your skin have been pouring out perspiration all day long;
+and a great deal of this has been <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page167" name="page167"></a>167</span>caught by your clothes, just
+as it is caught by the bedclothes while you sleep.</p>
+<p>So it is a good thing to take off your clothes, and let your
+skin be well aired and cooled. Don&rsquo;t leave your clothes all
+in a heap on the floor just where you happen to shed them, but hang
+them up over the back of a chair or on pegs, so that the air can
+blow through them all night long and sweeten and clean and dry
+them. Clothes that are worn continuously become sour with
+perspiration, and for this same reason your mother gives you
+regularly, once or twice a week, clean underwear and clean shirts
+or dresses.</p>
+<p>After you have undressed for bed, wash your face and neck and
+hands; and if you have a nice warm room or bathroom, take a quick
+splash, or sponge bath, all over, before you put on your nightgown.
+This will wash away from your skin everything that the perspiration
+has been leaving on it all day long, as well as any dust, or dirt,
+that may have got on it during the day.</p>
+<p>If the room is not warm enough for you to do this, it is a good
+thing for you to strip to your waist and then to swing your arms
+about, much as you did in the morning, only not quite so long, and
+to rub your arms and neck and shoulders all over with your hands.
+This gives them an <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name=
+"page168"></a>168</span><em>air bath</em>, and rubs off any of the
+little scales of skin that may be ready to be shed, and gives you a
+sort of dry wash, which is next best to a wet one.</p>
+<p>Then, when you have put on your nightdress, give your hair a
+thorough brushing. This is the best time of the day to do it. Dust,
+smoke, soot, and germs have been blowing into your hair all day
+long, and a thoroughly good brushing will not only get these out of
+it before they have had time to work their way in and lodge on the
+scalp, but will keep the hair bright and healthy.</p>
+<p>Before you get into bed, give your nails a quick scrub with a
+nail brush and hot water and soap, and go over them with a
+<em>blunt</em>-pointed nail cleaner, cleaning out any dirt that may
+be under their edges, and rounding off any ragged or broken points
+with the file. Once a week or so, when you take your hot bath, it
+is a good thing to go over your toe nails in the same way, trimming
+them and cleaning them. Remember, however, not to round off your
+toe nails at the corners, but to leave them square, as in this way
+you will prevent them from ingrowing under the pressure of your
+shoes.</p>
+<p>There is one thing that you should be very sure of before you
+get into bed, and that is that <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page169" name="page169"></a>169</span>your teeth are as clean as
+it is possible for you to make them. If you attended to this also
+directly after supper, so much the better; for just as it is
+important to clean the dishes and knives and forks that you have
+been using, so it is important to thoroughly clean the ivory knives
+and forks that grow in your mouth. Talk about being &ldquo;born
+with a silver spoon in your mouth&rdquo;! You were born with
+something much prettier and far more valuable.</p>
+<p>Even though your teeth make a firm and even line in front and on
+their cutting edges, yet there are many little gaps and spaces
+between their roots, where bits of food can stick. If these scraps
+of food are not thoroughly and carefully removed after each meal,
+the warmth and moisture in the mouth makes them begin to decay. The
+acids from this decay will be likely not only to upset your stomach
+and digestion, but to act upon the glassy coating of your teeth.
+After a little while, spots will begin to form on the surface of
+your teeth; they will lose their bright, shiny, pearly look; the
+acids will eat further into the teeth, and very soon there will be
+holes, or <em>cavities</em>.</p>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/figure54.png" alt=
+"A cut-away view of the mouth, showing teeth and their roots." id=
+"figure54" name="figure54" width="100%" />
+<p>HEALTHY GUMS MEAN HEALTHY TEETH</p>
+<p class="morecaption">If the gums are not kept clean and healthy,
+the second teeth that are getting ready to push out the first teeth
+will not come in strong and good, nor will the teeth remain good.
+This picture shows how the teeth grow. Notice the gaps between the
+teeth, where food may lodge.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Though your teeth are very hard and glassy looking on the
+surface, they are much softer and chalkier inside; this glassy
+coating covers only <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name=
+"page170"></a>170</span>the <em>crown</em>, or free part, of the
+tooth, which you can see. It leaves the softer inside part of the
+tooth bare just at the edge of the gums, and particularly between
+the roots of the teeth, where little scraps of food lodge and
+decay. When the acids that are formed by the decaying food have
+eaten away a good deal of the inside of the tooth, the hard, shiny
+surface is left just like a thin shell; and one day you happen to
+bite down upon a piece of bone in your food, or try to crack a nut
+with your teeth, and &ldquo;crack&rdquo; goes this brittle shell of
+your hollow tooth.</p>
+<p>Right in the middle of each tooth is a tiny hollow, or cavity,
+filled with a soft, living pulp containing one or two very
+sensitive nerves; and when the decay has eaten into the tooth far
+enough to reach this nerve pulp, it makes it ache, and then you
+have <em>toothache</em>.</p>
+<p>The one and only thing that is necessary in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>171</span>order to
+avoid all this decay and breaking away of your teeth, and throbbing
+toothache, is to keep the surface of your teeth, and particularly
+the sides where they are next one another, clean and smooth and
+unbroken. And all that is needed to keep your teeth perfectly clean
+and smooth is to use your toothbrush thoroughly after every meal
+and at bedtime; and then, if there are any little scraps of food
+between the teeth that have not been brushed away, to pick them out
+gently with a quill toothpick, or take a piece of silk or linen
+thread, push it up between the teeth, and gently saw backward and
+forward until you have cleaned out the space between the roots. You
+should take at least three to five minutes after every meal and
+before you go to bed at night to brush your teeth; and you should
+brush not only your teeth, but the whole surface of your gums close
+up to where they join the lips.</p>
+<p>It is almost as important to keep your gums pink and hard and
+healthy as it is to keep your teeth clean; and the same thorough
+brushing will do both. If the gums are perfectly healthy, they will
+come well down over the roots of the teeth, and keep them safely
+covered right down to where the glassy outer coating begins, and so
+leave no gap where the acids of decay can attack <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>172</span>the teeth.
+Be sure to brush your teeth, not merely straight backward and
+forward, but up and down and round and round as well, both to clean
+out thoroughly all the grooves and openings between them and to
+brush the gums well down over the teeth.</p>
+<p>It may seem strange, but one of the best ways to keep your teeth
+from growing crooked and irregular is to keep your nose clear and
+healthy, so that you can breathe through it freely at all times,
+both day and night. Crooked jaws and irregular teeth are more often
+caused by mouth breathing than by any other one thing.</p>
+<p>You can see why it is best to be careful not to get grit or dirt
+or bits of bone in your food, and not to crack nuts or hard candy
+with your teeth. If you do, you may crack or scratch the delicate
+glassy coating of your teeth. But, on the other hand, it is a good
+thing to give the teeth plenty to do, and particularly to eat the
+crusts of bread, and some of the tougher parts of meat, and parched
+corn or other grains, and to eat celery, apples, and other foods
+that take a great deal of chewing. The teeth are like everything
+else in the body&mdash;they need plenty of vigorous work in order
+to keep them healthy.</p>
+<p>Be very careful, though, to keep out of your <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>173</span>mouth
+anything that might possibly crack or scratch the glassy coating,
+such as pins, pennies, pieces of wire, or slate pencils. It is best
+not even to try to bite off threads or pieces of string. There is,
+of course, another reason for not putting pencils and pennies and
+such things into your mouth: they may have dirt, or germs, on them
+and infect you with disease or at least upset your digestion.</p>
+<h3 id="Ch_9_2">II. THE LAND OF NOD</h3>
+<p>Now you are all ready for bed; and the white pillow and the
+nice, clean sheets and the warm blankets look very good to you, and
+you are ready to go to the &ldquo;Land of Nod.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>You need not be afraid of the cold at night. Open your bedroom
+windows. Have plenty of light-weight, warm covers; then the cold
+breezes won&rsquo;t hurt you, but will make you strong. Just think
+how many hours you are in bed,&mdash;nearly half of your
+life,&mdash;and you need fresh, moving air all the time. Be sure to
+open your windows from the top as well as from the bottom. You know
+why: your breath is warm so that it floats and rises like smoke;
+and if you open the window only at the bottom, this bad air, which
+rises to the top of the room, can&rsquo;t get out. It is best to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name=
+"page174"></a>174</span>have windows on two sides of a bedroom, so
+that the air can be kept moving through it all night long. If you
+don&rsquo;t breathe fresh air while you sleep, you will feel dull
+and stupid in the morning and perhaps have a headache.</p>
+<p>So run your window shades right up to the top and throw your
+curtains, or shutters, back, as well as open the windows. If you
+don&rsquo;t, the fresh air cannot blow through the room properly.
+Even if this does let more light or noise into the room, this is of
+no importance whatever compared with abundance of fresh air. If you
+have played long enough out of doors in the daytime and have eaten
+a good supper and not stayed up too late, you will sleep soundly
+without being bothered at all by either lights or noises coming in
+through the windows. And no matter how cold or how light it is,
+don&rsquo;t put your head under the bedclothes. Why?</p>
+<p>It is best for you to close your mouth while you are going to
+sleep, and breathe through your nose, so that the air will be
+properly purified and warmed before it reaches your lungs. If you
+can&rsquo;t do this, your mother can perhaps give you something to
+wash out your nose, so that you can breathe freely. If that does
+not help, you had better see a doctor, and he will find some way
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name=
+"page175"></a>175</span>to clear your head so that you can use your
+nose comfortably.</p>
+<p>Suppose you take a pencil and paper and write down all you did
+yesterday. Wasn&rsquo;t it enough to make you tired and sleepy and
+want a chance to rest? Even while you sleep, your heart keeps
+beating, and you don&rsquo;t stop breathing, of course. But your
+muscles are quiet, and your food tube rests. Your brain rests,
+too,&mdash;better in sleep than at any other time,&mdash;so that
+when morning comes you are as &ldquo;lively as a cricket&rdquo; and
+quite ready for the new day.</p>
+<p>Yet even in sleep your brain does not stop working entirely, but
+goes on receiving messages from the stomach and the skin and the
+memory, and mixing them up together in the strangest fashion, so
+that you <em>dream</em>, as you say. You ought not to dream very
+much if you are perfectly well; but as long as your dreams are
+pleasant or amusing, you need not pay any attention to them. But if
+you have had bad dreams, or you dream so hard all night long that
+you don&rsquo;t feel rested in the morning, then you had better
+speak to your mother about it, and let her see what is the matter
+with your digestion or your nerves, or take you to a doctor. Bad
+dreams are always a sign of ill health and are a very disagreeable
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name=
+"page176"></a>176</span>thing, from which there is no need that you
+should suffer any more than from headache or indigestion or colic.
+Dreams, of course, do not mean or foretell anything whatever,
+except simply how bad, or good, the state of your digestion and
+your nerves is.</p>
+<p>Now, how much time should you spend in bed? Well, I think at
+your age nearly half the time. Ten or eleven hours of sleep make
+you ready for all the hours of work and play, and you don&rsquo;t
+become cross and tired half so easily if you have plenty of sleep.
+Though you are lying so quietly, you are not by any means wasting
+your time, for you probably are growing faster when you are asleep
+than when awake. Babies, who are growing very fast, you know, sleep
+nearly all the time.</p>
+<p>So after you have opened all the windows wide, put out the light
+and jump into bed and lie down for a good night&rsquo;s rest
+without thinking about anything except how comfortable the bed
+feels when you are tired.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name=
+"page177"></a>177</span></p>
+<h2 id="Ch_10">QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES</h2>
+<h3>Good Morning</h3>
+<h4>I. Waking Up.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>If you were choosing a bedroom, on which side of the
+house&mdash;facing which direction&mdash;would you choose it, and
+why?</li>
+<li>How does the air &ldquo;down cellar&rdquo; feel?</li>
+<li>Why do people often keep fresh fruit and vegetables there?</li>
+<li>What are <em>bacteria</em>?</li>
+<li>How can we prevent bacteria that cause disease from growing in
+our houses?</li>
+<li>How would you know, without being told, that sunshine is good
+for you?</li>
+<li>What does this book mean by saying that we are made of
+sunshine?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. A Good Start.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>When you jump out of bed in the morning, what do you do with
+the bedclothes? Why?</li>
+<li>Stand in front of the class and show them the exercises that
+are good to do every morning.</li>
+<li>Tell the class why they are good.</li>
+<li>Do them every morning for a week, and then tell the class how
+you feel about keeping them up.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>III. Bathing and Brushing.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>If you grow very warm exercising, what change do you notice in
+your skin? What makes it turn pink? Where does the moisture come
+from?</li>
+<li>What kind of bathing do you like best?</li>
+<li>What do we wash off besides perspiration and dust?</li>
+<li>If a scab forms over a scratch or cut in your skin, what should
+you do to it? Why? When will the scab come off of itself?</li>
+<li>What makes the skin freckle or tan?</li>
+<li>Could your face stand the same hard rubbing as your hands? Why
+not?</li>
+<li>How do you take care of your hair?</li>
+<li>What other parts of the skin can you tell about?</li>
+<li>Look at your nails; which of the &ldquo;tools&rdquo; on
+<a href="#page17">p. 17</a> do they need now?</li>
+<li>How, and when, do you care for your teeth? Why is this brushing
+very necessary?</li>
+<li>Why must our clothes be washed every week? Name each of your
+<em>Five Senses</em>.</li>
+<li>What can your skin tell you that your eyes and ears
+cannot?</li>
+<li>Do you know of any trade or occupation in which it is necessary
+to train one&rsquo;s sense of touch? Tell about it.</li>
+<li>What are the blind children in the picture doing? (Their
+alphabet does not look like yours, for the letters are represented
+by groups of raised dots or dashes or curves, which are more easily
+and quickly felt.)</li>
+<li>What must you do besides washing and brushing to keep your skin
+in good order and looking well?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>Breakfast</h3>
+<ol>
+<li>Why do we need to eat?</li>
+<li>Do you like the breakfast suggested here? Why do you need so
+much?</li>
+<li>Which of these foods come from animals? Which from plants?
+Which of them are the best &ldquo;to grow <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page178" name=
+"page178"></a>178</span>on&rdquo;?</li>
+<li>How much milk is there in the two bottles in the picture on
+<a href="#page23">p. 23</a>? What is the difference between milk
+and cream? Why is it better to buy bottled milk than milk dipped
+out of a can?</li>
+<li>Suppose that you are going to get the breakfast in this house;
+how will you use some of the milk in preparing it? How will you
+take care of what is left?</li>
+<li>Why is milk much better for you than coffee or tea? Where does
+the food strength in the milk come from?</li>
+<li>Suppose that you have just bitten off a mouthful of food; what
+is the story of this mouthful before it is taken into your blood?
+Where does most of it enter the blood? What becomes of the part
+that the blood cannot use? Why is it very necessary that this be
+disposed of regularly?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>Going to School</h3>
+<h4>I. Getting Ready.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>How is it best to dress in winter? Why? (If this is hard to
+understand, think which would cool faster&mdash;hot soup in a deep
+cup or the same soup poured out into a plate? In which dish would
+the soup have the larger surface from which to let off the heat?
+You may now weigh only half as much as you will when you are fully
+grown, but you already have much more than half as much size or
+surface.)</li>
+<li>What quality should all clothing material have, and why?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. An Early Romp.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Which makes you more tired, to walk slowly, just &ldquo;lagging
+along,&rdquo; for about twenty minutes, or to walk briskly for the
+same time? Why?</li>
+<li>How do you make your muscles strong? What is your heart made
+of? How can you make your heart strong?</li>
+<li>Why do you need a heart?</li>
+<li>What is your <em>pulse</em>? Where can you easily feel a pulse?
+Count the pulse of someone else for half a minute by a watch. Do
+this accurately. How many beats would there be in a minute? Try
+this with different classmates.</li>
+<li>What do we call the tubes through which the blood flows away
+from the heart? The tubes through which it flows back to the
+heart?</li>
+<li>What is happening to the blood on its &ldquo;round trip&rdquo;?
+Where does it get the liquid food that it delivers to the muscles?
+Why must the blood be carried away from the muscles?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>III. Fresh Air&mdash;Why We Need It.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>If you were asked how we can tell that air is everywhere, what
+could you say?</li>
+<li>What do we call a thin light substance like air?</li>
+<li>What proof have we that the body needs it? How does it get
+around to the different parts of the body?</li>
+<li>What is the body&mdash;its muscle, bone, skin, and
+all&mdash;made up of? How do these cells use the air? Why do you
+need to breathe so often?</li>
+<li>In the candle experiment, is all the air under the glass used
+up? What is used up? How can we compare a person in a closed room
+to the burning candle under the glass?</li>
+<li>What is the gas that we breathe out?</li>
+<li>In what three ways does the body &ldquo;clean
+house&rdquo;?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>IV. Fresh Air&mdash;How We Breathe It.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Where are your lungs?</li>
+<li>Draw a picture of the ribs.</li>
+<li>In what position are they when the <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page179" name="page179"></a>179</span>lungs are filled with air?
+In what position is the diaphragm then?</li>
+<li>What are the lungs giving off in the breath besides carbon
+dioxid? How can you prove this?</li>
+<li>How can you prove that the gas in your breath is not like the
+gas in the fresh air around you?</li>
+<li>Why does a room with people in it grow very warm if the doors
+and windows are kept closed?</li>
+<li>How does Nature keep the outdoor air clean? What makes the
+winds?</li>
+<li>Are you careful to keep your breath as clean as possible? How?
+How do you help keep the air in your house clean?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>In School</h3>
+<h4>I. Bringing the Fresh Air In.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>What do we mean by fresh air? Why must the air we breathe have
+oxygen in it?</li>
+<li>Is the air in the room now the best you can have in it? How is
+the air moving?</li>
+<li>Is there always the same amount of air in the room? Then, if
+there is more fresh air, there must be&mdash;bad air? If there is
+less fresh air, there must be&mdash;bad air? What is the quickest
+way to let the bad air out and the fresh air in? Why are you given
+recess?</li>
+<li>What is a draft? Are drafts dangerous?</li>
+<li>Will night air hurt you? What air can you have in the house at
+night except night air?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. Hearing and Listening.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Have you ever slept in a house close to a railway? What did you
+notice whenever a heavy train went by? What made the bed
+tremble?</li>
+<li>If you have stood very near a moving train, how did your ears
+feel? Why?</li>
+<li>How far do sound waves travel after they enter the ear? Could a
+person be deaf who had two perfect ears? Where would the trouble
+be?</li>
+<li>Draw a picture to show the parts of your <em>left</em> ear, and
+name each part.</li>
+<li>How do you take care of your ears?</li>
+<li>Comment on doing each of these things:&mdash;firing a bean
+shooter at anyone; throwing gravel or sand; firing off a cap or
+torpedo close to some one&rsquo;s head; boxing a person on the ear;
+running a nail cleaner or pencil point into your ear; putting on
+the baby&rsquo;s cap so that the ears are folded forward; asking
+your teacher to repeat her question.</li>
+<li>Have you tried to train your ears? How?&mdash;and why?</li>
+<li>Find out about some business, or occupation, in which it is
+necessary to have very keen hearing, and write a little story about
+it.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>III. Seeing and Reading.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Are you seated now in the best way for reading or not?
+Why?</li>
+<li>Why is it well to look up often, as you read?</li>
+<li>How far from your eyes ought you to be able to hold this book
+to read it easily? If you cannot, what should you do?</li>
+<li>Draw a picture of someone&rsquo;s eye, as you see it, naming
+the parts.</li>
+<li>Draw a picture of your eye as it would look if you could see
+the eyeball from the <em>left</em> side, and name the parts.</li>
+<li>What takes the sight message to the brain?</li>
+<li>How does the nerve of the eye (the <em>optic nerve</em>) get
+its messages? What, then, is <em>light</em>? If the light waves
+enter the ear, can they make you hear? Why not?</li>
+<li>When a baby is born, what care should be taken <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>180</span>of its eyes
+immediately, and why?</li>
+<li>Have you ever played any games in which the sharpest eyes won?
+What were they?</li>
+<li>Write a little story about the picture on <a href="#page59">p.
+59</a>.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>IV. A Drink of Water.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Why do we want to drink water? How would you know that your
+body must have a great deal of liquid in it?</li>
+<li>Do you know where the water you drink at school comes from? If
+you don&rsquo;t, try to find out; and find out also just how it is
+brought to the school and why it flows up to the faucets.</li>
+<li>If you get drinking water from a well, either at home or at
+school, tell where this well is&mdash;how near the house or the
+out-buildings. Do you think that any waste from these buildings
+could drain into the well? Why?</li>
+<li>At your sand table or from a sandpile in the yard, lay out a
+farmyard, showing where the house, the barn, the chicken yard, and
+the pig-sty, also the privy vault, are. Now locate the well so that
+it cannot receive drainage from any of these places.</li>
+<li>What is the danger in using drinking water from a stream?</li>
+<li>How could the germs of typhoid fever get into the milk we
+drink?</li>
+<li>What do we mean by <em>fermented</em> drinks? Name some. What
+is in these drinks that is so very harmful?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>V. Little Cooks.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Do you bring luncheon to school? What do you like to have for
+your luncheon? Talk about this in class with your teacher, and find
+out what things are best for school luncheons.</li>
+<li>How is your luncheon packed? Why ought it to be neatly
+done?</li>
+<li>How long do you take for luncheon, or for dinner at home? Is
+this time enough?</li>
+<li>What do you do right after eating? Is this what you ought to
+do? Why?</li>
+<li>What foods do you know how to cook? Write out the recipe for
+something you have made, showing what you mixed and how you did it;
+and in what, and how long, you cooked it.</li>
+<li>Give three reasons for cooking food.</li>
+<li>How is fried food so often made indigestible?</li>
+<li>Are sweet foods good or harmful? What does sugar come from? How
+is it made?</li>
+<li>Write a little story about one of these things: My First Lesson
+in Cooking; Our Taffy Party; How I Kept Flies out of the Kitchen;
+How We Boys Cooked Breakfast (or Supper); My Marketing.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>VI. Tasting and Smelling.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>If anyone asked you how a lemon tastes, what would you say?
+What would you say about sugar? Salt? Pepper? Pickles?
+Strawberries? Cheese? Onions? Radishes? How did you learn about
+each of these?</li>
+<li>What does your tongue do besides receiving tastes? Note in the
+picture (<a href="#page86">p. 86</a>) how strongly your tongue is
+rooted; point to the tip of it in the picture.</li>
+<li>How does your nose help your throat and your lungs? How else
+may it help you?</li>
+<li>Draw a picture to show how air reaches the lungs.</li>
+<li>What are <em>adenoids</em>? How may you know if you have
+adenoids? If you have, what ought you to do? Why?</li>
+<li>Where do the men who want to smoke in the open trolley car have
+to sit? Why? If children breathe tobacco smoke, what effect will it
+have on them? Why is smoking a foolish habit? How is it often
+harmful?</li>
+</ol>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name=
+"page181"></a>181</span></p>
+<h4>VII. Talking and Reciting.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>When you are reciting in class, do you think how your voice and
+the words sound to the other people in the room? Show the class how
+you can make your speech sound just as you want it to.</li>
+<li>Give three ways in which you can take care of your throat and
+voice. Put your hand on the place where your voice is made. How is
+it made?</li>
+<li>On your own picture of the throat, show where those little
+folds of skin are (the picture on <a href="#page86">p. 86</a>
+shows, of course, only the fold of skin, or <em>vocal cord</em>, on
+the right half of the windpipe).</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>VIII. Thinking and Answering.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>With two or three of your classmates, play telephone;&mdash;one
+must be &ldquo;Central&rdquo; and one &ldquo;Information&rdquo; at
+the central office, and one must receive your message and answer
+it. A number of the other children may join hands to make a long
+&ldquo;wire&rdquo; on each side of &ldquo;Central&rdquo;; they will
+repeat the message softly from one to another all down their
+&ldquo;wire.&rdquo;</li>
+<li>Now, suppose that you all represent the telephone system in the
+body. Could you act out this &ldquo;Body-Telephone&rdquo;
+call:&mdash;The eye sees a burning match on the floor, and sends
+the message to its center in the brain; this center consults the
+memory (&ldquo;Information&rdquo;) as to what to do. Memory recalls
+that burning matches are likely to set fire to other things and
+ought to be put out. So the brain sends a message to the muscles of
+the foot to get to work and stamp out the flame. In this play, what
+will you each call yourselves?</li>
+<li>Make up some other &ldquo;Body-Telephone&rdquo; plays.</li>
+<li>What are some of the messages that are being carried by your
+nerves, that you know nothing about?</li>
+<li>Think how many messages a baby stores away before he is ready
+to answer them; what are some of these? Why can he not answer them
+at once? What makes his brain and nerves and muscles grow? How can
+you take the best care of yours?</li>
+<li>In the picture on <a href="#page96">p. 96</a>, point to the
+brain; to the spinal cord. How near the surface of your back is
+your spinal cord? What keeps it from being easily injured?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>&ldquo;Absent To-day?&rdquo;</h3>
+<h4>I. Keeping Well.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Why do our bodies need &ldquo;housecleaning&rdquo;? How do we
+get rid of the waste part that is a gas? Of the part that is water?
+What carries the carbon dioxid to the lungs? What carries the waste
+water to the sweat tubes and the kidneys? What other waste is there
+to be gotten rid of?</li>
+<li>Suppose that you and your chum each have an equal chance to
+take a bad cold from someone else; your chum catches it, and you
+don&rsquo;t. What might be one reason why you don&rsquo;t? Place
+your hand over your liver. How can you keep it in good working
+order?</li>
+<li>What is the bladder? Why is it so very necessary to empty the
+bladder regularly? When you perspire freely, how does that help the
+kidneys?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. Some Foes to Fight.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>You have seen moldy bread? What is, the mold? What makes it
+spread?</li>
+<li>Suppose you take some pieces of moldy bread or potato and turn
+a glass jar or bowl over them. Catch a few flies and put them under
+the glass, and leave them to crawl over the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>182</span>moldy food.
+After a day, put the flies under another glass with some pieces of
+fresh bread or potato. If you find that the fresh food quickly
+becomes moldy, how will you think that the mold germs came to it?
+(If you keep the jars in a warm place, the germs will grow faster,
+and you won&rsquo;t have so long to wait before you can see the
+mold.)</li>
+<li>What other kinds of germs do flies carry? How do they carry
+them?</li>
+<li>A Board of Health caused a liveryman to be fined because he
+allowed a manure pile to remain behind his stable. Why was his act
+a misdemeanor? From what do flies come, and how do they grow?</li>
+<li>On your way to and from school, what have you noticed that
+could breed or attract flies? How could these things have been
+avoided?</li>
+<li>The next time you go into a butcher shop or grocery store,
+notice how the things are kept and be ready to tell the class what
+you think about it.</li>
+<li>In what ways may germs be carried, besides by flies?</li>
+<li>What do we mean by the &ldquo;Great White Plague&rdquo;? Why is
+it called this? What are people doing to try to cure it?</li>
+<li>What can you do to help prevent it?</li>
+<li>Why ought you to stay away from other people when you have a
+cold? What do you need most in order to get well?</li>
+<li>Do you always have your own towel to use? Why should you?</li>
+<li>Write a little story about the picture on <a href="#page112">p.
