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]