+112</a>.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>III. Protecting Our Friends.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>Is there a Board of Health in your town? If not, what takes its
+place? See if you can find out some of the things that the Board or
+the Officers have done for the town.</li>
+<li>What do we mean by <em>quarantine</em>? What is the
+<em>quarantine station</em> in ports where passenger steamers land?
+See if you can find out about any time when a city or port was
+guarding its people against an infectious disease.</li>
+<li>Have you been vaccinated? How was it done? Why was it done? How
+do we all know that it is a very wise thing to have done?</li>
+<li>How can you help the Health Officers to keep your town a
+healthful place?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>Work and Play</h3>
+<h4>I. Growing Strong.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>When you play out of doors, what do you exercise? What do you
+exercise when you study? How ought you to play and study so as to
+get the most good from each? Why is it good to play, and work too,
+out of doors?</li>
+<li>What games have you played in the last day or two? How did the
+players divide the muscle exercise of the game? Did they divide up
+the thinking part, too?</li>
+<li>Why must the blood be sent to the muscles? Why must it be
+carried away again? When you feel tired, what is happening in your
+body?</li>
+<li>What are muscles like? Show how the elastic bands of your legs
+work when you sit on your heels. What makes the muscles at the back
+of your legs feel thicker?</li>
+<li>What bones of your body can you feel? Put your hands on them,
+as you tell what you can about each.</li>
+<li>Why do we need bones? What do we call our whole framework of
+bones?</li>
+<li>Have you ever seen anyone who had to stay all the time in bed
+or sit in a wheeled chair? How did this person show the lack of
+exercise?</li>
+<li>What is the meaning of the <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page183" name="page183"></a>183</span>picture on <a href=
+"#page129">p. 129</a>?</li>
+<li>Choose one of the other pictures in this chapter and write a
+story about it to show how to grow strong.</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. Accidents.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>When you hear the word <em>accident</em>, what do you think of?
+What have you to help you to prevent accidents? If you have used
+your &ldquo;look-out department&rdquo; as well as you can, and
+still the accident happens, what will you do then?</li>
+<li>Show the class how to care for a very deep cut. What do we call
+a medicine that kills disease germs?</li>
+<li>How would you treat a bruise? A burn? Frost-bitten ears?
+Chilblains? A bee sting?</li>
+<li>If you are told to take some medicine from a certain bottle or
+box, do you always look at the label? Why is it dangerous not to?
+What do you think of having medicines about not labeled or poured
+into old bottles with wrong labels?</li>
+<li>If you should happen to swallow something poisonous, what ought
+you to do right away?</li>
+<li>Suppose your clothes or your hair should catch fire; what would
+you do?</li>
+<li>How did you celebrate last Fourth of July? Write a short story
+about the picture on <a href="#page144">p. 144</a>.</li>
+<li>With one of your classmates, show how you would try to restore
+a person who had just been saved from drowning. How can you try to
+save yourself if you fall into the water?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>III. The City Beautiful.</h3>
+<ol>
+<li>Have you a park near your home? When the people leave at the
+end of the day, how do the lawns and paths look? Are there cans in
+the park to hold the papers and scraps?</li>
+<li>How are the streets in your town cleaned in winter? In
+summer?</li>
+<li>How do the houses get rid of their waste?</li>
+<li>If the waste goes into a river, is the river water used for
+drinking? Who decides where the drinking water for the town shall
+come from?</li>
+<li>Why are drinks containing alcohol harmful to take (give four
+reasons)? What is a <em>narcotic</em>? How does drinking alcohol
+lead to crime?</li>
+<li>Write down five ways in which you can help to keep your town or
+city beautiful. Five ways in which you can help to keep your own
+home beautiful.</li>
+<li>Why should every city have parks for the children?</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>The Evening Meal</h3>
+<ol>
+<li>Play housekeeping, and order the dinner.</li>
+<li>Write down a list of things for a good supper.</li>
+<li>Why does Nature give us so many different kinds of food? How
+does she teach us not to eat too much of one kind at a time?</li>
+<li>Write down on the board as many of each of these kinds of food
+as you can:&mdash;meats; vegetables; fruits; breads; sweet foods;
+fish; grains; food (not fruit) that does not need cooking; food to
+drink.</li>
+<li>How do you help to make meal times pleasant? Make up a story
+about the picture on <a href="#page159">p. 159</a>, and tell it in
+class.</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>A Pleasant Evening</h3>
+<ol>
+<li>Just after a meal, what is your stomach doing? How can you help
+your digestion?</li>
+<li>Have you played any of the games mentioned here? <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>184</span>How did you
+play them?</li>
+<li>Look at the picture on <a href="#page165">p. 165</a>; why is
+this a good after-supper corner? How do you sit and hold your book
+when you read in the evening?</li>
+<li>What parts of your body are you exercising and taking care of
+when you read? Of what use is a healthy, vigorous body without a
+healthy, vigorous mind? How can you keep your mind healthy? How can
+you keep it vigorous?</li>
+<li>What kind of books do you like best to read? Tell the class the
+names of some good ones.</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>Good Night</h3>
+<h4>I. Getting Ready for Bed.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>At what hour do you go to bed? When do you get up? How many
+hours&rsquo; sleep does this give you? Is this enough? Why do you
+need so much sleep?</li>
+<li>As you undress, what do you do with the clothes you take off?
+Why should you air your clothes every night? How can you take an
+air bath? Is this as good as a wash?</li>
+<li>How do you care for your hair at night?</li>
+<li>Do you ever go to bed without brushing your teeth? If you do,
+what happens all night long to the food scraps that were left
+around and between your teeth? As these scraps decay, what harm do
+they do? What makes a tooth ache?</li>
+<li>Draw a little picture of your own teeth as you see them in a
+looking-glass. Are there any spaces that you can see where food
+might lodge and stay? How can you keep your teeth quite free from
+scraps of food?</li>
+<li>Why are teeth necessary? How must they grow to make good
+cutting tools? If they are not straight or sound, what can you do
+about it?</li>
+<li>Why ought children&rsquo;s first teeth to be thoroughly brushed
+every day?</li>
+</ol>
+<h4>II. The Land of Nod.</h4>
+<ol>
+<li>When you are ready for bed, how do you fix your windows? Why is
+it even more necessary to have the air blowing through the room at
+night than in the daytime?</li>
+<li>How else is your body being purified at night? Does your body
+do any work while you are sleeping? What work?</li>
+<li>What kind of sleep should you have if you are perfectly
+well?</li>
+</ol>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Child's Day
+
+Author: Woods Hutchinson
+
+Release Date: June 11, 2006 [EBook #18559]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD'S DAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: A GOOD SPORT FOR GIRLS AND BOYS]
+
+
+
+THE WOODS HUTCHINSON HEALTH SERIES
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S DAY
+
+
+BY
+
+
+WOODS HUTCHINSON, A.M., M.D.
+
+
+Sometime Professor of Anatomy, University of Iowa; Professor of
+Comparative Pathology and Methods of Science Teaching, University of
+Buffalo; Lecturer, London Medical Graduates' College and University of
+London; and State Health Officer of Oregon. Author of "Preventable
+Diseases," "Conquest of Consumption," "Instinct and Health," and "A
+Handbook of Health."
+
+
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+BOSTON   NEW YORK    CHICAGO
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY WOODS HUTCHINSON
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+"If youth only knew, if old age only could!" lamented the philosopher.
+What is the use, say some, of putting ideas about disease into
+children's heads and making them fussy about their health and anxious
+before their time?
+
+Precisely because ideas about disease are far less hurtful than
+disease itself, and because the period for richest returns from
+sensible living is childhood--and the earlier the better.
+
+It is abundantly worth while to teach a child how to protect his
+health and build up his strength; too many of us only begin to take
+thought of our health when it is too late to do us much good. Almost
+everything is possible in childhood. The heaviest life handicaps can
+be fed and played and trained out of existence in a child. Even the
+most rudimentary knowledge, the simplest and crudest of precautions,
+in childhood may make all the difference between misery and happiness,
+success and failure in life.
+
+Our greatest asset for healthful living is that most of the unspoiled
+instincts, the primitive likes and dislikes, of the child point in the
+right direction. There is no need to tell children to eat, to play, to
+sleep, to swim; all that is needed is to point out why they like to do
+these things, where to stop, what risks to avoid. The simplest and
+most natural method of doing this has seemed to be that of a sketch of
+the usual course and activities of a Child's Day, with a running
+commentary of explanation, and such outlines of our bodily structure
+and needs as are required to make clear why such and such a course is
+advisable and such another inadvisable. The greatest problem has been
+how to reach and hold the interest of the child; and the lion's share
+of such success as may have been achieved in this regard is due to the
+cooeperation of my sister, Professor Mabel Hutchinson Douglas of
+Whittier College, California.
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  GOOD MORNING
+      I. Waking Up
+     II. A Good Start
+    III. Bathing and Brushing
+
+  BREAKFAST
+
+  GOING TO SCHOOL
+      I. Getting Ready
+     II. An Early Romp
+    III. Fresh Air--Why We Need It
+     IV. Fresh Air--How We Breathe It
+
+  IN SCHOOL
+       I. Bringing the Fresh Air In
+      II. Hearing and Listening
+     III. Seeing and Reading
+      IV. A Drink of Water
+       V. Little Cooks
+      VI. Tasting and Smelling
+     VII. Talking and Reciting
+    VIII. Thinking and Answering
+
+  "ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+      I. Keeping Well
+     II. Some Foes to Fight
+    III. Protecting Our Friends
+
+  WORK AND PLAY
+      I. Growing Strong
+     II. Accidents
+    III. The City Beautiful
+
+  THE EVENING MEAL
+
+  A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+  GOOD NIGHT
+      I. Getting Ready for Bed
+     II. The Land of Nod
+
+  QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S DAY
+
+
+
+
+GOOD MORNING
+
+
+I. WAKING UP
+
+If there is anything that we all enjoy, it is waking up on a bright
+spring morning and seeing the sunlight pouring into the room. You all
+know the poem beginning,--
+
+  "I remember, I remember
+  The house where I was born;
+  The little window where the sun
+  Came peeping in at morn."
+
+You are feeling fresh and rested and happy after your good night's
+sleep and you are eager to be up and out among the birds and the
+flowers.
+
+You are perfectly right in being glad to say "Good morning" to the
+sun, for he is one of the best friends you have. Doesn't he make the
+flowers blossom, and the trees grow? And he makes the apples redden,
+too, and the wheat-ears fill out, and the potatoes grow under the
+ground, and the peas and beans and melons and strawberries and
+raspberries above it. All these things that feed you and keep you
+healthy are grown by the heat of the sun. So if it were not for the
+sunlight we should all starve to death.
+
+While sunlight is pouring down from the sun to the earth, it is
+warming and cleaning the air, burning up any poisonous gases, or
+germs, that may be in it. By heating the air, it starts it to rising.
+If you will watch, you can see the air shimmering and rising from an
+open field on a broiling summer day, or wavering and rushing upward
+from a hot stove or an open register in winter. Hold a little feather
+fluff or blow a puff of flour above a hot stove, and it will go
+sailing up toward the ceiling. As the heated air rises, the cooler air
+around rushes in to fill the place that it has left, and the outdoor
+"drafts" are made that we call _winds_.
+
+These winds keep the air moving about in all directions constantly,
+like water in a boiling pot, and in this way keep it fresh and pure
+and clean. If it were not for this, the air would become foul and damp
+and stagnant, like the water in a ditch or marshy pool. So the Sun
+God, as our ancestors in the Far East used to call him thousands of
+years ago, not only gives us our food to eat, but keeps the air fit
+for us to breathe.
+
+In still another way the sun is one of our best friends; for his rays
+have the wonderful power, not only of causing plants that supply us
+with food--the Green Plants, as we call them--to grow and flourish,
+but at the same time of withering and killing certain plants that do
+us harm. These plants--the Colorless Plants, we may call them--are the
+_molds_, the _fungi_, and the _bacteria_, or _germs_. You know how a
+pair of boots put away in a dark, damp closet, or left down in the
+cellar, will become covered all over with a coating of gray mold. Mold
+grows rapidly in the dark. Just so, these other Colorless Plants,
+which include most of our disease germs, grow and flourish in the
+dark, and are killed by sunlight. That is why no house, or room, is
+fit to live in, into which the sunlight does not pour freely sometime
+during the day. The more sunlight you can bring into your bedrooms and
+your playrooms and your schoolrooms, except during the heat of the day
+in the summer time, the better they will be. The Italians have a very
+shrewd and true old proverb about houses and light: "Where the
+sunlight never comes, the doctor often does."
+
+So you see that Nature is guiding you in the right direction when she
+makes you love and delight in the bright, warm, golden sunlight; for
+it is one of the very best friends that you have--indeed, you couldn't
+possibly live without it.
+
+In one sense, in fact, though this may be a little harder for you to
+understand, you are sunlight yourselves; for the power in your muscles
+and nerves that makes you able to jump and dance and sing and laugh
+and breathe is the sunlight which you have eaten in bread and apples
+and potatoes, and which the plants had drunk in through their leaves
+in the long, sunny days of spring and summer.
+
+So throw up your blinds and open your windows wide to the sunlight
+every morning; and let the sunlight pour in all day long, except only
+while you are reading or studying--when the dazzling light may hurt
+your eyes--and for six or seven of the hottest hours of the day in
+summer time. Perhaps your mothers will object that the sunlight will
+fade the carpets, or spoil the furniture; but it will put far more
+color into your faces than it will take out of the carpets. If you are
+given the choice of a bedroom, choose a room that faces south or
+southeast or southwest, never toward the north.
+
+
+II. A GOOD START
+
+When you are really awake and have had a good look to see what kind of
+morning it is, you will feel like yawning and stretching, and rubbing
+your eyes four or five times, before you jump out of bed; and it is a
+good plan to take plenty of time to do this, unless you are already
+late for breakfast or school. It starts your heart to beating and your
+lungs to breathing faster; and it limbers your muscles, so that you
+are ready for the harder work they must do as soon as you jump out of
+bed and begin to walk about and bathe and dress and run and play.
+
+When you jump out of bed, throw back the covers and turn them over the
+foot of the bed, so that the air and the sunlight can get at every
+part of them and make them clean and fresh and sweet to cover you at
+night again. Though you may not know it, all night long, while you
+have been asleep, your skin has been at work cleaning and purifying
+your blood, pouring out gases and a watery vapor that we call
+_perspiration_, or _sweat_; and these impurities have been caught by
+the sheets and blankets. So after a bed has been slept in for four or
+five nights, if it has not been thrown well open in the morning, it
+begins to have a stuffy, foul, sourish smell. You can see from this
+why it is a bad thing to sleep with your head under the bedclothes, as
+people sometimes do, or even to pull the blankets up over your head,
+because you are frightened at something or are afraid that your ears
+will get cold. Your breath has poisonous gases in it, as well as your
+perspiration; and the two together make the air under the bedclothes
+very bad.
+
+Now you are ready to wash and dress. But before you do this, it is a
+good thing to take off your nightdress, or turn it down to your waist
+and tie it there with the sleeves, and go through some good swinging
+and "windmill" movements with your arms and shoulders and back.
+
+(1) Swing your arms round and round like the sails of a windmill;
+first both together, then one in one direction, and the other in the
+other.
+
+(2) Hold your arms straight out in front of you, and swing them
+backward until the backs of your hands strike behind your back.
+
+(3) Hold your arms straight out on each side, clench your fists, and
+then smartly bend your elbows so that you almost strike yourself on
+both shoulders, and repeat quickly twenty or thirty times.
+
+(4) Swing your arms, out full length, across your chest five or ten
+times.
+
+(5) Swing forward and down with your arms stretched out, until the
+tips of your fingers touch the floor.
+
+(6) Set your feet a little apart, swing forward and downward again,
+until your hands swing back between your ankles.
+
+    [Illustration: STARTING THE DAY]
+
+When you come back from these down-swings, bend just as far back as
+you can without losing your balance, so that you put all the muscles
+along the front of your body on the stretch; and then swing down again
+between your ankles. This will help to tone up all your muscles, and
+limber all your joints, and set your blood to circulating well, and
+give you a good start for the day.
+
+
+III. BATHING AND BRUSHING
+
+Now you are ready to wash and dress. You can easily take off the gown,
+or garments, that you have worn during the night; but there is one
+coat that you cannot take off--one that is more important and useful
+and beautiful than all the rest of your clothes put together, no
+matter of how fine material they may be made, or what they have cost.
+
+Do you remember the old Bible story about Joseph and his "coat of many
+colors"? Perhaps you've wished you had one just as nice. Now, the fact
+is, your coat is more beautiful even than Joseph's; and, as for its
+uses, it is the most wonderful coat ever made!
+
+This coat of yours changes its color from time to time; sometimes it
+is pink, sometimes red, sometimes a soft milky white, and sometimes a
+dull dark blue, or purple. I wonder if you guess what it is. Sometimes
+it is dry and sometimes wet, sometimes it is hot and sometimes cold,
+sometimes rough and sometimes smoother than the softest silk--just run
+your hand gently over your cheek!
+
+Now you have guessed my riddle. This "wonderful coat" is your skin,
+which covers you from top to toe. It fits more closely than any glove,
+and yet is so easy and comfortable that it never rubs or binds or
+hurts you in any way.
+
+    [Illustration: THE SKIN-STRAINER
+
+    The little pores open in furrows of the skin. This drawing is
+    many hundred times as large as the piece of skin itself.]
+
+Will the wonderful coat wash? Yes, indeed, and look all the prettier.
+In fact, to keep it white and clear you must bathe often, not only
+your hands and face, but your whole body. Your skin is a strainer, you
+know. It is a "way out" for some of the gases and waste water from the
+blood. What will happen, then, if you don't wash your skin? The little
+holes, or _pores_, that the sweat comes through may become clogged.
+The strainer won't let the poison out, and so it will stay inside your
+body. Then, too, if you do not wash the skin, the little scales that
+are peeling off the outside coat will not be cleared away. You have
+noticed them, haven't you, sometime when you were pulling off black
+stockings? You found little white pieces, almost as fine as powder,
+clinging to the inside of the stockings. These little scales are
+always rubbing off from your skin.
+
+So every morning it is good to splash the cool water all over
+yourself, if you can, as the birds do in the puddles. You don't need a
+bathtub for this, though of course it is much pleasanter and more
+convenient if you have one. Pour the water into a basin and splash it
+with your hands all over your face, neck, chest, and arms. Then rub
+your skin well with a rough towel. Next, place the basin on the floor;
+put your feet into it and dash the water as quickly as you can over
+your legs. Then take another good rub. But you must not do this unless
+you keep warm while you are doing it, and your skin must be pink when
+you have finished. If you are chilly after rubbing, you should use
+tepid, even very hot, water for your morning bath. In summer you can
+bathe all over easily; but in winter, unless your room is warm, it is
+enough to splash the upper half of your body. Once or twice a week you
+should take a good hot bath with soap and then sponge down in cool
+water. See how the birds enjoy their bath; and you will, too, if you
+once get into the habit of bathing regularly.
+
+Now let us take a good look at this coat and see if we can find out
+what it is like.
+
+The other day I saw some boys playing basketball. They wore short
+sleeves and short trousers. Four were Indians, and five were white
+boys, and one was a negro. The skin of the white boys seemed to shine,
+it looked so white; and the negro's shone in its blackness; but the
+Indian's looked a dull rich dusky brown.
+
+Yes, you say, they belong to different races.
+
+But what causes the difference in their color?
+
+Little specks of coloring matter, or _pigment_, which lie in the outer
+layer of the skin. Even white skins contain a little pigment, they are
+not a pure white. A Chinaman's skin has a little more of this pigment,
+so that it looks yellow; an Indian's has still more; and a negro's has
+most of all, making him black.
+
+Sunlight can increase the amount of pigment in the skin. The people
+who live in the torrid zone have much darker skins than those who live
+where the days are short and cold. You have noticed, yourself, that
+when you expose the skin of your face or arms to the hot sun, you
+become freckled, or tanned. This tanning, or browning, of the outer
+layer of the skin protects the more delicate coats of skin below from
+being scorched or injured by the strong light.
+
+When you are playing and running with your schoolmates, you see that
+their faces grow very red, and even their hands. Why is this? Because
+the heart has been pumping hard and has sent the red blood out toward
+the skin. The red color shines through the outer part of the skin. The
+pigment in the Indian's skin, or the negro's, prevents the red blood
+underneath from shining through, as it does through yours.
+
+    [Illustration: THE PARTS OF THE SKIN
+
+    The pore P on the surface of the skin is the end of a tube
+    through which sweat flows out. At O are the oil sacs that feed
+    the hair H. At B are the little blood vessels that make the skin
+    look pink.]
+
+The skin, you see, is made up of different layers. When you burn
+yourself, you can see a layer of skin stand out like a blister. It is
+white; but if the blister is broken, underneath you see the coat that
+is full of tiny blood vessels, so tiny and so close together that this
+whole coat looks red. The skin, like every other part of the body, is
+made up of tiny animal cells. In the outer coat they become quite flat
+like little scales and then wear off; and their places are taken by
+the newer cells that are growing from beneath. The skin grows from
+beneath, and bit by bit it sheds its old outer coat. This is how it
+keeps itself nice and new on the outside and "grows away" the marks of
+cuts and burns.
+
+Now hold up your hand and look across it toward the light. What do you
+see? It looks fuzzy, doesn't it? Ever and ever so many tiny little
+hairs are on it. The other day a little boy asked me what made his
+skin look so rough? I looked, and saw that all the little hairs were
+standing on end, so that his skin looked like "goose-flesh." It was
+because he was cold. The muscles at the roots of the hairs had
+shortened, so that they pulled the hairs straight up and made the skin
+look rough.
+
+What part of the body has a great deal of hair on it? The head, of
+course. Isn't it strange that you have such long hair on the top of
+your head and none at all on the soles of your feet or the palms of
+your hands? The hair on your head protects you from cold and rain and
+the hot sun; but hair on your palms, would only be in the way.
+
+Now look at the ends of your fingers. There the skin has grown so hard
+that it forms _nails_. If you look at your toes, you will see that the
+same thing has happened there. These nails are little pink shells to
+protect the ends of your fingers and toes. You see what a wonderful
+coat it is that you are wearing.
+
+Does the skin coat keep you warm? Yes, and not only that, but it keeps
+you cool, too. You have often seen little drops of water on your skin,
+when you were very hot. This sweat, or perspiration, as we call it,
+cools the body by making the skin moist. You know how cold it makes
+you to be wrapped in a wet sheet. Well, the skin cools you in just the
+same way, when it becomes wet with sweat. The sweat comes from the
+blood under the skin; so that, as we saw before, by letting this
+moisture pass through, the skin acts as a sieve to let out the waste
+from the blood.
+
+Then, too, the skin covers and protects all the other parts. It is
+thin where it needs to be thin, so as not to interfere with quick
+movements, as on the eyelids and the lips; and thick where it needs to
+be thick, to stand wear and tear, as on the soles of the feet and the
+palms of the hands. I remember once taking a sliver of shingle out of
+the back of a little boy who had been sliding down a roof. I had to
+sharpen my knife and press and push and at last get a pair of scissors
+to cut out the sliver. It was just like cutting tough leather. But
+even if we do sometimes get cuts and burns and bruises, yet our skin
+coat protects us far more than we really think. It keeps out all sorts
+of poisons and the germs of blood-poisoning and such diseases. These
+enemies can attack us only through a scratch or cut in the skin, for
+that is the only way they can get into the blood. The skin is better
+than any manufactured coat, too, because, if it is torn or scratched,
+it can mend itself.
+
+    [Illustration: READING BY TOUCH INSTEAD OF SIGHT
+
+    These boys are blind; their books are printed with raised
+    letters, which they read by feeling of them.]
+
+Does your skin ever talk to you? No, of course not; yet it tells you
+ever so many things. Shut your eyes and pick up a pencil. As you touch
+it, your skin tells you that it is round and smooth, and pointed at
+one end. You can feel the soft rubber on the other end, too. Is it
+wet? No. Is it hot? Of course not. Now place a book in the palm of
+your hand. Is it flat or round, light or heavy, rough or smooth? All
+these things your skin tells you through little nerve tips, which are
+scattered thickly all over it. Still another thing the skin does; if
+you touch anything sharp or hot, it says at once that it hurts. If
+your clothes are tight or uncomfortable, the skin soon lets you know.
+You see it is always on the lookout, always ready to tell you about
+the things around you and to warn you against the things that might
+hurt you. The fifth of your "Five Senses," the sense of _touch_, is in
+your skin.
+
+There are some parts of your skin-coat that should have special care.
+
+I hardly need tell you about washing your face carefully around your
+nose and in front of your ears. Sometimes I have seen a "high-water
+mark" right down the middle of the cheek or just under the jaws or
+chin.
+
+Of course your mother has told you about washing your hands! You see,
+our hands touch so many dirty things, and handle so many things that
+other people's hands have touched, that we ought always to wash them
+before a meal for fear some of the dirt or germs on them may get into
+our mouths and cause disease.
+
+And we really need to clean our nails as often as we wash our hands,
+for that little black rim under the nail is very dangerous. Dust and
+disease germs and dirt of all kinds find it a good place in which to
+hide. Trim your nails with a file, not a knife; and clean them with a
+dull cleaner, for a sharp-pointed one will scrape the nail and roughen
+it, or push the nail away from the skin of the finger underneath.
+
+    [Illustration: USEFUL TOOLS]
+
+Trim and clean the edges of your nails carefully and thoroughly, but
+don't fuss much with the roots of them. That little fold of skin there
+may strike you as untidy, but it covers the soft growing part of the
+nail; and if you push it back with a nail-cleaner, it may cause the
+nail to crack and roughen or become inflamed and start a "hang nail"
+or "run around." If you push it back at all, do so only with the ball
+of your thumb or finger.
+
+The edges of the nails should be trimmed in a curve to match the curve
+of the end of the finger. Of course you know that you should never
+bite your nails, not only because it is a bad habit and will bring a
+good deal of dirt into your mouth, but because you may bite, or tear
+down into, the tender growing part of the nail, sometimes called the
+_quick_; and then this part may become inflamed, and you will have a
+troublesome sore on the end of your finger.
+
+    [Illustration: DO YOUR NAILS LOOK LIKE THESE?]
+
+Just as your nails are a part of your skin,--hardened from it and
+rooted in it,--so, too, are your teeth; and, like the rest of the
+skin, they should be kept thoroughly clean. Every morning and evening
+at least they should be carefully brushed. If you take good care of
+your first teeth and have them filled when they need it, you will
+probably have good permanent teeth, and you won't have to suffer with
+toothache.
+
+The skin of your head, which grows such beautiful hair, and the hair
+itself, should be kept clean. There are two things needed for this.
+
+First, the hair should be brushed and combed night and morning. The
+skin of your scalp is shedding tiny thin scales all day and all night,
+just as the rest of your skin is doing. Fortunately, your hair is
+growing from roots under the skin much in the same way as blades of
+grass grow from their roots; and, as it grows, it pushes up these
+scales from the surface of the scalp to where you can readily reach
+them with a good bristle brush. If they are not well brushed out, the
+dust and smoke from the air will mix with them, and the germs in the
+dust and smoke will breed in the mixture, and you will soon have
+"scurf" or _dandruff_ on your head. So give at least fifteen or twenty
+strokes with the brush before you use the comb. It isn't necessary to
+brush or scrape the scalp, and a comb should be used only to part the
+hair or take out the tangles.
+
+The second thing is to wash the hair and the scalp. Boys ought to wash
+their hair every week; and girls, every two weeks; and girls,
+especially, should be careful to dry their hair very thoroughly
+afterwards. You will notice after washing your hair that it feels dry
+and fluffy, and sometimes rather harsh. This is because the soap and
+hot water together have washed out of the hair its natural oil, or
+grease, which kept it bright and soft; and this is why it is better
+not to wash the hair with soap and hot water oftener than once a week
+or so. But it shouldn't be shirked when the time does come. Watch how
+hard your kitten works to keep her fur coat glossy, though it must be
+tiresome enough to lick, lick, lick.
+
+Sometimes in cold weather your lips and knuckles crack and bleed. That
+is because the skin on those parts is so thin and so often stretched
+and bruised. If you will take a little pure olive oil or cold cream
+and rub it on your lips and hands, it will make the skin softer and
+not so likely to break.
+
+    [Illustration: SHOES THAT SHOW SENSE
+
+    Low heels and plenty of room for the toes.]
+
+Sometimes your feet tell you that they need better care. Perhaps your
+shoes are too tight, or too loose and rub your toes. Soon the skin
+becomes very hard in one spot, and you have a "corn" on your toe. You
+must be very, very careful how your shoes and stockings fit. If you
+should find a corn, or the beginning of one, you had better tell your
+mother about it, and let her see that your stockings are not too big,
+so that they wrinkle into folds and chafe, or that your shoes are
+mended, or that you have a larger pair. And then, if you wash your
+feet in cold water every day, and put some vaseline or sweet oil on
+the hard spot night or morning, the corn will probably go away.
+
+Not only your shoes, but all of your clothing must be comfortable if
+your skin and the parts under it are to do their work well. Your
+clothes as well as your skin must be washed often, because the sweat,
+which is oily and greasy as well as watery, soaks into them, and the
+little white scales cling to them, and often dust and disease germs,
+too.
+
+One winter a little boy came to my school. The other children told me
+they did not like to sit by him, his clothes had such an unpleasant
+smell. I talked to him about it, and what do you suppose he said!
+"Why, I can't bathe; the creek's too cold in winter." He was waiting
+till summer time to take a bath! No wonder the other children did not
+like to sit near him.
+
+Yet, with all the bathing and rubbing and brushing, your skin won't be
+clean and beautiful and able to do all that it has to do, unless your
+stomach and heart and lungs are in good working order. So you must eat
+good food, sleep ten or twelve hours a day, and play out of doors a
+great deal, if you expect your skin to be healthy.
+
+
+
+
+BREAKFAST
+
+
+When you are washed, it doesn't take you long to dress; and before you
+have finished brushing your hair, you begin to feel as if you were
+ready for breakfast. You know just where the feeling is--an empty
+sensation near the pit of your stomach, and you don't have to look at
+the clock to know that it is breakfast time.
+
+About this time something begins to smell very good downstairs; and
+down you go, two steps at a time, and out into the dining-room, or
+kitchen. You could do it with your eyes shut, just following your
+nose; and it is a pretty good guide to follow, too. If you will just
+go toward the things that smell good, and keep away from, or refuse to
+eat, those that smell bad, you will avoid a great many dangers, not
+only to your stomach, but to your general health; for a bad smell is
+one of Nature's "black marks," and you know what they are.
+
+How nice and fresh and appetizing everything looks--the white cloth,
+the clean cups and saucers, and the shining spoons and forks. You are
+sure that a good breakfast is one of the best things in the world. You
+sit down and begin to eat, and everything tastes as good as it looks.
+
+    [Illustration: MILK AND SUNLIGHT DON'T AGREE
+
+    The early riser can help a great deal by taking the milk bottles
+    in out of the sun. Milk spoils quickly if it is not kept cool.]
+
+A good breakfast would be an egg, or a slice of bacon or ham, with a
+glass of milk,--or two, if you can drink another,--and two or three
+slices of bread, or toast, with plenty of butter; and then some cereal
+with plenty of cream and sugar, or some fruit, to finish with. A
+breakfast like this will give you just about the right amount of
+strength for the morning's work. Don't begin with a cereal or
+breakfast food; for this will spoil your appetite for your real
+breakfast. Cereal has very little nourishment in proportion to its
+bulk and the way it "fills you up." Bread or mush or potato alone is
+not enough. Any one of these gives you fuel, to be sure; but it gives
+you very little with which to build up your body. For that you must
+have milk or meat or eggs or fish.
+
+It is most important that children should eat a good big breakfast.
+All the hundred-and-one things that you are going to do during the
+day--racing, jumping, shouting, studying--require strength to do; and
+that strength can be got only out of the power in your food, which is
+really, you remember, the sunlight stored up in it.
+
+Sometimes, when you come down in the morning, especially if you
+haven't had the windows of your bedroom well open so as to get plenty
+of air during the night, you may feel that you are not very hungry for
+breakfast. Or perhaps, if you have risen late, or are in a great hurry
+to get to school in time, you just swallow a cup of coffee or tea, and
+a cracker or a little piece of bread, or a small saucer of cereal.
+This is a very bad thing to do, because coffee and tea, while they
+make you feel warm and comfortable inside, have very little
+"strength," or food value, in them, and simply warm you up and stir up
+your nerves without doing you any real good at all. A cracker or a
+single piece of bread or one large saucer of cereal has only about one
+fourth of the strength in it that you will need for playing or
+studying until noontime. So after you have started to school with a
+breakfast like this, about the middle of the morning you begin to feel
+tired and empty and cross, and wonder what is the matter with
+yourself.
+
+Children of your age are growing so fast that they need plenty of
+good, wholesome food. They get so hungry that they want to be eating
+all the time. For "grown-ups" three times a day is enough; but for you
+children, whose bodies use up the food so fast, it is well to take
+also a piece of bread and butter, or two or three cookies, or a glass
+of milk with some crackers, in the middle of the morning and again
+about the middle of the afternoon. It will not hurt your appetite for
+dinner or supper, and you won't be wanting to "pick" at cake and candy
+and pickles all day long.
+
+How does eating keep you alive and make you grow? Eating is somewhat
+like mending a fire. You put wood or coal on the fire, and it keeps
+burning and giving out heat; but if you do not put fresh fuel on, the
+fire soon goes out. Just so, putting food into your body feeds the
+"body fires" and keeps you warm, and at the same time makes you grow.
+Of course the "body fires" are not just like those you see burning in
+the stove: there are no flames. But there is burning going on, just
+the same.
+
+The food you put into your body must be made soft and pulpy before it
+can burn in your muscles. Now you can guess what your teeth are for.
+They chop, crush, and grind the food; and the tongue rolls it over and
+over and mixes it with the moisture in your mouth, until it is almost
+like very thick soup. Then you make a little motion with your tongue
+and throat, and down it goes.
+
+    [Illustration: THE FOOD TUBE
+
+    Note the arrows. This is the trip made by every mouthful of
+    food.]
+
+Where does it go? It is passed down a tube that we call the _food
+tube_. While I tell you about it, you can look at the picture and then
+try to draw it yourself.
+
+The food goes quickly down the first part of the tube until it comes
+to a part much larger than the rest, which we call the _stomach_. Here
+it is churned about for a long time, and the meat you have eaten is
+melted, or dissolved. Then the food goes on into the next part of the
+tube, which has become narrow again. This lower part, which is about
+twenty-five feet long, is coiled up just below the waist, between the
+large bones that you can feel on each side of your body. These coils
+of the food tube, we call the _bowels_.
+
+Winding all around the stomach and bowels are tiny branching pipes
+full of blood. They look somewhat like the creepers on ivy, or the
+tendrils on grapevines. These suck out the melted food from the
+bowels. They take what the body can use, and carry it away in the
+blood to all parts of the body. This is the fuel that keeps the "body
+fires" going. The tougher parts of the food, which the body cannot
+use, are carried down to the lower end of the bowels and pushed out by
+strong muscles.
+
+This waste should be passed out from the body once every day and at
+the same time each day. In the morning after breakfast is perhaps the
+best time. If you do not get rid of it every day, it makes poisons,
+which go into your blood and soon make you very sick indeed. You must
+keep clean inside as well as outside.
+
+
+
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+
+I. GETTING READY
+
+As soon as you have finished breakfast, and brushed your teeth and
+gone to the toilet, you are ready to run out of doors to play, if you
+have plenty of time, or, if not, to start for school.
+
+Doesn't it seem a nuisance, in winter time, to have to put on a coat
+and overshoes and a cap or a hood, and sometimes leggings and mittens,
+too? But your mothers know what is best for you; and when you are
+young and growing fast, you have so much more surface in proportion to
+your weight than when you are grown up, that you lose heat from the
+blood in your skin very fast; and unless you are warmly dressed, you
+become chilled.
+
+When you are chilled, you are using up, in merely trying to keep
+yourself warm, some of the energy that ought to be used for growing
+and for working. It has been found out by careful tests that children
+who are not warmly dressed, and particularly whose arms and legs are
+not warmly covered, do not grow so fast as they ought to, and more
+easily catch colds and other infections. So take time to put on your
+cap and your coat, if the weather is cold; and, if it is snowy, to
+button on leggings over your stockings; and then you can play as hard
+as you like, and run through the snow, and keep warm and rosy and
+comfortable.
+
+Wool is one of the best stuffs for coats and dresses and stockings and
+gloves and caps, not only because it is warm, but also because it is
+lighter in weight than anything else you could wear that would be
+equally warm, and because it is _porous_; that is, it will let the air
+pass through it, and the perspiration from the body escape through it.
+
+Don't wear any clothes so tight that you cannot run and jump and play
+and fling your arms and legs about freely, or so fine and stylish that
+you are afraid of getting them soiled by romping and tumbling.
+
+It is best to wear fairly heavy, comfortable shoes with good thick
+soles; then you will not have to wear rubbers, except when it is
+actually pouring rain, or when there is melting snow or slush upon the
+ground. Felt, or buckskin, or heavy cloth makes very good "uppers" for
+children's shoes; but only leather makes good soles.
+
+It is best not to wear rubbers too much, because the same
+waterproofness, which keeps the rain and the snow out, keeps the
+perspiration of your feet in, and is likely to make them damp. When
+they are damp, they are as easily chilled as if they had been wet
+through with rain or puddle water. Always take off your rubbers in the
+house or in school, because they are holding in not only the water of
+perspiration, but the poisons as well; and these will poison your
+entire blood, so that you soon have a headache and feel generally
+uncomfortable.
+
+
+II. AN EARLY ROMP
+
+The minute you are outside the door, the fresh morning air strikes
+your face, and you draw four or five big breaths, as if you would like
+to fill yourself as full as you could hold. If you have had a good
+night's sleep and a good breakfast, the very feel of the outdoor air
+will make you want to run and jump and shout and throw your arms
+about. This warms you up finely and gives you a good color; but if you
+keep it up long, you will notice that two things are happening: one,
+that you are breathing faster than you were before; the other, that
+your heart is beating harder and faster, so that you can almost feel
+it throbbing without putting your hand on your chest.
+
+If you run too hard, or too far, you begin to be out of breath, and
+your heart thumps so hard that it almost hurts. What is your heart
+doing? It is pumping; it is trying to pump the blood fast out to your
+muscles to give them the strength to run with.
+
+    [Illustration: AN EARLY RUN IS A GOOD PREPARATION FOR THE DAY'S
+    WORK]
+
+Of course you have seen a pump? Perhaps some of you have to pump water
+every day at home. You take the handle in your hands, lift it up, then
+press it down, and out pours the water through the spout; and, as you
+keep pumping, the water spurts out every time you press the handle
+down. It is hard work, and your arms are soon tired; but, as you
+cannot drink the water while it is down in the well, you must pump to
+bring it up where you can reach it.
+
+    [Illustration: THE HEART-PUMP
+
+    The big tubes are the arteries and veins.]
+
+Just so the heart pumps to keep the blood flowing round and round,
+through the muscles and all over the body. If you put your finger on
+your wrist, or on the side of your neck, you can feel a little throb,
+or _pulse_, for every spurt from your heart-pump; and that means for
+every heart-beat.
+
+This heart-pump is made of muscle, and is about the size of your
+clenched fist. And just as you can squeeze water from a sponge or out
+of a bulb-syringe, by opening and shutting your hand around it, so the
+big heart muscle squeezes the blood out of the heart. It squeezes it
+out from one side of the heart; and then, when it lets go, the blood
+comes rushing in from the other side to fill the heart again. So the
+heart goes on squeezing out and sucking in the blood, all day and all
+night as long as we live.
+
+When the blood comes to the muscles, it is a beautiful bright red; but
+after the muscles have taken what they want of it for food to burn,
+and warm you up, the "ashes" and the "smoke" go back into the blood
+and dirty its color from red to purple. Then the blood is carried to
+the lungs, where the fresh air you breathe in blows away the "smoke"
+and makes the blood red again.
+
+The blood is pumped all over the body through tubes or pipes, called
+_blood vessels_. Those that carry the red blood out from the heart, we
+call _arteries_. They are deep down under the skin, and we cannot see
+them. The pipes that carry the purple blood from the muscles and other
+parts back to the heart again, we call _veins_; and some of these are
+so close to the surface that we can easily see them through the skin.
+Let your hand hang down a minute or two, then you can see the veins on
+the inside of your wrist, or on the back of your hand, if it is not
+too fat.
+
+    [Illustration: IT IS GOOD TO PLAY OUT OF DOORS TILL THE BELL
+    RINGS--EVEN IN WINTER]
+
+The muscles, the brain, the skin, and other parts of the body get
+liquid food from the blood by "sucking" it through the walls of the
+smallest of the blood vessels, for these walls are very thin. In the
+same way, when waste passes from the muscles or the skin into the
+blood, it, too, soaks through the thin walls of the tiniest blood
+tubes, called _capillaries_.
+
+Your heart beats or throbs about seventy-five times in a minute when
+you are well. Look at the second hand of a watch, while you count the
+beats in your wrist or in your neck.
+
+Does your heart ever become tired? Not while you keep well, unless you
+over-drive it by running or wrestling too hard. It can rest between
+the beats. But the heart muscle, like any other muscle, must have
+plenty of good red blood to feed on. You put food into the blood by
+eating good breakfasts and dinners. The more you run and jump and
+play, the more work the heart has to do and the stronger it grows; and
+a good morning romp before school will send the blood flowing so
+merrily round from top to toe that you will feel fresher and brighter
+all the day.
+
+
+III. FRESH AIR--WHY WE NEED IT
+
+The heart is not the only thing that goes faster and harder when you
+run about in the morning and play hard. You are breathing faster and
+deeper as well, as if there were something in the air outside that you
+needed in your body as much as food.
+
+But, of course, you know that air is not good to eat. It has no
+strength in it, as food has; it isn't even a liquid like milk or
+coffee or tea. It is so thin and light that we call it a _gas_.
+Indeed, I suppose it is pretty hard for you to believe that air is a
+real thing at all. But all outdoors is full of the gas called air, and
+everything that seems to be empty, like a room or an empty box, is
+full of it.
+
+You cannot even smell it, as you can that other gas which comes
+through pipes into our houses and burns at the gas jets; nor can you
+see it like the gas that comes out of a boiling kettle or from the
+whistle of a locomotive, and which we call _steam_. This is simply
+because air is so pure that it has no smell, and is so perfectly clear
+that we can see right through it. Almost the only way that we can
+recognize it is by feeling it when it is moving. But it is a very real
+thing for all that; and, like sunshine and food, is one of the most
+important things in the world for us.
+
+What is it that air does in the body? We must need it very much, for
+we die quickly when we cannot get it: it takes us only about three
+minutes to suffocate, or choke to death, if we can't get it.
+
+You remember that the blood is pumped out from the heart, all through
+the body. Everywhere it goes,--to the feet and the hands and the
+head,--it is carrying two things: food that it has sucked up from the
+food tube, and hundreds and hundreds of tiny red sponges called red
+_corpuscles_. These little sponges are full of air which they sucked up
+as the blood passed through the lungs. When we stop breathing,--that
+is, taking in air,--the little red sponges of course can't get any air
+to carry to the different parts of the body.
+
+The body is made up of millions of tiny, tiny animals, called
+_cells_,--so tiny that they can be seen only under a microscope. Each
+of these cells must have food and air, just like any other animal.
+They eat the food the blood brings to them, and they take the air from
+the red corpuscles in the blood. With the air as a "draft," they burn
+up the waste scraps, as we burn scraps from the kitchen, in the back
+of the stove.
+
+Suppose you light a candle and place it under a glass jar and watch
+what will happen. The flame will become weaker and weaker, and at last
+it will quite go out. You might think at first that the wind blew it
+out; but how could the wind get through or under the jar? No, the
+glass keeps all the outside air away from the flame; and that is just
+the reason why it does go out. Unless it has fresh air, it cannot
+burn. There is something--a gas--in the air that makes the flame burn,
+and when it has used up all this gas inside the glass, and can't get
+any more, it stops burning.
+
+Now you will want to know what this gas in the air is. When we write
+about it, we use its nickname, the large capital letter _O_; but its
+whole name is _Oxygen_.
+
+Just as the candle flame must have oxygen to keep it burning, so our
+cells must have oxygen to burn their impurities, or waste; and if they
+don't get the oxygen, and can't burn their impurities, they are
+poisoned by them and "go out," or die.
+
+You can see the flame when the candle is burning, but you can't see
+the fires that burn in our bodies; there are no real flames at all. I
+know it is hard for you to believe that there can be any burning when
+our bodies are so wet and damp. But if you can't see it, you can
+easily feel it. Blow on your hand. How warm your breath is! Touch your
+hand to your cheek. It is quite warm, too. If you run or play hard,
+you sometimes become so hot that you want to take off your coat. That
+is because your fires are burning faster. The muscles are using more
+food and making more scraps to be burned. You breathe faster and
+faster till at last you are "out of breath" and feel as if you would
+smother or choke. The blood has hard work to bring oxygen enough to
+keep the fires going.
+
+After the cells have burned the food scraps, they turn the "ashes" and
+"smoke" back into the blood-stream that is always flowing past them.
+If the cells did not do this, they would soon smother to death, just
+as you could not possibly live in a house without chimneys to carry
+off the smoke. And, of course, the blood wants to get rid of this
+waste just as quickly as possible.
+
+Part of the waste in the body is liquid, like water, and can flow away
+through the blood pipes without needing to be burned. Some of this
+watery waste comes out through the skin and stands in beads or drops
+upon it. That is the part we call perspiration, or sweat. The rest of
+it goes in the blood to another strainer called the _kidneys_, passes
+through this as _urine_, and is carried away from the body as the
+waste water from the bathtub and the sink is carried away from a
+house.
+
+For the "smoke" Mother Nature has still another beautiful plan. She
+sends the blood-stream flowing through the _lungs_, where it can send
+off its "smoke" and then get fresh air to carry to the cells in the
+muscles. When you breathe out, you are sending out the "smoke"; and
+when you breathe in, you are taking in fresh air.
+
+Our body "smoke" is not brown or blue, like the smoke from a fire; it
+is a clear, odorless gas, called _carbon dioxid_. This is the same gas
+that makes the choke-damp of coal mines, which suffocates the miners
+if the mine is not well ventilated; and the same gas that sometimes
+gathers at the bottom of a well, making it dangerous for anyone to go
+down into the well to clean it. And this gas is poisonous in our
+bodies just as it is in the mine or the well.
+
+You see, then, how important it is that we should live much of our
+lives in the clear pure air out of doors, and should bring the fresh
+air into our houses and schools and shops. "Fill up" with it all you
+can on your way to school, for the best of air indoors is never half
+so good as the free-blowing breezes outside.
+
+
+IV. FRESH AIR--HOW WE BREATHE IT
+
+When you are running and breathing hard, and even when you are sitting
+still and breathing quietly, air is going into your lungs and then
+coming out, going in and coming out, many times every minute. How does
+the air get in and out of the lungs? It will not run in of itself; for
+it is light and floats about, you know. Here, again, Mother Nature has
+planned it all out. She has made us an air bellows, or air pump, to
+suck it into the lungs. First we'll see what shape this pump is, and
+then how it works.
+
+    [Illustration: THE CHEST THAT HOLDS THE LUNGS
+
+    Back of the lungs is the heart; its position is shown by the
+    broken line. The black line across the chest shows how high the
+    diaphragm rises when we breathe out quietly.]
+
+Stiff rings of bone called _ribs_ run round your body, just like the
+hoops in an old hoop skirt, or like the metal rings round a barrel.
+Here is a picture of the bones of the chest. Perhaps your teacher can
+show you the skeleton of some animal. You will notice how the rings,
+or ribs, slant and are joined by hinges behind to the backbone and in
+front to the breastbone. It looks somewhat like a cage, doesn't it?
+Put your hands on the sides of your chest and you can feel your own
+ribs. Do they slant upward or downward?
+
+This chest-cage is our breathing-machine. Before I tell you how it
+pumps, I want you to get a pair of bellows and see how they work. When
+you lift up the handle of the bellows, you make the bag of the bellows
+larger so that it sucks in air; and when you press the handle down
+again, the air puffs out through the nozzle.
+
+Our air machine, though it is somewhat different from the bellows in
+shape, works in exactly the same way. You remember that you found that
+the ribs slant down and can be moved on hinges. Suppose, now, you
+place your hands against your ribs and feel the ribs lift as you draw
+in a long breath. The air will be sucked into your nose just as it was
+into the bellows when you raised the handle. By lifting your ribs, you
+have made the chest-cage larger; and the air has rushed into your
+nose, down your windpipe, and filled your lungs. If you breathe very
+deeply, you will find that your stomach, too, swells out. This shows
+that the muscular bottom of the cage, called the _diaphragm_, has been
+pulled down, making the cage larger still.
+
+In this chest-cage are millions of tiny air bags that make up the
+lungs; and every time you take a breath, the air bags are puffed out
+with the fresh air that comes rushing in. By the time you let your
+ribs sink again, the air has given its oxygen to the blood, and the
+blood has poured its carbon-dioxid smoke into the air bags for you to
+breathe out. Nature, with the same bellows, pumps in the oxygen and
+pumps out the "smoke."
+
+Now, we breathe into our lung-bellows whatever air happens to be
+around us. So we should take care that the air around us is fresh air.
+
+Unless the air were kept in motion by the heat of the sun, causing
+breezes and winds, it would become stale and wouldn't do at all for
+our lung-bellows to use. The air we breathe must be kept moving and
+fresh if it is to make us feel bright and strong and happy. Mother
+Nature has given us miles upon miles and oceans upon oceans of this
+clear, fresh air to breathe--"all outdoors," in fact, as far as we can
+see around us and for miles above our heads. She sends the winds to
+move the air about and blow away the dust and dirt; and the sunshine,
+you remember, not only to warm the air and keep it moving, but to burn
+right through it and kill the poisons. But this brings us to something
+else.
+
+You have learned that the air we breathe out would soon smother us,
+just as smoke would; and now we will see why. If you blow against the
+window pane on a cold day, the glass is no longer clear; and when you
+look at it closely, you see that it is covered with tiny drops of
+water. This is part of the breath you have just blown out. If the room
+is cold enough, you can see your breath in the air; that is, the steam
+in your breath becomes cold and appears as tiny water-drops. You have
+seen how in the same way, the steam, an inch or so from the spout of
+the teakettle, cools, making little water-drops that float in the air
+like clouds. Part of the breath, then, is water; but most of it is a
+gas, and you can't see it at all as it floats away into the air about
+you.
+
+If your teacher has a glass of limewater, and will let you breathe
+into it through a tube, you will see that your breath soon makes the
+water look milky. This shows that the gas in your breath is not like
+the air about you; because air was all over the top of the limewater,
+yet did not change it at all. The milky look is caused by carbon
+dioxid, one of the poisons in your breath.
+
+When some people come close to you, you want to turn away your head,
+because you do not like the smell of their breath. Even when one is
+quite well, the breath has a queer "mousey" odor, so that we never
+like to breathe the breath of another person. This disagreeable odor
+comes not only from the lungs but from the teeth.
+
+We are always breathing out poisons into the air. One of these you can
+see in the milky limewater, and others you can smell when you happen
+to come close to anyone else.
+
+    [Illustration: PROVING THAT THE BREATH IS NOT LIKE THE AIR]
+
+If you blow on your fingers, you feel that your breath is much warmer
+than the air. If people are crowded together in rooms with doors and
+windows shut, their breath soon heats and poisons the air, until they
+begin to have headache, and to feel dull and drowsy and uncomfortable.
+If they should be shut in too long, without any opening to let in the
+fresh air, as in a prison cell, or in the hold of a ship during a
+storm, the air would become so poisonous as to make them ill, and
+would even suffocate them and kill them outright. Even the bees found
+this out thousands of years ago; and in their hives in hot weather
+they station lines of worker-bees, one just behind another from the
+door right down each of the main passages, whose business it is to do
+nothing but keep their wings whirring rapidly, so that they fan a
+steady current of fresh air into every part of the hive.
+
+    [Illustration: DUSTING--HOW SHALL WE DO IT?]
+
+How does Mother Nature get rid of these poisons from our breath? Of
+course, you say, "She uses the wind and the sunshine." Yes, the winds
+can whisk up the poison and blow it away so fast, and the sunshine can
+burn up the horrid smell so quickly, that even the air above big
+cities, and in their streets, is quite clean enough for us to breathe,
+except where the people are very closely crowded together and very
+dirty. Mother Nature wants all of us to help in keeping the air clean.
+This we can do by keeping ourselves and our houses clean, and by being
+careful not to leave scraps of waste, or dirty things, in the streets
+and cars and parks and other public places. And you children ought to
+be very careful about your school yard and the halls and the
+classrooms, where you spend so much of your time.
+
+
+
+
+IN SCHOOL
+
+
+I. BRINGING THE FRESH AIR IN
+
+The only place where air is absolutely sure to be fresh is out of
+doors. There, as we have seen, the sun and the winds keep it so all
+the time. But, unluckily, we cannot spend all our time outdoors,
+either when we are little or after we have grown up. So we must try in
+every way that we can to bring the outdoors indoors--to get plenty of
+fresh air and light into the houses that we live in, especially the
+bedrooms we sleep in and the schoolrooms we study in when we are
+children, and the offices or shops we work in when we are grown up.
+
+After you have your lungs and your blood well filled with air, either
+by walking briskly to school or by chasing one another about the
+school playground, you will suddenly hear the bell ring, and you march
+indoors and sit down at your desks. Here, of course, the air cannot
+blow about freely from every direction, because the walls and doors
+and windows are shutting you in on every side. The room, to be sure,
+is full of air; but if the doors and windows are shut, this air has no
+way of getting outside, nor can the fresh, pure air out of doors--even
+though it be moving quite fast, as a wind or a breeze--get inside.
+
+    [Illustration: A CLASSROOM ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE OUT-OF-DOORS
+
+    Notice the windows open top and bottom, and the high windows
+    under the roof. Why are these good?]
+
+We must let the fresh air come in and the stale air go out. This is
+one of the things that windows are for; and this is why they are hung
+upon pulleys and made to slide up and down easily. Of course, even
+when the windows are not open, they are letting in light, which, you
+remember, is a deadly enemy to germs and poisons.
+
+Bright sunlight is best for purifying the air of a room, but even
+ordinary daylight has a good deal of germ-killing power. Therefore, a
+room that is well lighted is not only much pleasanter to live in, but
+much healthier, than one that is dull and gloomy. You see why we need
+plenty of windows and doors: we must let in the breezes and the
+sunshine, and let out the poisons and the dirt. Then, too, we must
+make the air in the building move about in order to keep it fresh; for
+if the air is not fresh, we soon grow tired and sleepy and have
+headaches. That is why your teacher keeps the windows open at the top
+a foot or so. You can easily see that when there are twenty or thirty
+of you breathing out poisons, and each one of you needing about four
+bushels of fresh air every minute, the old air ought to be going out
+and the fresh air coming in all the time.
+
+    [Illustration: VENTILATION
+
+    Watch the candle flames. Which way is the air moving, and why?]
+
+That is also why your teacher gives you a recess, so that you can run
+out of doors and get some fresh air. Then she can throw open all the
+windows and doors and have the air in the room clean and fresh when
+you come back again. So when recess comes, don't hang about in the
+hallways or on the stairs or in the basement, but run right out of
+doors into the playground and shout and throw your arms about and run
+races to fill your lungs full of fresh, sweet air and stretch all your
+muscles, after the confinement and sitting still. Don't saunter about
+and whisper secrets or tell stories, but get up some lively game that
+doesn't take long to play, such as tag or steal-sticks or soak-ball,
+or duck-on-a-rock or skipping or hopscotch. These will blow all the
+"smoke" out of your lungs and send the hot blood flying all over your
+body and make you as "fresh as a daisy" for your next lesson.
+
+When you come back into the schoolroom after recess, the air will seem
+quite fresh and pure; but unless you keep the windows open, it will
+not be long before your head begins to be hot, and your eyes heavy,
+and you feel like yawning and stretching, and begin to wonder why the
+lessons are so long and tiresome. Then, if your teacher will throw
+open all the windows and have you stand up, or, better still, march
+around the room singing or go through some drill or calisthenic
+exercises, you will soon feel quite fresh and rested again.
+
+In the mild weather of the spring or early fall, all you need to do to
+keep the air fresh in the schoolroom is to keep the windows well open
+at the top. But in the winter, the air outdoors is so cold that it has
+to be heated before it is brought in; and this, in any modern and
+properly built schoolhouse, is usually arranged for. The fresh air is
+drawn in through an opening in the basement and is either heated, so
+that it rises, or is blown by fans all over the building. This sort of
+fresh air, however, is never quite so good as that which comes
+directly from outdoors; so it is generally best to keep at least two
+or three windows in each room opened at the top as well, and never to
+depend entirely upon the air that comes through the heating system.
+
+Sometimes this may mean a little draft, or current of uncomfortably
+cool air, for one or two of you who sit nearest the windows; but your
+teacher will always allow you to change your seat if this proves very
+unpleasant. If you have plenty of warmth in the room you sit in,
+unless the air outside is very cold, this "breeze" won't do you any
+harm at all; on the contrary, it will be good for you. Instead of
+catching cold from a draft like this, it is from foul, stuffy,
+poisonous air, loaded with other people's breaths and the germs
+contained in them, that you catch cold.
+
+    [Illustration: GARDENS TAKE US OUT OF DOORS]
+
+In fact, staying indoors is usually the reason why people are sick.
+They don't go out into the clean fresh air for fear they'll be too
+cold! It seems a pity we can't just live out of doors all the time.
+Perhaps we shall some day; for doctors are finding out that fresh
+outdoor air and good food are the very best medicines known, and the
+only "Sure Cures." They are pleasant to take, too. Many cities are
+providing outdoor schools for children who have weak lungs or are not
+strong in other ways. Perhaps some day all school children will be
+allowed to study in the open air at least part of every school day.
+
+
+II. HEARING AND LISTENING
+
+Now you are all ready to go to work. What are you going to work with?
+Books? pencils? paper? Yes, but you have something better than those
+and all ready for use. It is that little kit of tools that are
+sometimes called our "Five Senses." You remember that we have already
+talked about one of them, the sense of touch in the skin. Now which
+one are you going to use first this morning? If your teacher talks to
+you, I hope it will be the one we call the sense of hearing. Suppose
+we try to find out something about this sense of hearing, and begin
+with a little experiment.
+
+Take a piece of cork in your hand and lift it up high and then let it
+drop into a large basin or tub of water. What happens? The cork
+strikes and then goes bob-bob-bobbing up and down on its own waves.
+Now watch the little waves all around the cork. Where do they stop?
+They don't stop until they touch the edge of the pan; and no matter
+how big the pan is, the waves go on and on until they reach the edge.
+
+We can see these waves of water, and so we easily believe that they
+are there. Now there are, just as truly, waves of air all around us.
+We cannot see the waves, because they are too small and roll too
+quickly. But some of these, when they roll against our ears, make us
+hear. They make what we call _sound_. You have heard about sending
+messages through the air, without telegraph wires. Wireless messages
+are often sent to ships out in the middle of the ocean. This is done
+by starting tiny electric waves, which travel through the air much as
+the waves of water are traveling across the ocean beneath. Of course
+there must be a machine, called a _receiver_, to catch the waves and
+"hear" the message.
+
+Mother Nature has given each of you two very delicate little receivers
+to catch the sound waves and carry them to your brain. You know what
+they are--you can name them. But how are these wonderful little
+machines made?
+
+You have never seen the whole of your ear. The part on the outside of
+the head, of course, you can easily see and feel. Sometimes you notice
+a deaf person put his hand behind his ear and press it forward so as
+to catch the sound waves better. These waves roll in at the little
+hole you can see, and travel along a short passage till they come to a
+round _drum_, a piece of very thin skin stretched tight like a
+drumhead.
+
+Have you ever beaten a drum with a stick? You felt the drumhead quiver
+under the blow, did you not? Well, when the sound waves beat against
+the drum in the ear, it quivers and starts little waves inside the
+ear. Each little wave in turn beats against a little bone called the
+_hammer_; the hammer beats against another called the _anvil_, and
+this against a third called the _stirrup_; and the quiver of the
+stirrup is passed on to a little window, opening into a little room
+with a spiral key-board; and from this, the wave travels along a nerve
+to the brain. As the waves reach the brain, the brain hears. In this
+way we hear all sorts of sounds, from the tick of a watch to the
+whistle of a train.
+
+    [Illustration: THE WAY BY WHICH SOUND WAVES REACH THE BRAIN
+
+    A section through the right ear.]
+
+There is a sensible old saying, "Never put anything smaller than your
+elbow into the inner part of your ear." Now, of course, you can't put
+your elbow into such a tiny hole! So the old saying means, never put
+anything in. The eardrum is very thin and can easily be broken. Even a
+slap on the ear, or a loud sound too close to it, might crack and
+spoil the drum and make one deaf.
+
+The outside ear needs careful washing; there are so many little
+creases that gather dirt and dust. The deep crease behind the ear,
+too, will become sore if it is not kept clean.
+
+Besides cleaning your ears, you must train them to listen. Some boys
+and girls hear just a word or two of what is said, and then guess at
+the rest and think they are listening, or else ask to have it
+repeated. We should try to hear exactly what is said; and if we listen
+carefully, it will soon be much easier to understand at once.
+
+Of course, if you really cannot hear, the doctor can tell you what is
+the matter, and usually can help you very much. Sometimes people
+become deaf simply because the throat is swollen. Indeed, most
+deafness comes from colds and catarrhs and other inflammations of the
+nose and throat. These spread to the ear through a little tube that
+runs up to the drum cavity from the back of the throat. Sometimes,
+when you are blowing your nose, you may feel your ear go "pop"; and
+that means that you have blown air up into the ear through this little
+tube. Be sure to see a doctor if you don't hear well; and be sure,
+too, to tell your teacher, so that she may know why it is you do not
+hear what she says, and ask her to give you a seat near her, so that
+you can hear.
+
+Then, too, you should learn to notice outdoor sounds--the songs of the
+birds, the noises that the animals make, the wind in the trees, and
+the patter of the rain. The old Norsemen have a story that their god
+Heimdall had such keen ears that he could hear the grass growing in
+the meadow and the wool growing on the backs of the sheep! Your ears
+can never be so keen as that; but there are many, many happy outdoor
+sounds that you should listen for. They will help to make you happy,
+too.
+
+Careful listening may sometime save your life. You can hear the car or
+the train coming, and you can learn to tell from which direction a
+sound comes. You can learn to tell one sound from another in the midst
+of many sounds. In more ways than you can think of now, this habit of
+listening will protect you from danger.
+
+The Germans have a proverb, "Hear much and say little." What does it
+mean?
+
+    [Illustration: "DO YOU HEAR IT? CAN YOU SEE IT?"]
+
+
+III. SEEING AND READING
+
+You can learn a great deal through your ears, but think how much more
+you can learn through your eyes. Just count over all the things that
+you have had to get your eyes to tell you to-day, and then shut your
+eyes for a minute and think what it would mean never to be able to
+see. Don't you think you ought to take very good care of your eyes?
+You are going to keep them very busy all your life, and they deserve
+the very best care you can give them.
+
+    [Illustration: THE LIGHT ON THE PAGE, NOT IN THE EYES]
+
+Just as soon as lessons begin, you get out your books; and a good
+share of the day in school you have a book before you, reading it or
+studying it or copying from it. It makes a great difference to your
+eyes how you hold the book and how the light falls. In reading, you
+should always hold your book so that the light falls upon the page
+from behind you, or from over one of your shoulders. In this way, the
+brightest light that comes into your eyes is not from the window, but
+from the page of your book.
+
+If the light comes from a window in front of you, or if you sit in the
+evening with your face toward the lamp when you read, the light coming
+straight from the lamp or the window, as well as the light coming up
+from the pages of the book, pours into your eyes; and this dazzles and
+confuses your eyes, so that you can't see plainly and comfortably and
+are very likely after a while to find that your head aches. At home,
+of course, you can seat yourself with your back to the light when you
+read; and usually at school your seats are so arranged that the light
+falls from behind you or from one side. If not, by turning a little in
+your seat, you can get the light from over your shoulder.
+
+Notice how the light falls upon the blackboard. When the light comes
+from the windows behind you, or from one side, you can see what is
+written there quite plainly. But if the blackboard happens to be
+between two windows, and especially if this is the lightest side of
+the room, you will find that the light dazzles you so that you cannot
+see the writing clearly.
+
+You must have noticed, too, that if, after you have been reading from
+the blackboard you look down again suddenly to the page of your book,
+for an instant you will not see the letters plainly. Then, almost
+before you have time to notice it, you feel a little change take place
+inside your eyes, and the print upon the page of your book becomes
+quite plain. This is because your eye has to change the shape of one
+of the parts inside it, called the _lens_, before you can see clearly
+the things that are near you. This change, which is called
+_accommodation_, is made by a little muscle of the eye; and if you
+keep your eyes working at close work, like reading or writing or
+fancy-work, too long at a time, or if your eyes need glasses to make
+them see clearly, and you haven't them on, this little muscle becomes
+tired. Then the print of your book, or your writing, or the stitches
+you have taken begin to blur before your eyes. Your eyes begin to feel
+tired, and your head begins to ache. This is what we call _eye
+strain_.
+
+Sometimes this eye strain upsets your appetite or your digestion and
+makes you sleepless and worried. The trouble may be caused by your own
+carelessness: you may have been reading too long, or in a poor light,
+or with the light shining right in your face instead of coming over
+your shoulder. But sometimes it is caused by the fact that your eyes
+are not just the right shape; and then the only way to relieve it is
+to have proper glasses, or spectacles, fitted, which will make up for
+this too flat or too round shape, or too large or too small size, of
+your eyes.
+
+If you cannot see clearly what is written on the blackboard when the
+light falls upon it from behind you, or above; or if, in a good light,
+you cannot read the words in your book quite easily, without straining
+at all, when you hold the book either at arm's length or a foot from
+your face; or if your head aches or your eyes begin to feel tired or
+uncomfortable, or the letters begin to blur, after you have read
+steadily--say, for half an hour,--it is a pretty sure sign that there
+is some trouble with your eyes. Then you had better have them examined
+at once by your family doctor or by the school doctor. In many schools
+now there are doctors to test the children's eyes, and ears, too, so
+that each child may have a chance to see and hear everything that the
+other children can see and hear.
+
+Not very many years ago people thought that glasses were only for old
+people, but now we know that many children's eyes need glasses, too. I
+knew a little girl whose sight was so poor that when she was standing
+and looked down at the grass, she couldn't see the green blades. She
+thought that the grass looked like a green blur to everyone, just as
+it did to her; and so she never said anything about it. She was twelve
+or thirteen years old before she found out that she couldn't see
+clearly. Of course, trying hard to see things gave her a headache and
+made her tired and cross. So some one took her to a doctor, and he saw
+at once what was the matter and fitted her with glasses. Soon she was
+quite well and strong; and how glad she was to see the leaves and a
+hundred other things she had not seen before!
+
+    [Illustration: THE EYEBALL IN ITS SOCKET
+
+    The muscle from M to M, which helps to turn the eyeball, has
+    been cut away to show the optic nerve.]
+
+Here we have a picture of the _eyeball_, as we call it. The little
+bands fastened to it are the bands of muscle; and as soon as I say
+_muscle_ you know what they are for--to move the eyeball about, up and
+down and from side to side. There are muscles outside the eye as well
+as inside. Coming out from the back of the eyeball is a pearly white
+cord quite different from the muscle bands. This is what we call a
+_nerve_. This nerve in your eye carries to your _brain_, or thinking
+machine, picture-messages of whatever you look at.
+
+The nerve in your eye gets messages of light much as the nerve deep in
+your ear gets its messages of sound--from tiny waves in the air. The
+light waves are smaller and faster even than the sound waves, and the
+eye nerve is the only nerve that can get pictures of them. You know
+that, for wireless messages, the receiving machines are not all alike
+and cannot all take the same messages, if the messages are sent with
+different sorts of electric waves; and neither can our receiving
+machines. Some get messages of sight, and some of sound, and some of
+touch, or taste, or smell.
+
+Now shut your eyes as quickly as you can. How long did it take you? A
+minute? No, not a quarter of a second. It is about the quickest thing
+you can think of--"the twinkling of an eye." You shut your eyes "quick
+as a wink" whenever anything seems likely to fly or splash into them,
+and this is what the eyelids are for. If anything gets into the eye
+before the lids can shut, the eye "waters," and _tears_ pour out of
+it. These are made by a gland-sponge up under the upper lid, so as to
+wash any dust or sand or other harmful speck out of the eye before it
+can hurt the sensitive eyeball.
+
+Now look at some one's eyeball. It is like the picture, isn't
+it?--bright white around the edge and then a ring of color, brown or
+blue or gray; and inside the color-ring, or _iris_, a little round
+black hole that we call the _pupil_. Watch the little hole change as
+you turn the face toward the window. It becomes ever so much smaller.
+Now turn the face away from the window, back again into the shadow.
+How did the pupil change this time?
+
+    [Illustration: EYES PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST THE LIGHT]
+
+The iris, or color-ring, acts like a curtain, like the ring-shutter of
+a camera, and closes up the hole, or pupil, when the light is too
+bright and would dazzle or burn the inside of the eye; but when the
+light is dim, the iris opens again, so as to let in light enough with
+which to see. Look at the little window in your kitten's eyes. It is
+not the same shape as yours; but when you carry her to the light, you
+see how the iris closes in and leaves just a little black slit or
+line.
+
+You remember the blind children? Isn't it wonderful how they can play
+games and study, too, even though they are blind! They have to make
+their senses of touch and hearing tell them many things that you learn
+through your sense of sight. Many of these children _need not have
+been blind_, if the nurse who first took care of them when they were
+born had known enough to wash their eyes properly, not with soap and
+water, of course, but with just one or two drops of a kind of
+medicine--an _antiseptic_, as we call it--that makes the eye perfectly
+clean.
+
+But you children who have good eyes that can see, do you really see
+things when you look at them? You can train your eyes just as you can
+train your ears. You can teach them to read quickly down a page, and
+to find things in pictures, and, better still, to see things out of
+doors, in the garden and the woods and on the seashore. We hear a
+great deal about "sharp eyes," but most of us see very little of all
+we might see. Our eyes are on the lookout, too, to protect us from
+dangers that may come; with our skin and nose and ears, they are
+constantly on the watch; so the better we see the safer we are.
+
+Even if your eyes are perfect now, you will need to take good care of
+them to keep them strong. Don't let any story, no matter how
+interesting it is, tempt you to read in a dim light or a light that is
+too strong. And if you can't see the blackboard easily, or can't read
+big print, like the school calendar, across the room, tell your mother
+or your teacher, so that she can ask the doctor to find out what the
+matter is.
+
+
+IV. A DRINK OF WATER
+
+It is astonishing what thirsty work studying is! Scarcely is the
+second recitation over before your throat begins to feel dry, and up
+goes your hand--"May I get a drink?"
+
+If anyone even says the word "water," it makes you thirsty. It is so
+good that just the thought of it makes you want some. I should like
+you to notice how much water you drink every day. Perhaps a glass in
+the morning when you get up, and one at night before you go to bed,
+and three or four in between.
+
+Why do we need so much water? Well, how much do you weigh? Perhaps you
+will find it hard to believe, but more than half of that weight is
+water; and because we are always giving off water from the skin and
+from the body, we need plenty more to take its place.
+
+No living thing can grow without water. Take a bean, for instance, and
+put it in an empty glass on the window sill; and even if the sun
+shines full upon it, nothing will happen, except that after a few days
+it will shrivel and dry up. But fill the glass with water, and in a
+few hours the bean will begin to swell; and in a few days it will
+burst, and a little shoot will grow out of one end of it and a tiny
+root at the other. The water and the warmth together have made it
+sprout and grow.
+
+    [Illustration: A DRINKING-CUP EASILY MADE]
+
+Children at school and people on trains should have their own private
+cups, for serious diseases may be caught from the mouths of other
+people. You can get a metal pocket folding cup for ten or fifteen
+cents, or paper ones for a few cents a dozen. If you don't have your
+own cup, I hope you will get one and carry it. Here is a pattern for a
+paper cup that you can easily make for yourselves. Try it and see.
+When you have once learned how, you can make it very quickly and have
+a fresh cup every time you want one; but of course you should be sure
+first that the paper itself is clean.
+
+If you drink milk, this takes the place of some of the water and gives
+you food as well. It is both drink and food; and a very good food for
+children it is, too. You know, babies can live on it because it has
+everything in it to make them grow.
+
+Do you know why it is that people are so careful nowadays about having
+milk and drinking-water very clean? It is because they have found that
+the tiny plants, called germs, that make people sick are often carried
+about in these drinks. A disease called _typhoid fever_ is carried in
+this way.
+
+Fifty years ago, cities and towns used to be very careless about where
+they got their water supply, and would often take it out of streams
+into which other cities emptied their sewage. Now, however, they are
+much more particular; and the health officers, or Boards of Health,
+are insisting that public water supply, such as is brought into our
+houses in pipes, shall be taken either from some spring or
+deep-flowing well, or from a stream or lake up in the hills, into
+which no drainage from houses or farmyards, and no dirty water from
+factories, empties.
+
+    [Illustration: A PIPE FOR THE CITY WATER SUPPLY
+
+    This pipe is laid for many miles to bring water from the distant
+    hills.]
+
+We are still, however, far from being as careful as we should be about
+this; and I am sorry to say that America has had more deaths from
+typhoid fever than any other civilized country. Germany, which, of all
+countries in the world, is the most particular about keeping its water
+supply pure, has the fewest deaths from this cause, in proportion to
+its population--scarcely one fifth as many as we have.
+
+Therefore, by taking proper care, it would be quite possible to
+prevent at least two thirds of our nearly 400,000 cases of typhoid
+fever and 35,000 deaths from typhoid, every year.
+
+It is not only cities and towns that ought to be careful of their
+water supply. In fact, now, out on the farms and in the healthy
+country districts, the death rate from typhoid fever has actually
+become higher than it is in our large cities. The main cause of this
+is the custom of digging the well in such a place that the waste water
+thrown out from the house, or the drainage from the barnyard or the
+pigpen or the chicken-house may wash into it, soaking down through the
+porous soil. Far more typhoid fever now is spread by means of infected
+well water than by any other means.
+
+Most dangerous of all is the leakage from the privy vault; as, by this
+means, the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases that affect the
+food tube and digestion may drain through the soil till they reach the
+drinking water in the well. These dangers can be avoided either by
+having the well dug at some distance from the house and in higher
+ground, or by having the drainage from the house, barns, and
+out-buildings piped and carried to a safe distance from the well.
+
+Fortunately, there are only a few kinds of germs that make us sick.
+Most germs are helping us all the time; we could not live without
+them. Some of them make our butter taste good, and others make our
+crops grow, and others eat up the dirt that would make us sick. But
+since disease germs are so tiny that we cannot possibly see them with
+the naked eye, we must know where the water and milk that we use come
+from, and whether or not they are perfectly clean. Boiling the water
+will kill these germs and make the water pure. It is better not to
+boil milk if it can be had from a dairy where the stable and the cows
+and the milkmen and the pails and bottles are quite clean.
+
+The fruits and fruit juices--lemon and orange and raspberry and lime
+and grape--give nice wholesome drinks. Home-made juices are much
+better than those you buy; you can be sure that they are pure and
+really made from fruit. And just here I want to caution you against
+buying "pink lemonade" or soda water or any other drink of that sort
+from the penny venders and open stalls on the street. The drinks they
+sell are not made from pure fruit juices, but from different flavoring
+extracts that are made to taste like the fruit and are colored with
+cheap dyes. Even the sweetening in them is not pure sugar, and they
+are often made or handled in a careless, dirty manner, or exposed to
+the dust of the street, and to flies.
+
+Not long ago I was at the home of a friend where for supper we had the
+nicest grape juice I ever tasted. When I said, "How good it is!" one
+of the little girls piped up, "Billy and I picked the grapes, and
+sister made it all by herself. She learned how at cooking school."
+
+When I was packing my suitcase to leave, this little girl brought out
+a big bottle of grape juice and wanted me to take it with me to
+remember her by. It was all beautifully sealed with wax, and even this
+she had done by herself! Do you think I could have kept it that way
+very long? Perhaps not, it was so good; but if I had wanted it for a
+keepsake, I could have kept it, sealed as it was, for years and years,
+and it would have been just as sweet and fresh as when it was given to
+me.
+
+Suppose, instead of keeping it in its bottle, I had poured it out into
+a glass. Can you tell me what would have happened to it then?
+
+In a few days little bubbles would have come, one after another, up to
+the top of the juice; and soon it would have been all full of bubbles.
+What causes the bubbles? Floating all about in the air and sunshine
+are tiny specks called _spores_. These are to the tiny _yeast_ plants
+what seeds are to other plants. Seeds fall into the ground and grow,
+but these yeast spores fall into the grape juice and grow. While they
+are growing in the grape juice, they eat what they want from the
+juice; and, as they eat, they make bubbles of carbon dioxid,--which,
+you remember, forms in our lungs and looks like air,--and of another
+substance called _alcohol_. Of course, when they have changed the
+juice in this way, it tastes very different. It is then what we call
+_fermented_.
+
+_Fermented drinks are harmful_; but some people like bubbling drinks
+so much that they leave good fresh grape juice open on purpose to let
+the little yeast plants get into it and make it into what we call
+_wine_. They treat apple juice in just the same way to make _cider_;
+and they even take fresh rye and barley and corn, and mash them up,
+and put yeast plants into the mash to ferment them and make them into
+_whiskey_ and _beer_. It does seem a pity, doesn't it, to take good
+foods like wheat and apples and grapes and make them into these things
+that really do us harm if we drink them.
+
+A very wise man named Solomon, who lived thousands of years ago,
+warned people not to drink wine, not even to look at it when it
+sparkled in the cup. He said no really wise man would drink it. Of
+course not; the wise man uses the food and drink that make his body
+grow strong and his brain work true, and no fermented drink can do
+that.
+
+There is no better drink for anyone than clear pure water, and no
+better food and drink in one than pure fresh milk.
+
+    [Illustration: A SCHOOL KITCHEN WHERE BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS LEARN
+    TO COOK]
+
+
+V. LITTLE COOKS
+
+If you have to come so far to school that you cannot go back to dinner
+and so must bring a luncheon with you, be sure to take plenty of time
+to sit down and eat it slowly and chew every piece of food thoroughly.
+Many children who bring luncheons to school just grab a piece of food
+in each hand and "bolt" it down as fast as they can possibly bite it
+off and swallow it, and then rush out to play.
+
+Play is good and very important, but you had better spare ten or
+fifteen minutes of it in order to chew your lunch thoroughly and
+swallow it slowly, and then to sit or move about quietly for a few
+minutes before starting to play hard. This will give your stomach a
+chance to get all the blood it wants to use in digesting the food;
+for, you remember, when you romp and play, your blood moves outward
+toward your skin and away from your stomach. Don't think that, just
+because you "picnic" at lunch, it is not as important as any other
+meal.
+
+I hope, however, that it will not be long before almost every school
+will have a school kitchen and a lunch room; first, so that every girl
+at least can learn to cook. It is well worth while being able to do;
+indeed, no girl ought to be considered properly educated until she has
+learned to cook, and no boy either, for that matter. Then, if the
+school has this kitchen, it can be used to furnish hot luncheons, or
+dinners, for those children who cannot conveniently go home in the
+noon recess. Hot lunches are much more digestible than cold ones, and
+they taste much better, and are much less likely to be eaten in a
+hurry.
+
+But why should we learn to cook? Why shouldn't we eat our food raw
+instead of taking all this trouble and pains to cook it?
+
+I know of a boy--a big lazy fellow--who is always forgetting to do
+things. He used to go away in the morning without leaving wood enough
+for the kitchen fire. So his mother said to herself one day, "I'll
+teach him to remember." The next morning he went off again and left no
+wood. At noon he came back "hungry as a hunter." She called him in to
+dinner; and in he came, sat down, picked up the carving knife--then he
+stopped! What do you suppose was the matter? The beef was raw! Then he
+lifted the cover of the potato dish, and there lay the potatoes raw!
+Then he tried another dish and found nice green peas, but hard as
+little bullets. They were raw, too! Not even the bread had been
+cooked; it was a soft, sticky mass of dough. His mother, who is a
+jolly old lady, fairly shook with laughter when she told me about it.
+She said she never again had to tell him to split wood.
+
+Now that boy didn't need to be told one reason for cooking. We don't
+like our food raw; it doesn't taste so good. At first, perhaps, that
+doesn't sound like a very good reason; but it is more important than
+you think. For it is a fact that, just as soon as you smell food, your
+stomach begins to get ready the juice that is to digest it. If this
+very first juice, which is called the _appetite juice_, is not poured
+out, then the food may lie in the stomach some little time before it
+begins to be digested at all. So it is quite important that our food
+should smell and taste and look good, as well as have plenty of
+strength and nourishment in it.
+
+Another reason for cooking is that it either softens or crisps our
+food so that we can chew it better and digest it more readily. You
+know what a difference there is between trying to eat a raw potato and
+a nice, mealy, well-baked one, or trying to eat popcorn before it is
+popped and after.
+
+Another good thing, too, cooking does, which is very important. It
+kills any disease germs, or germs of decay, that may happen to have
+got upon the food from dust or flies, or from careless, dirty
+handling.
+
+Of course, some of our food, such as apples and other ripe fruits, and
+celery and lettuce and other green vegetables, we can eat raw and
+digest quite well; but we should be careful to see that they have been
+thoroughly washed with water that we know to be pure. Grocers often
+have a careless way of putting fruit and vegetables out upon open
+stands in front of the shop, or in open boxes or baskets inside the
+store, and leaving them there all day. This is very dangerous, because
+dust from the street, which contains horse manure and all sorts of
+germs, may blow in upon them; flies, which have been eating garbage or
+feeding at the mouths of sewers, may come in and crawl over them. You
+ought to be very sure that anything that you are going to eat raw, or
+without thorough cooking, has been well washed. And you ought to ask
+your mother to speak to your grocer, if he is careless in this way,
+and have him keep his fruit and vegetables, as well as sugar and
+crackers and beans and dried fruit, either under glass or well
+screened from flies and dust.
+
+More important than almost anything else in good cookery is to keep
+the food and the kitchen and the dishes and your hands perfectly clean
+all the way through, so that nothing that will upset your digestion
+can get into the food. After things are well cooked, it is very
+important that they should be nicely served on clean dishes, on a
+clean table cloth, with polished knives and shining spoons and forks.
+This means not only that everything about the table and the food will
+be perfectly clean and wholesome, but that you will enjoy eating it a
+great deal more. And when you enjoy your food, you remember, your
+stomach can _secrete_ the juice that is needed to digest it, very much
+faster and better than when, as you say, you are just "poking it
+down."
+
+If you have a school kitchen and a lunch room, you can learn the best
+way of cooking and serving things; and then, perhaps, you can do these
+same things at home and be a real help. Most children are fond of
+trying to cook, and I am glad that they are. Everyone, boys and girls
+both, should know how to cook simple things. Perhaps some day you will
+be stranded, like Robinson Crusoe, on a desert island! Perhaps the
+rest of the family may be sick. How nice it would be for you to be
+able to prepare breakfast for them. I know a family where the youngest
+boy often rises early and gets breakfast for five. He can fry the
+bacon and boil the eggs and make the coffee and mush and biscuit just
+as nicely as his mother can; and he takes pride in it and enjoys it.
+
+Cooking is what we call an art. Everyone, of course, can learn to do
+it; but some people can do it much better than others, just as some
+boys and girls can draw better than others. I hope some of you will be
+what we might call "artist cooks." Take pride in the art and learn all
+that you can about it. There are so many things a cook should know.
+
+A great deal of good food is spoiled by bad cookery, particularly by
+frying slowly in tepid grease, or fat, so that it becomes soaked with
+grease. You should have the frying pan just as hot as possible before
+you begin to fry; and then the meat or potatoes or cakes will be
+seared, or coated over, on the outside, so that the fat cannot soak
+into them, and they will not only taste better, but will be much more
+digestible.
+
+In baking you will have to be careful not to let the oven become too
+hot, or else the meat or bread will be burned or scorched. Even if the
+heat does not do this, it may harden and toughen the outside of the
+meat so that it is almost impossible either to chew or digest.
+
+Sugar is really a very good food if you do not eat too much at once,
+and so pure candy is good for you if you do not eat too much. The very
+best time to eat it is at the end of a meal. If you learn to make it
+at school or at home, you can always have some to eat after your
+luncheon without having to buy it. If you do buy candy, don't get the
+bright colored kind; it looks pretty, but it may hurt you. And be sure
+to see that it has been kept under a cover, where the dust and flies
+could not get at it. Dust is dirty, and flies don't wipe their feet.
+You want clean, pure candy.
+
+Of course, after cooking, you will always be very careful to wash up
+all the pots and pans and dishes that you have used. Food and scraps
+that are left sticking to dishes and cooking utensils very quickly
+turn sour and decay; and then the next time the dishes are used, you
+will perhaps have an attack of indigestion, and wonder why.
+
+There are two things you should always notice: Whether the bread you
+eat is sweet and thoroughly baked; if it is soggy and sour, it will
+make trouble in your stomach. Whether all your food is clean and fresh
+before it is cooked; this you can tell by your eyes and nose.
+
+
+VI. TASTING AND SMELLING
+
+When, at home, you give the baby a ball or a key or a watch to play
+with, what does he do with it the very first thing? He is never quite
+happy, is he, until he has put it into his mouth? Does he want to eat
+it? No, he wants to feel it; and he has not yet learned to feel very
+carefully with his hands, as you do.
+
+Can you feel with your mouth? If you have the least little hole in one
+of your teeth, you know it as soon as you rub your tongue against it.
+How big it feels and how rough the edges seem! If you take a
+looking-glass, you find, if you can see the hole at all, that it is
+just a tiny, tiny hole.
+
+Your tongue and lips, like the rest of your skin, are always touching
+and feeling things for you and sending messages to the brain. They say
+whether your milk is hot or cold, and whether the food you eat is soft
+enough and quite right in other ways. Your tongue is a very busy
+little "waiter": he passes the food about in your mouth for the teeth
+to chew, and he rolls it about at a great rate. But he does more than
+this; he tells you something about how it tastes--not everything, as
+you may think, but only whether it is _bitter_, _sweet_, _sour_, or
+_salty_. Queer as it may seem, your nose tells you the other "tastes,"
+which are really smells. It is your nose that says whether you have a
+strawberry or a piece of onion in your mouth, whether it is coffee or
+cocoa that you are drinking.
+
+Of what other use is your nose?--for only a little patch in the upper
+part is for smelling and tasting. The greater part of the nose is to
+breathe through. You see, your nose warms and moistens the outside air
+that you take in, so that, by the time it reaches your throat, it is
+as warm as your body and does not hurt your throat. Your nose also
+strains, or filters, out of the air the dust, lint, and germs that may
+be floating in it.
+
+You should always keep your lips closed and breathe through your nose.
+Whenever you cannot breathe through your nose, there is something the
+matter. It may be that your nose is swollen shut with a "cold"; but
+that will last only a few days. If, however, your nose often feels
+"stuffed up," there is probably something in it or behind it, that
+ought to be taken away. A throat doctor can easily cure you; and, when
+he has, you'll be surprised how much better you feel and how much
+faster you grow.
+
+    [Illustration: A CLEAR PASSAGE TO THE LUNGS
+
+    (Follow the arrows.)]
+
+I once knew a little girl whose nose was always blocked up. She had
+headache and felt tired most of the time and was behind in her
+classes. The doctor told her what was the matter, but her father and
+mother were afraid that it might hurt her to have the doctor take out
+what was clogging her nose. Well, what did she do? Instead of crying
+and being afraid, one day she walked right into the doctor's office
+and asked him to take out the _adenoids_, as we call these growths
+that block up the nose. And after the doctor had taken them out, she
+began to grow well and fat and strong so fast that she soon "caught
+up" in her classes.
+
+    [Illustration: A PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ADENOIDS]
+
+When you breathe well through your nose, you can smell and taste
+better, too. In fact, when your nose is clogged, you cannot smell at
+all.
+
+How does this sense of smell help us? You say we can smell the flowers
+and the fresh air after the rain, and cookies baking, and all the
+things that we like so well. Yes, and these give us pleasure; but how
+about the bad smells? The bad smells are warnings. If there is a dead
+mouse or rat about, we smell it; and that leads us to look for it and
+take it away. We smell the dirt and get rid of it, and thus keep away
+sickness. When we walk into a room, if the air is bad we smell it at
+once and open a window or a door, and so save ourselves from being
+poisoned.
+
+Some people hurt their noses by smoking tobacco. The inside skin of
+the nose is very delicate, and the smoke going back and forth through
+the nose and the throat keeps them from doing their work properly. It
+is very bad for little children even to smell tobacco smoke. It seems
+in some way to keep them from growing as they would in clear fresh
+air. What a silly habit smoking is! It does no one any good. It hurts
+not only the people who make the smoke, but the people who have to
+smell it. Most of the people who smoke tobacco have to learn to like
+it. It almost always makes them very sick when they first begin.
+
+Sir Walter Raleigh, or the men he sent to America, first taught our
+great-great-great-grandfathers to smoke. His men bought tobacco of the
+Indians here and took it back to England; and Sir Walter himself
+learned to smoke and made smoking fashionable. The first time that Sir
+Walter's servant saw him smoking, he thought his master was on fire;
+so what did he do but bring a big bucket of water and throw it all
+over him! I wish that that bucket of water had settled the matter, so
+that Sir Walter had stopped smoking and had never taught anyone else
+to smoke. If it had, think how much money might have been put to
+better use, for smoking is a very costly habit. And it is not only
+wasteful of money, but, worse still, of health; for it is the cause of
+a great deal of poor health and disease.
+
+Remember that you want the air you breathe perfectly fresh and clean
+and not spoiled and poisoned by tobacco smoke.
+
+
+VII. TALKING AND RECITING
+
+When I was little and playing with my brothers, I did not always do
+what they wanted. So they'd sometimes say, "We'll put him in Coventry,
+then he'll do it." They did not really _put_ me anywhere. They simply
+would not speak to me or answer anything I said. It was just as if I
+were entirely alone. Of course it was a quick way to make me ready to
+take my part in the game again.
+
+How do you think you would feel if you never, never could speak to
+anyone, and no one could speak to you? What a quiet world we'd have!
+Almost every day I meet a boy who can't hear and can't speak. How does
+he ask for things? He makes letters and spells words with his fingers,
+and his friends watch his fingers and read what he says. Is that the
+way you do? "No, indeed," you say, "I talk." "What do you talk with?"
+"I talk with my mouth." Yes, that's true enough; but if you did not
+use something besides your mouth, you'd never make a sound.
+
+Where does the sound come from? Feel gently with your finger and thumb
+along the front of your neck. Do you find something harder than the
+rest of your throat? That is the large tube called your _windpipe_. Do
+you feel a ridge sticking out from this? Now sing or talk a little.
+You can feel the ridge move up and down, and the sound thrill in it.
+That is where the sound comes from. That is your voice-and-music box,
+or _larynx_.
+
+You have seen the little red rubber balloons, haven't you? You blow
+into them until they are big and round; and then, when you take your
+mouth away, out comes the air, making a squawking or whistling sound.
+Now, if you look closely at the mouthpiece, you see a tiny piece of
+rubber tied across it. The air rushing past this rubber is what makes
+your balloon sing.
+
+Your own music box is made on the same plan. When you breathe out, the
+air is pushed from your lungs up the pipe that we call the windpipe.
+In the upper part of this is the little box, a corner of which you can
+feel with your thumb and finger. Across the box, inside, are stretched
+two folds of skin and muscle, just as the rubber is stretched across
+the opening of the balloon. Whenever you like, you can blow out your
+breath between these folds of skin in your voice box. Blow it out in
+one way, and what happens? You are singing. Blow it out in another
+way, and you are talking; in still another way, and you are just
+making a noise--perhaps mewing like a kitten, or neighing like a
+horse. If you pull these folds of skin close together, you can close
+your windpipe and "hold your breath." A cough is made by filling your
+chest with air, holding the folds close shut, and then suddenly
+"letting go." How many sounds you can make from one tiny music box! Of
+course the muscles of the mouth and throat, and the teeth and the
+tongue all help the voice box as much as they can.
+
+One of the best ways to keep your voice clear and strong is to dash
+cold water every morning on your throat and chest, then to rub with a
+coarse towel till your skin is pink and warm. Gargle your throat with
+cold water if your voice is husky. Singing is very good for you, too;
+but don't try to sing too hard. Sing easily and gently, and see how
+many words you can sing without taking a breath. That is good for the
+lung-bellows as well as the voice box. Always sing in fresh air, but
+not in cold air.
+
+When you talk, try to make all the words clear and distinct; open your
+mouth and let the sound out. Once I had a big grown boy in one of my
+classes who did not open his lips properly when he spoke. So I asked
+him to prop his mouth open with a piece of stick and then talk. I made
+him do it until he learned to speak much more clearly. A famous Greek
+orator, named Demosthenes, who had a habit of mumbling his words,
+trained himself to speak clearly by putting pebbles in his mouth and
+then reciting in a loud voice.
+
+When you want your voices to sound pleasant,--and that is always, of
+course,--you must call on your brain to help. That is your thinking
+machine. Always think twice before you let anything unpleasant or
+unkind come out of your voice box. How happy we could make everyone
+about us if we followed this rule!
+
+
+VIII. THINKING AND ANSWERING
+
+Suppose, as you are walking home from school to-day, you are about to
+cross the street when you see an automobile coming very fast. What do
+you do? You stop, of course; wait for it to go by, and then start on
+again. Why do you stop? "Why," you say, "if I didn't, the automobile
+might run over me." Something of that sort would just flash through
+your mind, wouldn't it, in the very same second that you first saw the
+automobile coming. Now, as you know, you think with your brain. But
+what was it this time that set your brain to thinking? "Nothing," you
+say, "I just saw the automobile coming." And that is true in a way:
+you didn't need anything more than your eyes to tell you.
+
+But how did your eyes get the message to your brain, and how did your
+brain tell your legs to stop walking? We must have in our bodies a
+kind of telephone system. And that is, in fact, just what we have. Our
+_brain_ is our "central office"; and our _nerves_ are the wires,
+running from all parts of our body to the brain, carrying messages
+back and forth.
+
+An old man and an old woman lived out on the very edge of a little
+town. One day their house caught fire and was blazing away before they
+noticed it. They rushed to their neighbor's telephone and rang up
+"Central" to tell her to "phone" for the firemen and hose cart. _Kling
+a-ling-a-ling!_ went their bell, but no "Central" answered; and while
+a man was running to town to get the firemen, the fire got such a good
+start that the house burned down.
+
+You can see from this why we need a central office in good working
+order, when we use the "phone." All the wires run into the one
+building, and there must be some one there to receive calls and see
+that they are sent out to their proper places. In this case, you see,
+"Central" should have been at her post to see that the message went on
+to the engine house, and then the fire would have been put out
+"double-quick."
+
+The "central office" of our Body Telephone System is just as important
+and just as necessary to keep in good working order. It would be very
+little use to have even the keenest of eyes and the sharpest of ears,
+with the readiest of nerve wires to carry their messages into the
+center of the body, unless we had some _organ_, or headquarters, there
+for switching the messages over to the nerves running to the right
+muscles to tell them what to do. If the brain-"Central" should fail in
+its duty, or get out of order, then the body would be in serious
+trouble at once.
+
+Every day we read in the papers of accidents because somebody didn't
+think, as well as see or hear. People see cars and automobiles coming,
+but don't give them a thought and so are run down and hurt. They hear
+the whistle of the engine at the crossing, but drive on just the same,
+without seeming to have heard it at all. They are absent-minded; the
+operator in the "central office" seems to be off duty, or busy about
+something else. But if we are going to get on in this world of cars
+and automobiles and all sorts of unexpected things, we must always
+"have our wits about us," as the saying goes, ready to send the
+messages out to the muscles in our legs and arms and fingers just as
+soon as any one of our "Five Senses" "rings up" the "Central" in our
+brain.
+
+Our body wires do not look at all like telephone wires; and the brain,
+if you could see it, would never suggest to you a central office.
+
+The nerves are fine white cords, the smallest ones finer than a hair,
+and the largest so big and strong that you could lift the body by it;
+and their branches run all over the body, to the muscles and the blood
+tubes and the skin and all the other parts, as the picture shows. You
+have already read how the skin can tell you when you feel warm and
+when you feel cold and when something hurts you.
+
+The brain is a soft wrinkled mass, partly gray and partly white. It is
+in the head; and because it is very soft and easily hurt, Mother
+Nature has put around it a strong wall, or shell, of bone--the
+_skull_, or brain box. Feel your head and see how very hard this bone
+is. Solomon, the Hebrew poet-king, called it the "golden bowl." I
+suppose he called it a "bowl" because it is round like one, and
+"golden" because it is so precious. People do not often grow well
+again if the "golden bowl" is broken or even cracked.
+
+    [Illustration: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM--OUR BODY TELEPHONE
+
+    The picture shows the brain, or "Central," and the thick nerve
+    cord that runs down through the backbone, and the principal
+    nerves of the back and the arms.]
+
+The big _nerve cable_, called the _spinal cord_, that connects the
+brain with the rest of the body, and carries all the messages backward
+and forward, runs down the back and is protected by the backbone, or
+_spine_, which is hollow, so that the cord can run down through it.
+This backbone is jointed together so beautifully, too, that you can
+bend your back about and stoop over, and carry heavy weights on your
+back, and yet the bony tube still protects the cord inside. Solomon
+calls this the "silver cord," because it is so white and shiny that it
+looks like silver. You see, our bodies are full of beautiful as well
+as wonderful things.
+
+Probably sometime when your teacher has asked you to recite a poem you
+have all learned, someone in the class has answered, "I don't remember
+it," or has stood up and recited the first few lines and then stopped,
+and thought, and finally had to say, "I can't go on."
+
+Now what is the matter with this boy, or girl? He looks bright enough,
+and you will probably remember that he was in the class when you
+learned the poem. "Oh," you say, "the poem didn't stay in his head."
+No, it didn't "stick" in his memory; but why didn't it?
+
+Some of the messages that the Five Senses carry to the brain are
+answered at once, as when we move away from danger, or reach out our
+hands and help ourselves to butter, or take off a shoe to shake out a
+pebble. But there are other messages that do not call for an immediate
+reply, and are just stored away for future use in the big "central
+office" of our Body Telephone, in what we call our _memory_. And
+later, when the proper message is sent in by our eyes or ears, or
+other sense organs, which reminds us of this message which they sent
+before, perhaps several weeks, months, or even years ago, it wakes up
+the old message stored away in the memory, and we say we "remember"
+what happened to us, or what we learned at that time.
+
+So, when your teacher asks you to recite a certain poem, and your ears
+hear the title or the first line, you recall the rest of the verses
+and the lesson about it. How many things does the word "Christmas"
+wake up out of your memory? or the sight of soldiers marching? or the
+first taste of strawberries in May?
+
+You think about a great many things that you never _do_. Really you
+are thinking almost all the time you are awake. And besides the
+messages that "Central" just stores away for future use, there are a
+great many messages being carried back and forth along the "telephone
+system" all the time, that you don't keep track of at all--the
+messages that keep the stomach and the heart and the lungs and
+everything in your body working together properly.
+
+How are we to take care of the telephone lines and "Central" of our
+_nervous system_? Whatever you do to build up and help the other parts
+of the body will help your brain to _feel_ and _think_ and _remember_;
+and will help your muscles and nerves to answer promptly and truly
+whatever the message may be. Plenty of good food, plenty of sleep and
+fresh air, plenty of play, will keep your nerves and brain healthy and
+growing.
+
+
+
+
+"ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+
+
+I. KEEPING WELL
+
+How many times have you been absent this term? No oftener than you
+were obliged to be, I am sure; for it's almost as bad as being "put in
+Coventry" to come back and hear about the good time the rest of the
+class have been having, and feel that you "weren't in it." Of course,
+sometimes, when you are not well, you have to be absent; it is best
+that you should be. But it is better still to know how to keep well,
+so you won't have to be absent, and won't have to miss any good times
+in work or play all your life.
+
+You remember that all the parts of your body are fed and ventilated by
+the blood, which is pumped to them from the heart. So long as this
+blood is pure and has plenty of oxygen in it, it does good to every
+part of the body to which it comes. But the moment that poisons and
+dirt and waste begin to pile up in the blood, then the blood that
+comes to the different parts of the body may be poisonous to them,
+instead of helpful.
+
+Such poisons in the blood are particularly harmful to the nerves and
+the brain, because these are among the most delicate and sensitive of
+all the structures in the body.
+
+Often we think of the body as a beautiful house. Now a house does not
+look very beautiful when it has dust and crumbs on the floor, buckets
+of greasy dishwater in the kitchen, and smoke from the furnace in the
+air! You could not live in such a place. No, the smoke must go out up
+the chimney, the dust and crumbs must be swept away, the dirty water
+must be drained off in pipes; the house must be not only cleaned, but
+kept clean all the time. This is true of your body, too.
+
+Now Mother Nature sends the smoke from the body out through the lungs,
+and the crumbs and solid dirt down and out by means of the food tube.
+But the waste water--how does she get rid of that? The waste water,
+you remember, is in the blood vessels, mixed with the blood. How does
+she get it out of the blood? She sends it through three magic
+cleaners, or strainers,--the _skin_, the _liver_, the _kidneys_.
+
+That the skin is a strainer, you already know; for you know how the
+skin lets out the waste water in perspiration, or sweat, and how
+important it is that we keep the little holes of the strainer open and
+clean. And you know, too, that most of the water that passes out of
+the body goes first to the kidneys.
+
+The liver, however, is the largest cleaning machine of all and has to
+work very hard. The blood comes to it full of foods and poisons. This
+wonderful cleaner picks out the food it needs and takes up many of the
+poisons, too. "What does it do with the poisons?" you ask. Some of
+them it changes into good food, and others it makes harmless and sends
+away down the food tube in a fluid called _bile_. If we are strong and
+healthy, the liver has the power to kill many of the disease germs
+that get into the body. That is why sometimes, when you have had a
+chance to take mumps or grippe or some other "catching" disease, you
+don't take it. Your liver kills the germs, or seeds. See how carefully
+Mother Nature has planned that we may be clean inside as well as
+outside.
+
+    [Illustration: THE POSITION OF THE LIVER
+
+    Compare this with the diagram on page 26, and see how the liver
+    partly overlaps the stomach.]
+
+But you must not over-work your liver. If you do, it may become too
+tired to do anything at all. Then all these poisons will spread
+through the body; the skin and the whites of the eyes will grow
+yellow, and you will be what is called "bilious." When this happens,
+the poisons go to your brain, too, and make you feel sad; your tongue
+looks white instead of pink, and you have a disagreeable taste in your
+mouth. Your happiness depends very much on your liver.
+
+"How shall I keep my liver rested and in good working order?" By
+eating only sound, wholesome, pure food, and avoiding dirty milk; by
+going to the toilet regularly every morning after breakfast; by
+keeping your windows open and avoiding the poisons and disease germs
+in foul air. Then, if you run and play and work out of doors, so that
+the muscles move a great deal and you breathe in plenty of oxygen to
+keep the body fires burning briskly, that will help a great deal.
+
+Last summer up in the mountains I saw a big log close by the path. It
+had been sawed across so that the end was smooth. It was brown and
+weather-stained, so of course I knew that it had lain there a long
+time. How surprised I was to see a pile of fine fresh sawdust on the
+ground beside it. As I came nearer, I saw piece after piece of sawdust
+dropping, dropping, dropping, one after the other, from a hole in the
+log. I looked into the hole, and what do you think I saw? Hundreds of
+little brown ants, busy as could be carrying the sawdust, throwing it
+out, and then scurrying back to get some more. Several feet inside the
+log, other ants were cutting the sawdust, hollowing out the rooms of
+their house; and in another part others were getting food for the
+workers, and still others taking care of the baby ants. They were all
+helping one another, and whatever one ant did helped all the rest.
+That is the way with the parts, or organs, of the body. When one part
+works well, it helps all the rest; when one squad of tiny cells in the
+muscles or liver or heart is doing its duty, like the little ants, it
+helps all the other cell-workers in the body to keep healthy.
+
+If you eat proper food, you help not only your stomach but your liver,
+too; for it has not so many poisons to get rid of. While you are
+helping your stomach and your liver, you are helping your heart and
+your brain, and so on. So what you do to help one helps all.
+
+There are, however, some poisons that the liver cannot get rid of; but
+these the skin or the kidneys carry away. Have you ever seen kidney
+beans? The bean is the shape of a kidney. The kidneys are in the
+middle of your back, packed close to your backbone, on a line with
+your waist. This is a picture of them. Do you see the little tubes
+leading down from the kidneys, carrying the waste water and poison
+down into a kind of bag? The walls of this bag, called the _bladder_,
+will stretch, and it will hold about a pint of waste water. From the
+bladder a tube carries the water down out of the body.
+
+    [Illustration: THE KIDNEYS AND THE BLADDER
+
+    The large tubes are the artery and the vein that carry blood to
+    and from this part of the body.]
+
+You can help your kidney-strainers by emptying your bladder at certain
+times each day. Some children have to empty the bladder much oftener
+than others, but most children can form what we call _regular habits_
+about it, by trying to do it at the same times each day. If you are
+quite strong, five times a day is often enough: when you first get up,
+at recess, at noon, at four o'clock, and at bedtime. Many children do
+it much oftener than this; but as they grow older and the muscles grow
+stronger, they slowly outgrow this trouble, if they try to form the
+right habits.
+
+There are many diseases of the kidneys; for, like the liver, they are
+sometimes over-worked and do not carry the poisons from the body. You
+are helping your kidneys when you drink plenty of fresh clean water
+every day, and also when you play or work hard enough to get into a
+good perspiration; for, as perspiring carries out some of the poisons,
+it leaves less for the kidneys to pour out. You ought to get into a
+good perspiration at least once every day, or better, three or four
+times, if you wish to keep healthy. The Bible says, "In the sweat of
+thy brow shalt thou eat bread"; and you must earn health and happiness
+at the same price.
+
+
+II. SOME FOES TO FIGHT
+
+You have seen that sitting or sleeping in rooms where the air is bad,
+or eating the wrong kind of food, or working after you are badly
+tired, will poison your blood and hinder the proper working of that
+beautiful machine, your body. These poisons are made inside your body,
+and you can prevent them by living healthfully and wholesomely. But
+there are other poisons, which may get into the blood from outside the
+body; and while it is best for you not to think too much about these,
+or to worry over dangers that may never come, yet it is well to know
+just enough about some of them to be able to keep out of their way, as
+far as possible.
+
+The most dangerous form of poisons from outside the body are those
+made by the germs of some rather common diseases, which, because you
+can "catch" them from some one else who has them, are called
+"catching," or _infectious_, or _contagious_.
+
+Some of the germs of these "catching" diseases, like the germs of
+typhoid fever, of which we have spoken in connection with our drinking
+water, are carried in the water or milk that we drink, or upon the
+food that we eat; and one of the worst carriers of germs is the
+ordinary household fly.
+
+Not so very many years ago, people did not know that _dirt makes
+people sick_. You see, they did not know anything about the disease
+seeds (germs) that grow so fast in dirt. They did not like to have
+flies about, because flies look so dirty and bite people and crawl
+over things and spot them. But nowadays, we will not have flies about
+because we know that they have been in dirty places where disease
+germs live, and that one little fly can carry thousands and thousands
+of these germs on his feet.
+
+Have you ever looked at a fly through a magnifying glass or under a
+microscope? If you haven't, try it sometime. You will see that his
+legs are covered with little hairs; and it is on these little hairs
+that the germs lodge. They are too small for you to see except with a
+very powerful glass; but scientists have proved that they are there,
+and they have found that there are always typhoid germs among them.
+
+    [Illustration: THE COMMON HOUSE FLY
+
+    As he appears through a magnifying glass.]
+
+Did you ever see a fly wipe his feet before he came into the house?
+No, indeed; and he goes anywhere he pleases, over the bread and into
+the cream. Yet he was born in dirt and bred in dirt, and he lives in
+dirty places all the time he is not crawling over your clean things
+and spoiling them.
+
+Flies are hatched from eggs; and these eggs can hatch only in piles of
+dirt, such as heaps of manure, or places where garbage and scraps from
+the house are dumped or thrown. We call the common fly the "domestic"
+or "house" fly, because he lives only in the neighborhood of houses
+and barnyards where heaps of manure and piles of dirt are allowed to
+gather.
+
+When the fly first hatches from the egg, it is a little white,
+wriggling worm called a _maggot_, like those that some of you may have
+seen in decaying meat or fish or cheese. The maggots must have
+decaying substances to eat and live upon while they are growing, and
+this is why the eggs are laid in manure heaps and garbage piles.
+
+    [Illustration: A MAGGOT HATCHING FROM THE EGG
+
+    (Greatly magnified.)]
+
+It takes the maggot about five days to grow to its full size, and then
+it turns into a _chrysalis_. That is, it is shut up in a kind of case
+that it has spun for itself, like the cocoon of the silkworm or the
+caterpillar. In about five days more it breaks out of this cocoon and
+appears as a fly with wings.
+
+So, you see, the eggs must stay in that manure heap about two weeks if
+they are to hatch. If, within that time, the manure is carted away and
+thrown out somewhere where it will dry, the little unhatched flies
+will be killed, or prevented from hatching. All we have to do, then,
+to be entirely rid of flies about our houses is to see that the heaps
+of manure and all piles of cans and garbage are taken away at least
+once a week.
+
+    [Illustration: FLY MAGGOTS ON OLD NEWSPAPER
+
+    Note the size of the maggot compared with the newspaper type.]
+
+If manure heaps or piles of dirt cannot, for any reason, be carried
+away as often as this, then they can be sprinkled with something that
+is poisonous to flies, such as arsenic or kerosene. This will kill the
+maggots. If we keep every kind of waste and scraps from the house, and
+all the manure from the barn and the pig-pen and the hen-house
+carefully cleaned up, or sprinkled with some poison, we shall get rid
+of flies entirely and never need to use screens at the doors and
+windows. Until we do this, it is best to put screens at the doors and
+windows in the summer time, and particularly to screen carefully any
+place where food is kept or cooked; for we know that a great many
+cases of typhoid and of other diseases of the stomach and bowels, such
+as _summer sickness_, or summer _diarrhea_, and _cholera morbus_, are
+carried to our food by the dirty feet of flies.
+
+Many of the germs of "catching" diseases--most of them, in fact--are
+carried in the air, in scales that have rubbed off the skin of the
+persons sick with them, or in spray that they have coughed into the
+air, or in saliva that they have spit upon the floor.
+
+There is one sickness of this kind that I ought to tell you about,
+because it kills so many thousand people here in our own country every
+year. We sometimes call it the "Great White Plague." Its common name
+is _consumption_, and the doctors call it _tuberculosis_. I dare say
+you have heard of it and wondered what it meant.
+
+A few years ago people thought it could not be cured. They thought
+that children had it because their parents had had it before them. But
+now, the cheering thing about it is that we have found that Mother
+Nature herself can cure it with fresh air and sunshine and wholesome
+food. We have found, too, that people catch it from others who are
+sick with it, and need not have it just because their parents did.
+
+    [Illustration: FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT ARE GOOD DOCTORS]
+
+This means, then, that thousands of people who have it need not die,
+but can be cured simply by living and sleeping out of doors and eating
+plenty of milk, eggs, and meat, nuts and fruit. There are camps for
+them in almost every state in the Union now. The fresh air gives them
+such a big appetite that they can eat more than most healthy people,
+and they soon get strong and well.
+
+If all the people who now have consumption were taken out into the
+country and cured, there would be no one left for the rest of us to
+catch it from, and the disease would soon die. Some day our Boards of
+Health will decide to do this, and then consumption will become as
+rare as smallpox is now, and will kill only a few hundred people a
+year in the United States instead of 150,000 every year, as it does
+now.
+
+People and governments are giving great sums of money, not only to
+cure the people who now have consumption, but to do something towards
+stopping the disease by keeping things so clean and people so strong
+that no one will ever have it. Even little children can help to fight
+and kill this "Great White Plague," and I'll tell you how.
+
+We know that, when people have consumption in their lungs, what they
+cough and spit out of their mouths and blow out of their noses (we
+call it _sputum_) has the germs, or seeds, of the disease in it. So,
+to keep other people from catching the disease, they must hold
+something before the face when they cough, and they must catch the
+sputum in paper (newspapers or paper napkins are very good for this)
+and burn it, for burning kills the germs. Then, too, they must not
+kiss other people on the mouth, and others must not kiss them. They
+must use their own drinking-cups, and never lend or borrow a cup. You
+see, you can look out for these things, yourselves. When grown people
+kiss you, just turn your cheek to them, instead of your mouth. Your
+cheek will not carry anything to your windpipe and lungs. And be sure
+to carry your own drinking-cup, or, better still, make the one for
+which you already have the pattern, every time you need one.
+
+    [Illustration: HIS OWN CUP AND TOWEL]
+
+This sounds easy enough; and it is, too. But sometimes people don't
+know when they have this "plague," and of course they do not feel that
+they must be careful. What is to be done, then?
+
+If people won't take care of themselves, then the government has to
+make health laws to protect them, and the health officers have to see
+that the laws are obeyed. In many of the states and cities, laws have
+been made so that nobody is allowed to spit on the sidewalk or in the
+cars or in any other public place; and common drinking-cups are
+forbidden at all park fountains and at the water-coolers in schools
+and trains and stations and other public places.
+
+You ought to know about these things, because, as I have just said,
+other sicknesses, too, are carried about in the nose and mouth.
+_Grippe_, _pneumonia_ or lung fever, and what we call _colds_ are
+caught in exactly the same way. We used to think we caught them by
+being chilled; but we are much more likely to take them by being shut
+up in a hot, stuffy room with other people who already have them.
+Mother Nature never gave us such things in her beautiful, clean
+outdoors. We must wear clothes enough to keep us warm when we go out,
+and have bedclothes enough to keep us warm while we sleep; but we need
+not be afraid of catching any sickness from the clean outside air,
+either by day or by night. Drafts are not dangerous, except when our
+blood is already full of poisons and germs from foul air.
+
+Of course it is foolish even for strong, healthy people to run any
+risks that can be avoided, and there is one other thing that you
+should keep on the watch against doing; and that is, touching or
+kissing or playing with other children who may be sick. It is better
+not even to sit in the same room with them if you can avoid it.
+
+Many of the infectious diseases--and nearly three fourths of all the
+diseases that children have are infectious--are caught, as we have
+seen, from germs that are carried in the air. That is one reason why
+so many infectious diseases are likely to begin with running at the
+nose, or sneezing, or cold in the head, or sore throat. The germs,
+having been breathed in with the air, catch on the sides of the
+nostrils or at the back of the throat, and start inflammation and
+soreness wherever they land. This is just the way that _measles_,
+_scarlet fever_, _chicken pox_, _whooping cough_, and _diphtheria_
+begin. Nearly all colds in the head, and sore throats with coughing,
+are infectious; so the best thing to do whenever you have a bad cold
+in the head, or a sore throat, is to keep out in the open air as much
+as you can, until it is better. Of course, a cold is not such a
+serious thing in itself; but, if it is neglected, it may lead to some
+very dangerous troubles, particularly to inflammation of the lungs,
+and sometimes even of the kidneys or the liver or the heart. Several
+of these infectious diseases--measles, chicken pox, and scarlet fever,
+for instance--have a rash, or breaking-out, called an _eruption_, upon
+the skin. This is another thing easy to look out for; and if you see
+anyone with a rash upon his face and hands, it is a good thing to keep
+away from him and not let him touch you. Even if he should not have
+measles or scarlet fever or chicken pox, but only a disease of the
+skin itself, he still might spread the infection of that; for most
+diseases that cause a breaking-out upon the surface of the skin are
+infectious.
+
+Some of these infectious diseases are so common among children that
+they are called _Children's Diseases_, or the _Diseases of Infancy_,
+just as if it were natural for you to have them while you are
+children, and as if they were something that you have to have as a
+matter of course, before you grow up.
+
+But it isn't necessary at all to have them, if you will take care of
+yourselves and help your doctors and the Board of Health of your
+county or town or city to prevent their spreading. These diseases,
+although usually very mild, never do anyone any good whatever, and may
+do serious harm; for their poisons may stay in the blood and injure
+the heart or the kidneys or the nerves.
+
+One thing I should like to urge you to do if you happen to get one of
+these "children's diseases"; and that is, to stay in bed or out of
+school or away from work just as long as your doctor tells you to.
+This is important, because it is very dangerous indeed to become
+over-tired or overheated or chilled, or to get your feet wet or romp
+too hard or sit up too late, before you have fully recovered; and you
+will not have fully recovered until at least three or four weeks after
+you are able to be out of bed. But if you take good care of yourselves
+for three or four weeks after measles or chicken pox or whooping cough
+or a very bad cold, you will avoid almost all danger of their poisons
+injuring your heart or kidneys or nerves, and causing chronic
+diseases, like Bright's disease or heart disease, later in life.
+
+Perhaps now I have told you enough about poisons and sickness. You
+must not be frightened about them. I have told you these things so
+that you may understand why you must bathe, and brush your teeth, and
+wash your face and hands, and wear clean clothes, and breathe fresh
+air, and keep your windows open, and play out of doors--in fact, keep
+your bodies clean inside and out. I know you will be glad enough to do
+these things, troublesome though some of them may be, if you know the
+reason why. The best of it is that when you keep perfectly clean and
+healthy, not even the "Great White Plague" and cold seeds, or germs,
+can hurt you, even though they get into your mouth or nose; for Mother
+Nature gives healthy bodies the power to kill germs, and quite without
+our knowing it.
+
+    [Illustration: ENJOYING "ALL OUTDOORS"
+
+    Very discouraging to disease germs!]
+
+
+III. PROTECTING OUR FRIENDS
+
+If you knew that some of your little friends were sick with an
+infectious disease like measles or scarlet fever, of course you would
+keep away from them, so as to avoid catching the disease. And if they
+knew that they had a disease that was infectious, of course they would
+want to let all their friends know of it, so as to prevent them from
+coming and catching it. But how can they let all their friends know?
+Sick people don't feel like writing letters; and, even if they did,
+some diseases can be carried in letters. So that might not be at all a
+friendly thing to do.
+
+This has always been the greatest difficulty in preventing the spread
+of infectious diseases--how to let other people know. So about fifty
+or sixty years ago, people got together and decided that the best
+thing to do was to appoint an officer known as a _Health Officer_, or
+a committee known as a _Board of Health_, in each town and in each
+county, whose business it should be to find out cases of infectious
+disease, and to warn other people against them.
+
+These officers first ask all the doctors in the town to report to this
+Central Health Office, or Board of Health, every case of a patient
+with an infectious disease. Then, when the case has been reported,
+that office sends some one with a card on which the name of the
+disease is printed in large letters, and he tacks the card upon the
+front of the house or upon the fence around the lot, so that everyone
+who goes near the house may know that there is danger, and keep away
+from it. Then, sometimes, a messenger from the Board of Health goes
+into the house and talks to the family, and tells them how they can
+keep the patient in a room by himself, so as to prevent the rest of
+the family from catching the disease; and how they can best take care
+of the patient, and keep from carrying the infection through clothing
+or food or anything else.
+
+    [Illustration: ONE WAY IN WHICH THE BOARD OF HEALTH PROTECTS US]
+
+Then, because anyone who has been sick with an infectious disease will
+still be shedding the germs of the disease and spitting or coughing,
+not only as long as he is sick, but for two or three weeks after he is
+beginning to feel better, the messenger will tell the family that the
+patient must stay either in his own room or within his own house or
+yard, for so many days or weeks. This is called keeping _quarantine_.
+The word comes from the Italian word _quaranta_, "forty"; because in
+the early days when the practice was first begun, the patients used to
+be kept by themselves in this way for forty days. While sometimes this
+is very inconvenient and hard and troublesome, it is really the only
+safe way of stopping the spread of these diseases; and I am sure
+anyone of you would be willing to take this extra trouble sooner than
+let any of your friends catch a disease from you, and perhaps die of
+it. Quarantine is also the best and safest thing for the patient,
+because it keeps him quiet and at rest until he has completely
+recovered, and until all danger that the poison of the disease will
+attack his lungs or heart or kidneys is over.
+
+In some of the best schools now there is an examination of all the
+children every morning, by a visiting doctor sent by the Board of
+Health. If the doctor finds any child that has red and watery eyes, or
+is running at the nose, or sneezing, or coughing, or has a sore
+throat, he usually sends him home at once, so that the other children
+will not catch the infection. The school doctor is not thinking only
+about what seems to be a cold, although, as you know, it is very
+important that anyone with a cold should take good care of himself and
+should not let others catch it from him. The doctor sends the child
+home because this is just the way in which several other infectious
+diseases may begin--_measles_, _scarlet fever_, _chicken pox_,
+_whooping cough_, and _diphtheria_. For most infectious diseases, as
+you will remember, are caught from germs floating in the air and
+breathed into the nose and throat.
+
+The Board of Health takes care of the public in many ways besides
+these. It keeps a very careful watch upon the water supply of the
+town, or city, so as to keep the houses and factories from running
+their drainage, or _sewage_, into it; for this, as you already know,
+might cause the spread of typhoid fever and of other diseases of the
+bowels and stomach.
+
+The Board of Health sends men to examine, or inspect, the milk the
+dairymen bring, to see that it is sweet and pure, and that there are
+no infectious germs in it. And it sends men out into the country to
+examine the dairy farms and see that the cows are properly fed, and
+that the barns in which they are milked are kept clean; and that the
+water in which the milk pans and bottles are washed comes from clean,
+pure wells or springs.
+
+    [Illustration: WHAT MILK INSPECTION MEANS
+
+    Clean barns, cows, pails, and milkers mean clean milk. The cows
+    here stand in fresh, clean sawdust.]
+
+Another thing that the Board of Health does is to send an inspector
+round to look very carefully at all the meat that is sold in the
+butcher shops, and at all the fruits and vegetables at the grocers'.
+If he finds any meat that is diseased or tainted or bad, or any fruit
+or vegetables that are beginning to spoil, or any flour, sugar, or
+canned goods that have been mixed with cheaper stuffs that are not
+good to eat,--in fact, are what the law calls _adulterated_,--he may
+seize the bad and dangerous foods and destroy them, and summon to
+court the dealers who are trying to sell them. Then the dealers are
+fined or perhaps sent to prison.
+
+So, you see, the Board of Health is one of the very best friends that
+you have, trying to keep your food pure and good, the water that you
+drink clean and wholesome, and the milk sweet and free from dirt or
+disease germs. You ought to help these officers and their inspectors
+in every way that you can. I know that it is sometimes troublesome to
+obey all their rules; and perhaps when you don't know what the dangers
+are which they are trying to guard you against, it seems to you that
+they are too particular about a great many things. But just see what
+they have done already to make our cities and houses healthier and
+pleasanter places to live in.
+
+Only one hundred and fifty years ago, for instance, that terrible
+disease called _smallpox_ killed hundreds of thousands of people every
+year in Europe; and it attacked the eyes and blinded so many of those
+who recovered from it, that nearly half the poor blind people in the
+blind asylums had had their sight destroyed by it. In smallpox there
+is a terrible eruption, or breaking out, upon the skin, which is
+likely to leave it pitted and scarred; and even fifty years ago it was
+exceedingly common to see people who had been pitted by smallpox, or,
+as the expression was, "pock-marked."
+
+Cows have a disease somewhat like this, but much less dangerous,
+called cow-pox. Years ago, before dairies were inspected as they are
+now, dairy maids often caught this disease from the cows they milked,
+so that their hands would break out with pock-marks.
+
+About a hundred years ago, a Dr. Richard Jenner discovered that the
+dairy maids in the country district in which he lived, who had caught
+this mild infection from the cows they milked, never caught smallpox
+even when they were exposed to it. So after studying over the subject
+for some years, he took a little of the matter, or pus, from the
+eruption on the udder of a cow that had cow-pox, scratched the arm of
+a little patient of his, and rubbed some of the pus into it. Only a
+short time after, the family of this little boy was exposed to
+smallpox, and all the other children took it badly, but he escaped.
+
+This was the beginning of what we call _vaccination_; and as soon as
+it was found that this scratching of the arm and putting a little of
+this _vaccine_ matter into it would cause only a few days of
+feverishness, and then after that give complete protection against
+smallpox, the Boards of Health all over the civilized world took it up
+and insisted upon everybody's being vaccinated when a baby.
+
+As a result, smallpox has become one of the rarest, instead of the
+commonest, of our infectious diseases. Only a few dozen people die of
+it each year in Europe, instead of several hundred thousands; scarcely
+one one-hundredth of the people now in our blind asylums have been
+sent there by smallpox, and I dare say that many of you have never
+even seen a pock-marked person.
+
+Another disease that used to be very dangerous to little children is
+_diphtheria_. It was not only very infectious, but very deadly; and
+nearly half of the children who took it died of it, and the doctors
+didn't know anything that would cure it. About twenty years ago, two
+great scientists, one a Frenchman named Roux--a student of the great
+Professor Louis Pasteur, of whom I am sure you have heard--and the
+other, a German, named Behring, discovered an _antitoxin_ for
+diphtheria; that is, something to defeat the poison of the diphtheria
+germ. When this antitoxin is injected into the blood, it will cure
+diphtheria.
+
+The doctors and the Boards of Health took this up too, and insisted
+upon its being used in all cases; with the result that where the
+antitoxin is used early, scarcely one in twenty of the patients dies,
+instead of eight or ten out of twenty, as before.
+
+You know how careful we are all trying to be not to let consumption
+spread. By insisting that all houses shall be built so as to give
+plenty of light and fresh air to everyone; and by forbidding spitting
+upon the streets; and by insisting that food to be sold, especially
+milk, shall be clean,--by preventing the spread of the disease in
+every way, our Boards of Health have cut down the number of deaths
+from this disease nearly one half; and people in the United States,
+for instance, or in England, where these health laws are enforced,
+live now almost exactly twice as long on the average as they did one
+hundred years ago, or as they do now in India and in Turkey, for
+instance, where the people are ignorant and dirty and careless.
+
+So you see that even if some of the health regulations do seem rather
+troublesome and fussy, it is well worth while to try to follow them
+and help the health inspectors in every way. Even little children can
+help very much in keeping the houses and the cities in which they live
+clean and healthful and beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+WORK AND PLAY
+
+
+I. GROWING STRONG
+
+When school is over, out you go with a rush, into the open air. You
+have worked hard all day, and now you have two hours before supper to
+do just as you like.
+
+Perhaps you will play tag, or prisoner's base, or stealing sticks, or
+town ball. They are all fine fun, and they exercise every muscle in
+your body and make your lungs breathe deeper and your heart beat
+faster, and make every part of you grow stronger.
+
+    [Illustration: BETTER TO TAKE THAN MEDICINE]
+
+Perhaps you have a few chores to do or errands to run; but even these
+are almost as much fun as play and give you good exercise in the open
+air and, what is better still, a feeling that you are being of some
+use in the world, which is one of the happiest and most satisfactory
+feelings that you will ever have, if you live to be a hundred years
+old.
+
+    [Illustration: OUT FOR AN AFTERNOON IN THE PARK]
+
+But when you have finished your work, you must not forget to play
+real, lively, jolly games out of doors--ball and tag and
+hide-and-seek, and all those games that children love.
+
+Hide-and-seek is a good game, because, when you are caught, you can
+stand still a few minutes and rest. When you are hiding, you can take
+a good breath for the home-run you have to make. Most games, in fact,
+are planned like this--a run and a rest, and then another run. While
+you rest, some one else is taking his turn at the bat, or at being
+"It," or whatever is the hardest part of the work. This is one reason
+why games are so good for you to play.
+
+You see, when you run, you are working your muscles and heart-pump
+very hard; and if you kept running all the time, you would burn up so
+much food in the muscles that the heart couldn't pump blood fast
+enough to wash away all the waste, and would just chug-chug-chug till
+it tired itself out. When you are tired, it is time to stop and rest;
+for being tired means that the poisons are not being carried away from
+the muscles fast enough, and that your heart is working too hard.
+
+What is it in your body that gives it stiffening to stand upright, and
+makes levers in your legs and arms to move it about? When you feel
+your body and arms and head with your fingers, what are they like?
+Isn't there something hard and then a soft kind of pad over it? We
+call the hard things _bones_. Your teacher will show you some. These
+are white and chalky looking; but when they were alive, they were a
+beautiful pinkish white color.
+
+    [Illustration: SKELETON OF A MAN]
+
+So you have a pretty pearl-colored framework, the shape of your body.
+This, which is called your _skeleton_, makes you stiff enough to stand
+up and walk about. Now bend your arm and turn your wrist and open and
+close your hand. You find that your frame-work is jointed. When you
+are tired standing, you can bend your joints and sit down. If you want
+an apple, you can close your fingers and pick it up.
+
+    [Illustration: THE MUSCLES OF THE ARM]
+
+    [Illustration: WHEN THE MUSCLES SHORTEN]
+
+What are the soft pads that you felt over the bones of your arms and
+legs? Stretch your right arm straight out in front of you and take
+hold of the upper part of it with your left hand. Now clench your
+right fist and bring it toward your shoulder. Can you feel the elastic
+pads, or bands, moving? What are they doing? They are pulling your
+hand up to your shoulder. When you walk, you can feel the elastic
+bands moving your legs along. So every move we make, these elastic
+ropes are at work pulling us about and letting us sit down and making
+us run and jump. We call them _muscles_.
+
+You have perhaps seen jointed dolls. The strings and rubber bands on
+their joints help to make them move; but the dolls don't act as if
+they were alive. They have no telephone system to tell their bodies
+how to move.
+
+If you will stop and think how many "moves" you make in a day, you'll
+know how hard your muscles have to work. They'd be quite tired out if
+they did not have plenty to feed on all the time and did not rest at
+least nine hours a day. I told you how the food is melted and carried
+about in the blood. It is the blood that brings the muscles their food
+and keeps them alive and makes them strong enough to move the joints
+and the bones.
+
+What does all this playing do for you? It makes you grow not only big,
+but strong, too. What puny little things you'd be if you couldn't get
+out and run and play and make your muscles strong and your nerves do
+just what you tell them to do.
+
+I know of ten or twelve little chickens that hatched a few weeks ago.
+There are so many cats about, that the poor little chicks have to be
+shut up in the barn all day. At first they ran and played and jumped
+on their mother's back, but now they hump their shoulders and hang
+their heads and don't seem hungry and look sad and sick. They are not
+so big as some that hatched later. Can you tell me why? Of course you
+can. You know that it is outdoor exercise and play that chickens need,
+and that you need to make you grow big and strong, too. Of course, you
+will have to keep your backbone straight and your chest out and your
+head up; but all these things will be easy for you if you are
+perfectly well and strong.
+
+The school tries to take just as good care of your health and growth
+as it can. Your lessons are short, and you change from one to another
+frequently, with perhaps drills or calisthenic exercises between, so
+that you need not sit still too long at a time; and the seats and
+desks are of different sizes so that you need not sit at a desk that
+does not fit you. When your teacher urges you to go out of doors and
+play at recess time, even if you do not want to, you must think to
+yourself, "It will rest me and make me grow big and straight and
+strong."
+
+When you come home from school, go out of doors and stay out just as
+long as you can. Don't let dolls or toys or picture books tempt you to
+stay in the house. The pictures out of doors are ever so much
+prettier, as soon as you learn to see them. But some of you live in
+crowded cities. I hope you are near a park or a playground, where you
+can have a good romp with other children, and use the swings and
+see-saws and bars, and the skating pond in winter, and the swimming
+pool in summer.
+
+    [Illustration: A SKATING POND MADE OUT OF A GARDEN
+
+    The school garden is flooded in winter--a fine place to skate
+    right after school.]
+
+What fun swimming is! You can learn easily if you have a safe place
+and an older person to teach you the stroke. You can roll over on your
+back in the water, and float, and dive; but you must not stay in
+longer than twenty minutes, and not so long as that sometimes. As soon
+as you begin to feel chilly, come out. Swimming not only cleans your
+skin, but is splendid  exercise for your lungs and muscles.
+
+All this play out of doors will help your appetite, and that will make
+you ready to eat the right kind of food, and this food will get into
+your blood and keep your muscles firm and strong.
+
+    [Illustration: SPLENDID EXERCISE FOR LUNGS AND MUSCLES]
+
+
+II. ACCIDENTS
+
+I am going to tell you what to do in the case of some of the little
+accidents that may happen to anyone, and especially of the kind that
+children meet with in playing; but I don't want you to stop playing
+for fear you'll be hurt. Mother Nature can usually heal all the bumps
+and cuts and scratches that come from wholesome play.
+
+You can, however, help her very much by keeping the _scratch_ or _cut
+perfectly clean_. This is the chief thing to remember. Wash it
+thoroughly in clean water. Hold it under the pump, or faucet, and let
+the water pour down on it.
+
+If you can, pour some _antiseptic_, or germ killer, over the cut, and
+wrap it up in a clean cloth. There is a medicine called _peroxid of
+hydrogen_, which is good for cuts and wounds, but an older person will
+have to put it on for you.
+
+If the scratch is from a finger nail or the claw of a cat, or if the
+wound is the bite of some animal, you must be sure to have your mother
+or a doctor clean the wound with strong medicine. You see, nails and
+claws and teeth are, as a rule, dirty, and have on them germs that
+will get into the cut and make it swell and be very sore indeed.
+
+    [Illustration: THE TIGHT BANDAGE HIGHER THAN THE CUT]
+
+Sometime you may have a cut that is deep. You will see the bright red
+blood spurt from it. This means that you have cut one of the blood
+pipes called arteries. If the cut is on the arm or the leg, you should
+take a cloth or bandage and tie it tightly around the arm or leg
+_above_ the cut; and if that does not check the blood, put a piece of
+stick under the cloth and twist the stick, as in the picture. For a
+cut like this you must get help as soon as possible, and keep quiet,
+or else you will increase the flow of blood.
+
+If you get anything in your eye, be sure not to rub the eye; don't
+even wink hard if you can help it. You will only make the pain worse,
+because you will scratch the eyeball. Let some one take out the bit of
+dust or the cinder or the fly, or whatever it is, as quickly as
+possible. Often, if you close the lids gently and hold them so, the
+tears will wash the speck down for you.
+
+If you should bruise yourself, the best way to treat the bruise is to
+pour either quite cold or quite warm water over it, and keep this up
+for several minutes; or to put it into a bowl of hot water. Then tie
+it up in a bandage of soft cotton cloth or gauze and pour over it a
+lotion containing a little alcohol--about one sixth or one fourth.
+This, by evaporating, cools off the bruise and relieves the pain.
+
+If your ear, or nose, or a finger should happen to be frozen or frost
+bitten, the best thing to do is to rub it hard with snow until it
+thaws out and becomes pink again. Above all, don't go too near the
+fire, and don't go into a very warm room too soon.
+
+If you get one of those uncomfortable itchy swellings on your feet
+called _chilblains_, which come from cold floors in your houses, or
+from wet feet, or from wearing too thin shoes and stockings, don't put
+your feet too near the fire, but rub them well with turpentine just
+before going to bed at night. This will often take all the pain and
+itching out of them.
+
+Sometimes people make the mistake of drinking something that is
+poisonous. Of course, one good way to prevent this is to have _every
+bottle in the house carefully marked_ and never to take anything from
+a bottle without reading the mark, or label. Another good way is _not
+to have poisons about_ any more than we actually need to.
+
+Still, even so, sometimes a mistake is made. If you ever make such a
+mistake, the best thing to do is to drink as much warm water as you
+can, and into the second cupful to put a tablespoonful of dry mustard
+or two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. This will make you vomit, and
+up will come the poison. The water makes the poison weaker. If this
+doesn't make you throw up the poison, have some one tickle the back of
+your throat with a feather. There are a great many kinds of poison and
+as many things to take to cure them; but this is the only remedy I
+shall tell you about, because, by the time you have tried this, some
+older person will probably have come to help you.
+
+All the medicines that you see advertised as "Headache Cures" are
+dangerous poisons if taken in too large doses; and most of them in
+small doses weaken the heart. They are what we call narcotics; they
+just deaden the nerves to pain without doing anything whatever to
+relieve or remove the cause.
+
+If you have a headache, the best thing to do is to go and lie down
+quietly and rest or sleep, until it goes away. A headache always means
+that something is wrong; it is one of Nature's most valuable danger
+signals. When your head aches, Nature is telling you that you have
+been over-straining your eyes, or breathing foul air, or eating some
+food that does not agree with you, or forgetting to go to the toilet
+regularly, or not getting sleep enough. The sensible thing to do is
+not to swallow some medicine to deaden your nerves to the pain, but to
+find out what you have been doing that is unhealthful for you, and
+then stop it.
+
+Most of the medicines called "patent medicines," which are advertised
+to "cure" all sorts of pains and troubles, contain poisons, and are
+particularly dangerous because they easily lead one to form the habit
+of taking them. Nine tenths of them are either absolute frauds,--of no
+strength or use whatever,--or else they contain alcohol, or opium, or
+some of the dangerous drugs made out of coal tar.
+
+Now about _burns_. You need not wash them, because the heat has killed
+the troublesome germs. They need to be covered from the air, if the
+blister is broken. Cover them thickly with olive oil or vaseline, or
+common baking soda mixed with a few drops of water. This makes a good
+paste to put over them, and it will ease the pain. (This is the way to
+treat a _wasp_ or _bee sting_, too, after you have pulled out the
+"stinger.") If the blister of the burn is not broken, just keep
+putting vaseline or sweet oil on it every half hour or so, and the
+blister won't break; for the oil will make it limber and prevent it
+from bursting.
+
+If ever your clothes should catch fire, _do not run_; the wind you
+make will only fan the flames, so that they burn faster. _Lie down and
+roll over and over_, as fast as you can. If there is a rug or a quilt
+handy, wrap yourself up tight in it. My youngest brother once saved a
+little child's life this way. He was not very old, but he remembered
+to put the child on the floor and roll him up in a rug.
+
+However, the best way to prevent accidents with fire is to let fire
+and lamps and matches and kerosene and sparklers and firecrackers
+alone.
+
+I am so glad that people are becoming sensible about keeping our
+nation's birthday, the Fourth of July, and are doing away with the
+firecrackers that have killed so many thousands of children. The burns
+you get from firecrackers are much more dangerous than other burns. A
+dirt-germ often gets into them that may cause _lockjaw_. The name
+tells what it is: it locks the jaws together so that its victim cannot
+eat; and, of course, if he cannot eat, he cannot live very long. Next
+Fourth of July try getting flags and bunting and drums and horns, if
+you like, instead of these dangerous fireworks.
+
+In keeping the Fourth one year not long ago, one hundred and
+seventy-one children lost one or more fingers; forty-one lost a leg,
+an arm, or a hand; thirty-six lost one eye, and sixteen lost both
+eyes; and two hundred and fifteen children were killed! This accounts
+for only the children; counting everybody, five thousand three hundred
+and seven people were killed or hurt. No wonder we begin to think that
+we ought to keep the Fourth in some other way.
+
+In the City of Washington, on one Fourth of July, one hundred and four
+people were taken to the hospital; but the following year when no
+fireworks were allowed to be sold, the hospitals did not have a single
+patient from the accidents of the day.
+
+    [Illustration: A RESULT OF CELEBRATING THE FOURTH IN THE OLD WAY]
+
+Water, as well as fire, has its dangers. If you ever fall into the
+water, _be sure to keep your mouth shut and your hands below your
+chin_. Then paddle with your hands gently, and you'll swim, just as
+any other young animal does when first thrown into the water. Even
+your cat, who hates water, can swim easily when she falls in. If you
+keep your wits as she does, you will get along as well. Some people
+learn to swim just by trying by themselves.
+
+    [Illustration: WORKING TO START HIS BREATHING AGAIN]
+
+If anyone in your party, when you are out boating or swimming, should
+be nearly drowned, the best way to revive him is to lay him, as
+quickly as possible, flat on his face on level ground, just turning
+his head a little to one side so that his nose and mouth will not be
+blocked. Then, kneeling astride of his legs, put both your hands on
+the small of his back and press downward with all your weight while
+you count three. This squeezes the abdomen and the lower part of the
+chest so as to drive the air out of the lungs. Then swing backward so
+as to take the weight off your hands, while you count three again; and
+then swing forward again and press down, again forcing the air out of
+the lungs. Keep up this swing-pumping about ten or fifteen times a
+minute for at least ten or fifteen minutes, unless the person begins
+to breathe of himself before this. Don't waste any time trying to hold
+him up by the feet, or roll him over a barrel so as to get the water
+out of his lungs. Just turn him over on his face as quickly as
+possible and get to work making a weight-pump of yourself on his back.
+
+If there is any life left in the body at all when it is taken out of
+the water, you will succeed in saving it. It is very seldom, however,
+that anyone who has been under water more than five minutes can be
+revived.
+
+And now the thing that I want you to be sure to remember, I have saved
+for the last. No matter what kind of accident happens, keep your wits
+about you and keep cool. Be calm and _think_ what it is best to do,
+instead of letting yourself be frightened. Of course, get some one to
+help you as soon as you can and, if need be, call for help as loud as
+your lungs will let you. But use that wonderful "phone" system to send
+in and out the messages that will help you to help yourself by telling
+your muscles what to do.
+
+
+III. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
+
+One morning I stopped a moment on the street to speak to a friend. Her
+little nephew had just finished eating some candy, and down went his
+candy-bag on the pavement. His aunt happened to see it. "Oh, no,
+Claude," she said, "don't you see the big green can there? Better put
+it into that." But Claude was only three years old; and the can was so
+tall that he could not tell what it was, till we led him up to it.
+
+Do you have cans like these in your town, too? It is good to think
+that every one of us, even such little fellows as Claude, can help to
+keep the city beautiful. But it is not simply to make things look nice
+that we have so many cans--cans for ashes, cans for papers, cans for
+food scraps. No indeed, it is to keep the city clean and make it fit
+for people to live in; for if dirty papers and scraps were left to
+blow about the streets, they would fill the air with germs and filth.
+
+Any dust that blows about the streets is likely to be carrying disease
+germs with it. That is why we have sprinklers driven through the
+streets to wet them and to keep down the dust; and why, in large
+cities, the streets are thoroughly flooded at night. If the streets
+are kept damp and clean, then the air above them is cool and fresh and
+pure.
+
+How does the city get rid of all the dirt and waste? From every house
+there are two kinds of waste. Some is taken away in pipes from the
+sink and bathroom out into pipes that run under the street, and these
+carry it away from the city to some stream or deep water that takes it
+entirely away from the town.
+
+The waste stuffs that are not watery, but solid--cabbage leaves, apple
+cores, potato parings, and other scraps from the kitchen are carted
+away and burned or fed to pigs. The ashes and tin cans are carted
+away, also, and used in making new land or filling up hollow places.
+
+Besides taking away the dirt, cities are careful to get clear, pure
+drinking water. They are very, very careful about this; and they
+usually have the water tested often, because, as you have learned,
+even water that looks perfectly pure may give people typhoid fever.
+That is why, when you are out in the country, on a picnic perhaps, you
+must not drink from the streams. They may receive the drainage from a
+farmer's barnyard, or the sewage from some house.
+
+The more we all learn about these things, the more careful will the
+city be to protect her people. To be sure, most cities now have Boards
+of Health who employ men and women to go about and see that the food
+in the stores is clean--no flies, no dust, and no tobacco smoke on it.
+They have laws, too, about keeping milk clean; and in New York alone
+these laws have saved the lives of thousands of babies. And they have
+laws about the care of streets and buildings and cars and parks and a
+great many other things.
+
+In all these things we have been talking about, I want you to be
+thinking how you can help. For a city is made up of people--boys and
+girls and men and women. The city is what its people make it; and
+everyone must help, even the smallest children, no older than little
+Claude.
+
+The first and most important thing for you to do is to keep yourself
+clean and tidy. And the next thing is for you to keep your back yard
+as well as your front yard and the school yard and the street free
+from papers and sticks and cans and old playthings. You can put away
+your things when you are through playing; or, if you are making a
+railroad or a town or a playhouse, you can leave it looking nice and
+tidy. You can help chiefly by putting away your own things. You know
+the old saying, "A workman is known by his chips"; and a good workman
+always works in an orderly way.
+
+When you eat apples or bananas or oranges, don't throw the skins or
+peelings about, but put them in a garbage can or swill bucket or cover
+them with soft dirt in the garden or stable yard; and don't throw
+peanut shells, or scraps of paper and the like, about the streets or
+parks. You should begin to notice all these things and talk about
+them, and that will make other people begin to think about them, too.
+
+Then you can make gardens instead of leaving bare, untidy back yards.
+I think that nicely kept vegetable gardens are almost as pretty as
+flower gardens. If you cannot mow the lawn, you can at least cut the
+long grass on the edges; and that makes such a difference! It is
+wonderful how much boys and girls can do in making and keeping a city
+really beautiful.
+
+I hope that you have plenty of room to play in now. Of course, when
+you grow up, you will see that there are plenty of playgrounds and
+parks for the children. We are beginning to find out that the richest
+and the most beautiful city is the one whose streets are lined with
+families of happy, rosy-cheeked children. So, you see, the "City
+Beautiful" is the one that takes best care of her children, and she
+can do this only by keeping her streets and houses perfectly clean and
+seeing that the food her people get is fresh and good, and their
+drinking water pure. If the city or town you live in is not like this,
+be sure you do your very best to make it better.
+
+    [Illustration: WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A BACK YARD LIKE THIS?]
+
+    [Illustration: OR LIKE THIS?]
+
+There is one great evil that for hundreds and hundreds of years has
+been known wherever people are crowded together, and even in the open
+country, too; and which has been the cause of more untidiness and
+uncleanliness and unhappiness and disease than any other evil ever
+known. And that is the drinking of alcohol. People don't drink clear
+alcohol, but they can get a great deal of it--enough to poison them
+badly--in the fermented drinks you learned about some time ago.
+
+In the days when your grandfather was a little boy, every man thought
+that ale and wine and whiskey were good foods for him when he was
+well; and good medicine when he was sick. He believed that they gave
+him an appetite, and increased his strength. But now we have found, by
+carefully studying the effects of alcohol, in laboratories and in
+hospitals, that these beliefs were almost entirely mistaken. We know
+that all that wine, beer, and whiskey do is to make people feel better
+for a little while, without making them actually stronger or better in
+any way. In fact, in most respects these drinks make them weaker and
+worse instead.
+
+Perhaps you will ask, "How do whiskey and wine and beer do us harm?"
+And here is only part of the answer: (1) They tire the heart and, by
+enlarging the blood pipes in the skin, make the heart pump too much of
+the blood out to the skin. In this way they make a person feel warmer
+when he really is not any warmer. (2) They make the liver work too
+hard. (3) They dull the brain, so that it cannot think so clearly or
+so well. (4) If one drinks them frequently, it is harder for him to
+get well when he is sick; more people die out of those who drink
+alcohol than out of those who do not.
+
+Alcohol is a _narcotic_; that is, it deadens our nerves, for the time
+being, to any sensations of pain or discomfort, much in the same way
+that a very small dose of _morphine_ or _opium_ would. We may imagine
+it does us good because, for a little while after drinking it, we may
+cease to feel pain or fatigue or cold; but, instead of making us
+really better and able to do more work, it is dulling our nerves so
+that we work more slowly and more clumsily. Men who have carefully
+measured the amount of work that they do have found that they do less
+work on days when they take one or two glasses of beer or wine than
+they do on days when they drink only water.
+
+The great insurance companies have found that those of their policy
+holders who drink no alcohol at all live nearly one fourth longer and
+have nearly one third fewer sicknesses than those who drink alcohol
+even in moderate amounts.
+
+Indeed, so strong is the evidence as to the bad effects of alcohol,
+and so steadily is it increasing, that it will probably not be very
+many years more before the drinking of wine or beer by intelligent,
+thoughtful people will have become less than half as common as it is
+now.
+
+Strong, healthy men may be able for a long time to drink small amounts
+of liquor without noticing any harmful effects; but all the time the
+alcohol may be doing serious harm to their nerves and brain and
+kidneys and liver and blood vessels, which they will not find out
+until it is too late to stop the trouble.
+
+Useless and bad as alcohol is for full-grown men and women, it is even
+worse for young and growing children; and no child, and no boy or girl
+under the age of twenty-one, should ever touch a drop of it, except in
+those rare instances where it may be prescribed as a medicine by a
+doctor, just as many other drugs are, which in larger doses would be
+poisons.
+
+Fortunately, it will be no trouble for you children to let it alone
+entirely; for not one of you would like the taste of it the first
+time--or, indeed, for the matter of that, for the first ten or twelve
+times--that you tried to drink it, if you should be so foolish. This
+is one striking difference between alcohol and all other foods and
+drinks. Children have absolutely no natural liking, or taste, for the
+drinks that contain it, as they have for meat, milk, sugar, apples,
+and the other real foods. This is Nature's way of telling them that it
+is not a real food, and not needed in any way for their growth and
+health. Let it alone absolutely, until you are at least twenty-one
+years old; and by that time you will probably have become so convinced
+of the harm that it is doing that you will never begin using it at
+all.
+
+What we have been saying so far applies, of course, only to the
+moderate use of alcohol. How terrible the effects of the long or
+excessive use of alcohol are, you don't need to learn from a book. All
+you have to do is to keep your eyes open on the streets, and see the
+drunken men reeling along the sidewalk, and the wrecks of men that
+hang around the saloons. The poorhouses and the jails and the insane
+asylums are filled with them. The most terrible thing that can happen
+to anyone is to become a drunkard. The best and safest and only
+sensible thing to do is to keep away from the only stuff that makes
+drunkards. It may do you the most terrible harm, and it cannot do you
+the slightest good.
+
+Your city can never become the "City Beautiful" so long as this evil
+mars it; and, as you grow up, I hope you will do all you can toward
+making the right kind of city and home.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVENING MEAL
+
+
+When you have had some good games of play after school, and have
+finished whatever errands you may have to run, or have done the chores
+about the barn or the garden or the house, you will begin to feel as
+if there were something missing somewhere. It won't take you very long
+to discover where that missing feeling is; and when you hear a call
+from the house, or a ring of the bell in the hall, you come running in
+for supper. If you have worked well in school and played hard and done
+your chores well, you will have a splendid appetite. In fact, you will
+think there is no other meal in the day that tastes quite so good.
+
+Is your evening meal supper or dinner? If you have had a hot dinner at
+noon, you probably do not want anything more than a good supper. But
+if you had only luncheon, then you are ready to eat something hot and
+hearty about six o'clock.
+
+What are some of the things that you like for dinner? Meat and eggs
+and bread and butter and jam and rice and potatoes and onions and
+celery and cookies and apples and oranges and oh, so many, many other
+things! Mother Nature has given us all these good things, that we may
+have not only enough to eat but plenty of different kinds. We soon
+grow tired of one kind, and that is how she tells us that we need many
+kinds.
+
+When I was little, oranges were not so common as they are now; and I
+never but once had as many as I wanted. That once, my father told me
+to eat all I liked, and I did; but for weeks afterwards I didn't want
+even to see an orange! Did you ever feel that way too, though perhaps
+not about oranges? Nature sometimes has to teach us not to eat too
+much of one kind at a time.
+
+Some people like one thing, and some another. Do all of you like
+onions? I think not; but those who do, like them very much. The same
+thing is true of tomatoes and sweet potatoes and red raspberries and
+oysters and many other things. But there are some things that almost
+everybody likes; and our grandfathers and great-grandfathers and
+great-great-grandfathers ate them. One of them is called the "staff of
+life" because we lean, or depend, on it so much; we have it for
+breakfast, dinner, and supper. That is bread, of course. Meat and eggs
+and milk and butter, too, are among the foods that we all like.
+
+These might be called our "main foods," and we should eat one or two
+or even three of them at each meal. Meat and milk and eggs and butter,
+animals give us. But these are not enough; we need besides some of the
+foods that plants give us, because, as I have told you, we need
+different kinds of food at one time to keep the body fires going
+briskly.
+
+What are some of the foods that plants give us? Bread is made from a
+plant--from wheat. Oatmeal comes from the oat plant; and hominy, from
+corn. Some of our plant foods, such as potatoes, turnips, onions,
+sweet potatoes, parsnips, and radishes, grow under ground. Some, such
+as peas and beans, grow on vines. Then there are lettuce and cabbage
+and celery. And there are fruits--cherries, apples, peaches, plums,
+pears, melons, tomatoes, berries.
+
+Nature has given us all these foods, and many more; and she wants us
+to use them all. She wants us to use, every day and every meal, some
+foods that come from plants and some that come from animals.
+
+A good dinner would be a slice of roast beef or mutton, a potato, a
+helping of some sort of vegetable like peas or beans or onions or
+tomatoes or celery; and a dish of milk pudding or apple dumpling, or
+stewed fruit with bread and butter, or pie that has only an upper
+crust or its under crust very well baked. When you are eating bread,
+remember that the crusts are the very best part, because they are well
+cooked and really taste the best. They are good for your teeth, too.
+
+    [Illustration: ONE OF THE HAPPIEST TIMES OF THE DAY]
+
+Perhaps, while I am talking about a good meal, I ought to talk a
+little about the way to eat and how to make mealtime pleasant.
+
+Of course, to make our food soft, we must take little bites, eat
+slowly, and chew each mouthful a long time. Be sure to remember this.
+So many of the children I know eat so fast that you'd think they had
+to catch a train! Did you ever see anyone try to talk and chew at the
+same time or forget to shut his mouth while he was chewing? Wasn't it
+a very awkward, disagreeable sight? Think a moment, if you are tempted
+to talk with your mouth full, or put your knife into your mouth, or
+make a noise while you are eating, that these things are not pleasant
+for your neighbors.
+
+Do you tell funny stories at the table and talk about happy tramps you
+have taken or games you have played, or about your pets or your books?
+If you do, your food will do you more good, and you will be helping
+the other people at the table, too. Mealtimes should be the happiest
+times in the day.
+
+
+
+
+A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+
+When the supper things have been cleared away, you have two hours or
+so before going to bed, and I dare say you look forward to these as
+one of the pleasantest parts of the day.
+
+It is always best for you to take things rather easily and quietly and
+pleasantly for at least fifteen or twenty minutes after every meal;
+and after the heaviest meal of the day, whether this comes at noon or
+in the evening, it is better to stretch the time to half or three
+quarters of an hour. If you try to work or play hard right after a
+hearty meal, you will be drawing away to your brain or to your
+muscles, the blood that the stomach is trying to get for the digesting
+and melting of your food. I suppose that you have all found this out
+for yourselves; for, if you run and play too hard right after dinner,
+you are very soon out of breath, and if you keep up the exercise, you
+are quite likely to have an attack of indigestion or stomach ache. If
+you sit down to study directly after a meal, you soon feel heavy and
+lazy, and what you read doesn't seem clear to you, and in a little
+while you probably have a headache and an unpleasant taste in your
+mouth. If you try to do two important things like digestion and hard
+work with your brain or the muscles of your arms and legs at the same
+time, you will be very likely to do both of them badly.
+
+Even if you have studying to do at night, it will be much better for
+you to spend half an hour or an hour in laughing and chatting, or in
+reading some good story, or in playing some of the many pleasant
+parlor games that rest you instead of tiring you, before you settle
+down to your books. You will find that when you do start to work, you
+get your lessons much more quickly and easily than if you had started
+in after eating.
+
+Perhaps your sister is just waiting to show you that girls can play
+checkers better than boys can--"So there!" Or some of your friends
+have come in for a game of dominoes or authors or snap or parcheesi or
+stage coach or pussy-wants-a-corner, or to try that new song you
+learned last week; and you will be surprised how quickly the time
+flies away and bedtime or study hour comes.
+
+Most evenings, however, you will probably get out your favorite
+magazine, or that good story that you are reading, and you will all
+sit around the big lamp on the center table and go off on adventures
+to the uttermost parts of the earth, with the best and most lasting
+friends that you will ever make--friends who will never grow tired of
+you and will always come when you want them and are always willing to
+talk or play--the people that live in books. Be sure to pick out the
+best of them for your chums--the bravest and the kindest and the most
+courteous, and the cleanest and the most honorable. You have the whole
+world to choose from; and it is never worth your while to get
+acquainted with cheap, badly behaved, second-rate people when you can
+have your pick of the best. Your mother and your father and your
+teacher will help you to choose, and you will soon find that what they
+call "good literature" is good stories, and about the right sort of
+men and women and boys and girls--the kind that you would like to
+know, and that you would want to be like. Once try it, and you find
+that you like that kind of reading better than you do the cheap,
+slangy, trashy stuff, just as you like, and never get tired of, good
+bread and butter and roast beef and apples and milk and cream and
+pudding and pie. Good sound stories of home life and adventure and
+travel are just as important in making your minds wholesome and happy
+as these good foods are in keeping your bodies strong and healthy.
+
+Be sure that the paper of the books and magazines you read is white
+and _not_ glossy, and is fairly thick and firm; for this makes them
+much easier to read and strains your eyes less. See, too, that the
+type is large and clear; for small, close type and yellow or shiny
+paper are very hard on the eyes.
+
+Be sure, of course, when you sit down to read _not_ to sit with your
+face to the lamp and your head bending forward; but settle yourself in
+a comfortable chair with your back to the light, and hold your book so
+that you can keep your chin up and your head erect while you read. You
+can breathe better, and read better, and enjoy what you read better in
+this position than in any other.
+
+Even if you have sums or writing to do, it is better to sit with your
+back, or at least your left side, toward the light; and often you will
+find it a great help to sit down with your back to the light in a
+large easy chair and do your writing on a big, thin book, or light
+piece of board, on a cushion on your knee.
+
+In winter, you will find that for the first half hour or so that you
+are reading after supper, you will want to keep fairly near the fire,
+because the blood is being drawn in from your skin to your stomach for
+purposes of digestion; but be sure to see that at least one, and
+better two, windows in the room are open six inches or so at the top,
+so that there is plenty of fresh air pouring into the room.
+
+    [Illustration: A COZY NOOK WHEN EVENING COMES]
+
+When study hour comes, take up your books and go briskly to work,
+forgetting that there is anything else in the world, and you will be
+astonished how quickly you will learn your lessons. Besides, you will
+be learning one of the most valuable lessons in life--to do with your
+might whatever your hands, or minds, find to do.
+
+
+
+
+GOOD NIGHT
+
+
+I. GETTING READY FOR BED
+
+By and by the clock strikes eight or nine, and your mother says,
+"Children, time to go to bed!"
+
+Sometimes you will have just come to the interesting point in the
+story, and would give anything to go on and finish it. But often you
+will be just nodding over your book, or beginning to wonder why the
+story is not quite so interesting as it was, or why the lines seem to
+be running into one another, and the book inclined to swing up and
+bump your nose.
+
+If you have had a lively, busy, happy day, you are quite sleepy enough
+to be ready for bed--that is, if you could drop into it with all your
+clothes on, without all the bother and fuss of undressing. So you pull
+yourself together bravely and answer, "All right, mother," and say
+"Good night" to everybody, and upstairs you go.
+
+Of course, you must take off your clothes, because you would find them
+most uncomfortable to sleep in. Besides, the little pores all over
+your skin have been pouring out perspiration all day long; and a great
+deal of this has been caught by your clothes, just as it is caught by
+the bedclothes while you sleep.
+
+So it is a good thing to take off your clothes, and let your skin be
+well aired and cooled. Don't leave your clothes all in a heap on the
+floor just where you happen to shed them, but hang them up over the
+back of a chair or on pegs, so that the air can blow through them all
+night long and sweeten and clean and dry them. Clothes that are worn
+continuously become sour with perspiration, and for this same reason
+your mother gives you regularly, once or twice a week, clean underwear
+and clean shirts or dresses.
+
+After you have undressed for bed, wash your face and neck and hands;
+and if you have a nice warm room or bathroom, take a quick splash, or
+sponge bath, all over, before you put on your nightgown. This will
+wash away from your skin everything that the perspiration has been
+leaving on it all day long, as well as any dust, or dirt, that may
+have got on it during the day.
+
+If the room is not warm enough for you to do this, it is a good thing
+for you to strip to your waist and then to swing your arms about, much
+as you did in the morning, only not quite so long, and to rub your
+arms and neck and shoulders all over with your hands. This gives them
+an _air bath_, and rubs off any of the little scales of skin that may
+be ready to be shed, and gives you a sort of dry wash, which is next
+best to a wet one.
+
+Then, when you have put on your nightdress, give your hair a thorough
+brushing. This is the best time of the day to do it. Dust, smoke,
+soot, and germs have been blowing into your hair all day long, and a
+thoroughly good brushing will not only get these out of it before they
+have had time to work their way in and lodge on the scalp, but will
+keep the hair bright and healthy.
+
+Before you get into bed, give your nails a quick scrub with a nail
+brush and hot water and soap, and go over them with a _blunt_-pointed
+nail cleaner, cleaning out any dirt that may be under their edges, and
+rounding off any ragged or broken points with the file. Once a week or
+so, when you take your hot bath, it is a good thing to go over your
+toe nails in the same way, trimming them and cleaning them. Remember,
+however, not to round off your toe nails at the corners, but to leave
+them square, as in this way you will prevent them from ingrowing under
+the pressure of your shoes.
+
+There is one thing that you should be very sure of before you get into
+bed, and that is that your teeth are as clean as it is possible for
+you to make them. If you attended to this also directly after supper,
+so much the better; for just as it is important to clean the dishes
+and knives and forks that you have been using, so it is important to
+thoroughly clean the ivory knives and forks that grow in your mouth.
+Talk about being "born with a silver spoon in your mouth"! You were
+born with something much prettier and far more valuable.
+
+Even though your teeth make a firm and even line in front and on their
+cutting edges, yet there are many little gaps and spaces between their
+roots, where bits of food can stick. If these scraps of food are not
+thoroughly and carefully removed after each meal, the warmth and
+moisture in the mouth makes them begin to decay. The acids from this
+decay will be likely not only to upset your stomach and digestion, but
+to act upon the glassy coating of your teeth. After a little while,
+spots will begin to form on the surface of your teeth; they will lose
+their bright, shiny, pearly look; the acids will eat further into the
+teeth, and very soon there will be holes, or _cavities_.
+
+Though your teeth are very hard and glassy looking on the surface,
+they are much softer and chalkier inside; this glassy coating covers
+only the _crown_, or free part, of the tooth, which you can see. It
+leaves the softer inside part of the tooth bare just at the edge of
+the gums, and particularly between the roots of the teeth, where
+little scraps of food lodge and decay. When the acids that are formed
+by the decaying food have eaten away a good deal of the inside of the
+tooth, the hard, shiny surface is left just like a thin shell; and one
+day you happen to bite down upon a piece of bone in your food, or try
+to crack a nut with your teeth, and "crack" goes this brittle shell of
+your hollow tooth.
+
+    [Illustration: HEALTHY GUMS MEAN HEALTHY TEETH
+
+    If the gums are not kept clean and healthy, the second teeth
+    that are getting ready to push out the first teeth will not come
+    in strong and good, nor will the teeth remain good. This picture
+    shows how the teeth grow. Notice the gaps between the teeth,
+    where food may lodge.]
+
+Right in the middle of each tooth is a tiny hollow, or cavity, filled
+with a soft, living pulp containing one or two very sensitive nerves;
+and when the decay has eaten into the tooth far enough to reach this
+nerve pulp, it makes it ache, and then you have _toothache_.
+
+The one and only thing that is necessary in order to avoid all this
+decay and breaking away of your teeth, and throbbing toothache, is to
+keep the surface of your teeth, and particularly the sides where they
+are next one another, clean and smooth and unbroken. And all that is
+needed to keep your teeth perfectly clean and smooth is to use your
+toothbrush thoroughly after every meal and at bedtime; and then, if
+there are any little scraps of food between the teeth that have not
+been brushed away, to pick them out gently with a quill toothpick, or
+take a piece of silk or linen thread, push it up between the teeth,
+and gently saw backward and forward until you have cleaned out the
+space between the roots. You should take at least three to five
+minutes after every meal and before you go to bed at night to brush
+your teeth; and you should brush not only your teeth, but the whole
+surface of your gums close up to where they join the lips.
+
+It is almost as important to keep your gums pink and hard and healthy
+as it is to keep your teeth clean; and the same thorough brushing will
+do both. If the gums are perfectly healthy, they will come well down
+over the roots of the teeth, and keep them safely covered right down
+to where the glassy outer coating begins, and so leave no gap where
+the acids of decay can attack the teeth. Be sure to brush your teeth,
+not merely straight backward and forward, but up and down and round
+and round as well, both to clean out thoroughly all the grooves and
+openings between them and to brush the gums well down over the teeth.
+
+It may seem strange, but one of the best ways to keep your teeth from
+growing crooked and irregular is to keep your nose clear and healthy,
+so that you can breathe through it freely at all times, both day and
+night. Crooked jaws and irregular teeth are more often caused by mouth
+breathing than by any other one thing.
+
+You can see why it is best to be careful not to get grit or dirt or
+bits of bone in your food, and not to crack nuts or hard candy with
+your teeth. If you do, you may crack or scratch the delicate glassy
+coating of your teeth. But, on the other hand, it is a good thing to
+give the teeth plenty to do, and particularly to eat the crusts of
+bread, and some of the tougher parts of meat, and parched corn or
+other grains, and to eat celery, apples, and other foods that take a
+great deal of chewing. The teeth are like everything else in the
+body--they need plenty of vigorous work in order to keep them healthy.
+
+Be very careful, though, to keep out of your mouth anything that might
+possibly crack or scratch the glassy coating, such as pins, pennies,
+pieces of wire, or slate pencils. It is best not even to try to bite
+off threads or pieces of string. There is, of course, another reason
+for not putting pencils and pennies and such things into your mouth:
+they may have dirt, or germs, on them and infect you with disease or
+at least upset your digestion.
+
+
+II. THE LAND OF NOD
+
+Now you are all ready for bed; and the white pillow and the nice,
+clean sheets and the warm blankets look very good to you, and you are
+ready to go to the "Land of Nod."
+
+You need not be afraid of the cold at night. Open your bedroom
+windows. Have plenty of light-weight, warm covers; then the cold
+breezes won't hurt you, but will make you strong. Just think how many
+hours you are in bed,--nearly half of your life,--and you need fresh,
+moving air all the time. Be sure to open your windows from the top as
+well as from the bottom. You know why: your breath is warm so that it
+floats and rises like smoke; and if you open the window only at the
+bottom, this bad air, which rises to the top of the room, can't get
+out. It is best to have windows on two sides of a bedroom, so that the
+air can be kept moving through it all night long. If you don't breathe
+fresh air while you sleep, you will feel dull and stupid in the
+morning and perhaps have a headache.
+
+So run your window shades right up to the top and throw your curtains,
+or shutters, back, as well as open the windows. If you don't, the
+fresh air cannot blow through the room properly. Even if this does let
+more light or noise into the room, this is of no importance whatever
+compared with abundance of fresh air. If you have played long enough
+out of doors in the daytime and have eaten a good supper and not
+stayed up too late, you will sleep soundly without being bothered at
+all by either lights or noises coming in through the windows. And no
+matter how cold or how light it is, don't put your head under the
+bedclothes. Why?
+
+It is best for you to close your mouth while you are going to sleep,
+and breathe through your nose, so that the air will be properly
+purified and warmed before it reaches your lungs. If you can't do
+this, your mother can perhaps give you something to wash out your
+nose, so that you can breathe freely. If that does not help, you had
+better see a doctor, and he will find some way to clear your head so
+that you can use your nose comfortably.
+
+Suppose you take a pencil and paper and write down all you did
+yesterday. Wasn't it enough to make you tired and sleepy and want a
+chance to rest? Even while you sleep, your heart keeps beating, and
+you don't stop breathing, of course. But your muscles are quiet, and
+your food tube rests. Your brain rests, too,--better in sleep than at
+any other time,--so that when morning comes you are as "lively as a
+cricket" and quite ready for the new day.
+
+Yet even in sleep your brain does not stop working entirely, but goes
+on receiving messages from the stomach and the skin and the memory,
+and mixing them up together in the strangest fashion, so that you
+_dream_, as you say. You ought not to dream very much if you are
+perfectly well; but as long as your dreams are pleasant or amusing,
+you need not pay any attention to them. But if you have had bad
+dreams, or you dream so hard all night long that you don't feel rested
+in the morning, then you had better speak to your mother about it, and
+let her see what is the matter with your digestion or your nerves, or
+take you to a doctor. Bad dreams are always a sign of ill health and
+are a very disagreeable thing, from which there is no need that you
+should suffer any more than from headache or indigestion or colic.
+Dreams, of course, do not mean or foretell anything whatever, except
+simply how bad, or good, the state of your digestion and your nerves
+is.
+
+Now, how much time should you spend in bed? Well, I think at your age
+nearly half the time. Ten or eleven hours of sleep make you ready for
+all the hours of work and play, and you don't become cross and tired
+half so easily if you have plenty of sleep. Though you are lying so
+quietly, you are not by any means wasting your time, for you probably
+are growing faster when you are asleep than when awake. Babies, who
+are growing very fast, you know, sleep nearly all the time.
+
+So after you have opened all the windows wide, put out the light and
+jump into bed and lie down for a good night's rest without thinking
+about anything except how comfortable the bed feels when you are
+tired.
+
+
+
+
+QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
+
+
+GOOD MORNING
+
+I. WAKING UP. 1. If you were choosing a bedroom, on which side of the
+house--facing which direction--would you choose it, and why? 2. How
+does the air "down cellar" feel? 3. Why do people often keep fresh
+fruit and vegetables there? 4. What are _bacteria_? 5. How can we
+prevent bacteria that cause disease from growing in our houses? 6. How
+would you know, without being told, that sunshine is good for you? 7.
+What does this book mean by saying that we are made of sunshine?
+
+II. A GOOD START. 1. When you jump out of bed in the morning, what do
+you do with the bedclothes? Why? 2. Stand in front of the class and
+show them the exercises that are good to do every morning. 3. Tell the
+class why they are good. 4. Do them every morning for a week, and then
+tell the class how you feel about keeping them up.
+
+III. BATHING AND BRUSHING. 1. If you grow very warm exercising, what
+change do you notice in your skin? What makes it turn pink? Where does
+the moisture come from? 2. What kind of bathing do you like best? 3.
+What do we wash off besides perspiration and dust? 4. If a scab forms
+over a scratch or cut in your skin, what should you do to it? Why?
+When will the scab come off of itself? 5. What makes the skin freckle
+or tan? 6. Could your face stand the same hard rubbing as your hands?
+Why not? 7. How do you take care of your hair? 8. What other parts of
+the skin can you tell about? 9. Look at your nails; which of the
+"tools" on p. 17 do they need now? 10. How, and when, do you care for
+your teeth? Why is this brushing very necessary? 11. Why must our
+clothes be washed every week? Name each of your _Five Senses_. 12.
+What can your skin tell you that your eyes and ears cannot? 13. Do you
+know of any trade or occupation in which it is necessary to train
+one's sense of touch? Tell about it. 14. What are the blind children
+in the picture doing? (Their alphabet does not look like yours, for
+the letters are represented by groups of raised dots or dashes or
+curves, which are more easily and quickly felt.) 15. What must you do
+besides washing and brushing to keep your skin in good order and
+looking well?
+
+
+BREAKFAST
+
+1. Why do we need to eat? 2. Do you like the breakfast suggested here?
+Why do you need so much? 3. Which of these foods come from animals?
+Which from plants? Which of them are the best "to grow on"? 4. How
+much milk is there in the two bottles in the picture on p. 23? What is
+the difference between milk and cream? Why is it better to buy bottled
+milk than milk dipped out of a can? 5. Suppose that you are going to
+get the breakfast in this house; how will you use some of the milk in
+preparing it? How will you take care of what is left? 6. Why is milk
+much better for you than coffee or tea? Where does the food strength
+in the milk come from? 7. Suppose that you have just bitten off a
+mouthful of food; what is the story of this mouthful before it is
+taken into your blood? Where does most of it enter the blood? What
+becomes of the part that the blood cannot use? Why is it very
+necessary that this be disposed of regularly?
+
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+I. GETTING READY. 1. How is it best to dress in winter? Why? (If this
+is hard to understand, think which would cool faster--hot soup in a
+deep cup or the same soup poured out into a plate? In which dish would
+the soup have the larger surface from which to let off the heat? You
+may now weigh only half as much as you will when you are fully grown,
+but you already have much more than half as much size or surface.) 2.
+What quality should all clothing material have, and why?
+
+II. AN EARLY ROMP. 1. Which makes you more tired, to walk slowly, just
+"lagging along," for about twenty minutes, or to walk briskly for the
+same time? Why? 2. How do you make your muscles strong? What is your
+heart made of? How can you make your heart strong? 3. Why do you need
+a heart? 4. What is your _pulse_? Where can you easily feel a pulse?
+Count the pulse of someone else for half a minute by a watch. Do this
+accurately. How many beats would there be in a minute? Try this with
+different classmates. 5. What do we call the tubes through which the
+blood flows away from the heart? The tubes through which it flows back
+to the heart? 6. What is happening to the blood on its "round trip"?
+Where does it get the liquid food that it delivers to the muscles? Why
+must the blood be carried away from the muscles?
+
+III. FRESH AIR--WHY WE NEED IT. 1. If you were asked how we can tell
+that air is everywhere, what could you say? 2. What do we call a thin
+light substance like air? 3. What proof have we that the body needs
+it? How does it get around to the different parts of the body? 4. What
+is the body--its muscle, bone, skin, and all--made up of? How do these
+cells use the air? Why do you need to breathe so often? 5. In the
+candle experiment, is all the air under the glass used up? What is
+used up? How can we compare a person in a closed room to the burning
+candle under the glass? 6. What is the gas that we breathe out? 7. In
+what three ways does the body "clean house"?
+
+IV. FRESH AIR--HOW WE BREATHE IT. 1. Where are your lungs? 2. Draw a
+picture of the ribs. 3. In what position are they when the lungs are
+filled with air? In what position is the diaphragm then? 4. What are
+the lungs giving off in the breath besides carbon dioxid? How can you
+prove this? 5. How can you prove that the gas in your breath is not
+like the gas in the fresh air around you? 6. Why does a room with
+people in it grow very warm if the doors and windows are kept closed?
+7. How does Nature keep the outdoor air clean? What makes the winds?
+8. Are you careful to keep your breath as clean as possible? How? How
+do you help keep the air in your house clean?
+
+
+IN SCHOOL
+
+I. BRINGING THE FRESH AIR IN. 1. What do we mean by fresh air? Why
+must the air we breathe have oxygen in it? 2. Is the air in the room
+now the best you can have in it? How is the air moving? 3. Is there
+always the same amount of air in the room? Then, if there is more
+fresh air, there must be--bad air? If there is less fresh air, there
+must be--bad air? What is the quickest way to let the bad air out and
+the fresh air in? Why are you given recess? 4. What is a draft? Are
+drafts dangerous? 5. Will night air hurt you? What air can you have in
+the house at night except night air?
+
+II. HEARING AND LISTENING. 1. Have you ever slept in a house close to
+a railway? What did you notice whenever a heavy train went by? What
+made the bed tremble? 2. If you have stood very near a moving train,
+how did your ears feel? Why? 3. How far do sound waves travel after
+they enter the ear? Could a person be deaf who had two perfect ears?
+Where would the trouble be? 4. Draw a picture to show the parts of
+your _left_ ear, and name each part. 5. How do you take care of your
+ears? 6. Comment on doing each of these things:--firing a bean shooter
+at anyone; throwing gravel or sand; firing off a cap or torpedo close
+to some one's head; boxing a person on the ear; running a nail cleaner
+or pencil point into your ear; putting on the baby's cap so that the
+ears are folded forward; asking your teacher to repeat her question.
+7. Have you tried to train your ears? How?--and why? 8. Find out about
+some business, or occupation, in which it is necessary to have very
+keen hearing, and write a little story about it.
+
+III. SEEING AND READING. 1. Are you seated now in the best way for
+reading or not? Why? 2. Why is it well to look up often, as you read?
+3. How far from your eyes ought you to be able to hold this book to
+read it easily? If you cannot, what should you do? 4. Draw a picture
+of someone's eye, as you see it, naming the parts. 5. Draw a picture
+of your eye as it would look if you could see the eyeball from the
+_left_ side, and name the parts. 6. What takes the sight message to
+the brain? 7. How does the nerve of the eye (the _optic nerve_) get
+its messages? What, then, is _light_? If the light waves enter the
+ear, can they make you hear? Why not? 8. When a baby is born, what
+care should be taken of its eyes immediately, and why? 9. Have you
+ever played any games in which the sharpest eyes won? What were they?
+10. Write a little story about the picture on p. 59.
+
+IV. A DRINK OF WATER. 1. Why do we want to drink water? How would you
+know that your body must have a great deal of liquid in it? 2. Do you
+know where the water you drink at school comes from? If you don't, try
+to find out; and find out also just how it is brought to the school
+and why it flows up to the faucets. 3. If you get drinking water from
+a well, either at home or at school, tell where this well is--how near
+the house or the out-buildings. Do you think that any waste from these
+buildings could drain into the well? Why? 4. At your sand table or
+from a sandpile in the yard, lay out a farmyard, showing where the
+house, the barn, the chicken yard, and the pig-sty, also the privy
+vault, are. Now locate the well so that it cannot receive drainage
+from any of these places. 5. What is the danger in using drinking
+water from a stream? 6. How could the germs of typhoid fever get into
+the milk we drink? 7. What do we mean by _fermented_ drinks? Name
+some. What is in these drinks that is so very harmful?
+
+V. LITTLE COOKS. 1. Do you bring luncheon to school? What do you like
+to have for your luncheon? Talk about this in class with your teacher,
+and find out what things are best for school luncheons. 2. How is your
+luncheon packed? Why ought it to be neatly done? 3. How long do you
+take for luncheon, or for dinner at home? Is this time enough? 4. What
+do you do right after eating? Is this what you ought to do? Why? 5.
+What foods do you know how to cook? Write out the recipe for something
+you have made, showing what you mixed and how you did it; and in what,
+and how long, you cooked it. 6. Give three reasons for cooking food.
+7. How is fried food so often made indigestible? 8. Are sweet foods
+good or harmful? What does sugar come from? How is it made? 9. Write a
+little story about one of these things: My First Lesson in Cooking;
+Our Taffy Party; How I Kept Flies out of the Kitchen; How We Boys
+Cooked Breakfast (or Supper); My Marketing.
+
+VI. TASTING AND SMELLING. 1. If anyone asked you how a lemon tastes,
+what would you say? What would you say about sugar? Salt? Pepper?
+Pickles? Strawberries? Cheese? Onions? Radishes? How did you learn
+about each of these? 2. What does your tongue do besides receiving
+tastes? Note in the picture (p. 86) how strongly your tongue is
+rooted; point to the tip of it in the picture. 3. How does your nose
+help your throat and your lungs? How else may it help you? 4. Draw a
+picture to show how air reaches the lungs. 5. What are _adenoids_? How
+may you know if you have adenoids? If you have, what ought you to do?
+Why? 6. Where do the men who want to smoke in the open trolley car
+have to sit? Why? If children breathe tobacco smoke, what effect will
+it have on them? Why is smoking a foolish habit? How is it often
+harmful?
+
+VII. TALKING AND RECITING. 1. When you are reciting in class, do you
+think how your voice and the words sound to the other people in the
+room? Show the class how you can make your speech sound just as you
+want it to. 2. Give three ways in which you can take care of your
+throat and voice. Put your hand on the place where your voice is made.
+How is it made? 3. On your own picture of the throat, show where those
+little folds of skin are (the picture on p. 86 shows, of course, only
+the fold of skin, or _vocal cord_, on the right half of the windpipe).
+
+VIII. THINKING AND ANSWERING. 1. With two or three of your classmates,
+play telephone;--one must be "Central" and one "Information" at the
+central office, and one must receive your message and answer it. A
+number of the other children may join hands to make a long "wire" on
+each side of "Central"; they will repeat the message softly from one
+to another all down their "wire." 2. Now, suppose that you all
+represent the telephone system in the body. Could you act out this
+"Body-Telephone" call:--The eye sees a burning match on the floor, and
+sends the message to its center in the brain; this center consults the
+memory ("Information") as to what to do. Memory recalls that burning
+matches are likely to set fire to other things and ought to be put
+out. So the brain sends a message to the muscles of the foot to get to
+work and stamp out the flame. In this play, what will you each call
+yourselves? 3. Make up some other "Body-Telephone" plays. 4. What are
+some of the messages that are being carried by your nerves, that you
+know nothing about? 5. Think how many messages a baby stores away
+before he is ready to answer them; what are some of these? Why can he
+not answer them at once? What makes his brain and nerves and muscles
+grow? How can you take the best care of yours? 6. In the picture on p.
+96, point to the brain; to the spinal cord. How near the surface of
+your back is your spinal cord? What keeps it from being easily
+injured?
+
+
+"ABSENT TO-DAY?"
+
+I. KEEPING WELL. 1. Why do our bodies need "housecleaning"? How do we
+get rid of the waste part that is a gas? Of the part that is water?
+What carries the carbon dioxid to the lungs? What carries the waste
+water to the sweat tubes and the kidneys? What other waste is there to
+be gotten rid of? 2. Suppose that you and your chum each have an equal
+chance to take a bad cold from someone else; your chum catches it, and
+you don't. What might be one reason why you don't? Place your hand
+over your liver. How can you keep it in good working order? 3. What is
+the bladder? Why is it so very necessary to empty the bladder
+regularly? When you perspire freely, how does that help the kidneys?
+
+II. SOME FOES TO FIGHT. 1. You have seen moldy bread? What is, the
+mold? What makes it spread? 2. Suppose you take some pieces of moldy
+bread or potato and turn a glass jar or bowl over them. Catch a few
+flies and put them under the glass, and leave them to crawl over the
+moldy food. After a day, put the flies under another glass with some
+pieces of fresh bread or potato. If you find that the fresh food
+quickly becomes moldy, how will you think that the mold germs came to
+it? (If you keep the jars in a warm place, the germs will grow faster,
+and you won't have so long to wait before you can see the mold.) 3.
+What other kinds of germs do flies carry? How do they carry them? 4. A
+Board of Health caused a liveryman to be fined because he allowed a
+manure pile to remain behind his stable. Why was his act a
+misdemeanor? From what do flies come, and how do they grow? 5. On your
+way to and from school, what have you noticed that could breed or
+attract flies? How could these things have been avoided? 6. The next
+time you go into a butcher shop or grocery store, notice how the
+things are kept and be ready to tell the class what you think about
+it. 7. In what ways may germs be carried, besides by flies? 8. What do
+we mean by the "Great White Plague"? Why is it called this? What are
+people doing to try to cure it? 9. What can you do to help prevent it?
+10. Why ought you to stay away from other people when you have a cold?
+What do you need most in order to get well? 11. Do you always have
+your own towel to use? Why should you? 12. Write a little story about
+the picture on p. 112.
+
+III. PROTECTING OUR FRIENDS. 1. Is there a Board of Health in your
+town? If not, what takes its place? See if you can find out some of
+the things that the Board or the Officers have done for the town. 2.
+What do we mean by _quarantine_? What is the _quarantine station_ in
+ports where passenger steamers land? See if you can find out about any
+time when a city or port was guarding its people against an infectious
+disease. 3. Have you been vaccinated? How was it done? Why was it
+done? How do we all know that it is a very wise thing to have done? 4.
+How can you help the Health Officers to keep your town a healthful
+place?
+
+
+WORK AND PLAY
+
+I. GROWING STRONG. 1. When you play out of doors, what do you
+exercise? What do you exercise when you study? How ought you to play
+and study so as to get the most good from each? Why is it good to
+play, and work too, out of doors? 2. What games have you played in the
+last day or two? How did the players divide the muscle exercise of the
+game? Did they divide up the thinking part, too? 3. Why must the blood
+be sent to the muscles? Why must it be carried away again? When you
+feel tired, what is happening in your body? 4. What are muscles like?
+Show how the elastic bands of your legs work when you sit on your
+heels. What makes the muscles at the back of your legs feel thicker?
+5. What bones of your body can you feel? Put your hands on them, as
+you tell what you can about each. 6. Why do we need bones? What do we
+call our whole framework of bones? 7. Have you ever seen anyone who
+had to stay all the time in bed or sit in a wheeled chair? How did
+this person show the lack of exercise? 8. What is the meaning of the
+picture on p. 129? 9. Choose one of the other pictures in this chapter
+and write a story about it to show how to grow strong.
+
+II. ACCIDENTS. 1. When you hear the word _accident_, what do you think
+of? What have you to help you to prevent accidents? If you have used
+your "look-out department" as well as you can, and still the accident
+happens, what will you do then? 2. Show the class how to care for a
+very deep cut. What do we call a medicine that kills disease germs? 3.
+How would you treat a bruise? A burn? Frost-bitten ears? Chilblains? A
+bee sting? 4. If you are told to take some medicine from a certain
+bottle or box, do you always look at the label? Why is it dangerous
+not to? What do you think of having medicines about not labeled or
+poured into old bottles with wrong labels? 5. If you should happen to
+swallow something poisonous, what ought you to do right away? 6.
+Suppose your clothes or your hair should catch fire; what would you
+do? 7. How did you celebrate last Fourth of July? Write a short story
+about the picture on p. 144. 8. With one of your classmates, show how
+you would try to restore a person who had just been saved from
+drowning. How can you try to save yourself if you fall into the water?
+
+III. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL. 1. Have you a park near your home? When the
+people leave at the end of the day, how do the lawns and paths look?
+Are there cans in the park to hold the papers and scraps? 2. How are
+the streets in your town cleaned in winter? In summer? 3. How do the
+houses get rid of their waste? 4. If the waste goes into a river, is
+the river water used for drinking? Who decides where the drinking
+water for the town shall come from? 5. Why are drinks containing
+alcohol harmful to take (give four reasons)? What is a _narcotic_? How
+does drinking alcohol lead to crime? 6. Write down five ways in which
+you can help to keep your town or city beautiful. Five ways in which
+you can help to keep your own home beautiful. 7. Why should every city
+have parks for the children?
+
+
+THE EVENING MEAL
+
+1. Play housekeeping, and order the dinner. 2. Write down a list of
+things for a good supper. 3. Why does Nature give us so many different
+kinds of food? How does she teach us not to eat too much of one kind
+at a time? 4. Write down on the board as many of each of these kinds
+of food as you can:--meats; vegetables; fruits; breads; sweet foods;
+fish; grains; food (not fruit) that does not need cooking; food to
+drink. 5. How do you help to make meal times pleasant? Make up a story
+about the picture on p. 159, and tell it in class.
+
+
+A PLEASANT EVENING
+
+1. Just after a meal, what is your stomach doing? How can you help
+your digestion? 2. Have you played any of the games mentioned here?
+How did you play them? 3. Look at the picture on p. 165; why is this a
+good after-supper corner? How do you sit and hold your book when you
+read in the evening? 4. What parts of your body are you exercising and
+taking care of when you read? Of what use is a healthy, vigorous body
+without a healthy, vigorous mind? How can you keep your mind healthy?
+How can you keep it vigorous? 5. What kind of books do you like best
+to read? Tell the class the names of some good ones.
+
+
+GOOD NIGHT
+
+I. GETTING READY FOR BED. 1. At what hour do you go to bed? When do
+you get up? How many hours' sleep does this give you? Is this enough?
+Why do you need so much sleep? 2. As you undress, what do you do with
+the clothes you take off? Why should you air your clothes every night?
+How can you take an air bath? Is this as good as a wash? 3. How do you
+care for your hair at night? 4. Do you ever go to bed without brushing
+your teeth? If you do, what happens all night long to the food scraps
+that were left around and between your teeth? As these scraps decay,
+what harm do they do? What makes a tooth ache? 5. Draw a little
+picture of your own teeth as you see them in a looking-glass. Are
+there any spaces that you can see where food might lodge and stay? How
+can you keep your teeth quite free from scraps of food? 6. Why are
+teeth necessary? How must they grow to make good cutting tools? If
+they are not straight or sound, what can you do about it? 7. Why ought
+children's first teeth to be thoroughly brushed every day?
+
+II. THE LAND OF NOD. 1. When you are ready for bed, how do you
+fix your windows? Why is it even more necessary to have the air
+blowing through the room at night than in the daytime? 2. How else is
+your body being purified at night? Does your body do any work while
+you are sleeping? What work? 3. What kind of sleep should you have if
+you are perfectly well?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:53:35 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:53:35 -0700
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