strong and well kept, and the little housekeeper is happy when she plays
and when she works.
Only one person can live in each house. A queer thing about these little
houses is that they can move from place to place.
Sometimes these little windows are not cared for; the little housekeeper
forgets how important the windows are. I know of some that are not cared
for. These were very pretty and seemed larger than most windows of this
kind. They had deep brown curtains and when you looked at the little
hole in the curtain, it seemed that you were looking down into a deep
well, and that you could see your own picture in it. The little
housekeeper who owned these windows was a little girl almost ten years
old. She would look through the windows and read fine print when it was
too dark to see the letters well, and would do many things that would
hurt these windows. Her mother had to take her to a person in a big city
who knew what to do to help the windows. This man put a piece of glass
in front of the windows, so that the little housekeeper could see
through them. How sorry this housekeeper was that she had not always
taken care of her windows.
We sometimes see little housekeepers whose windows are always dark. It
is a pitiful sight to see windows through which no light ever goes to
the housekeeper within the house. "Shut-ins," they are in truth. It
makes one's heart ache to know that if many of these windows had had
proper care when they were first opened the housekeeper's hearts would
now be glad, for they could look out on the glorious world, they could
read and play and work just as little children like to do. Instead, they
must go to special schools. They read from books that have raised
letters, and use their fingers to find them. Many of these little
housekeepers learn to read and do many wonderful things with their
fingers. Helen Keller, whose windows were always dark, even graduated
from Radcliffe College.
QUESTION
1. Can you tell me what these little windows are?
You have already guessed that the little house is
the body, and the little housekeeper any little
boy or girl.
MERRY SUNSHINE
"Good morning, Merry Sunshine,
How did you wake so soon?
You've scared the little stars away,
And shined away the moon.
I saw you go to sleep last night
Before I ceased my playing;
How did you get 'way over there?
And where have you been staying?"
"I never go to sleep, dear child,
I just go round to see
My little children of the east
Who rise and watch for me.
I waken all the birds and bees
And flowers on my way,
And now come back to see the child
Who stayed out late to play."
--_Anonymous._
[Illustration: CONSULTATION FREE AT THIS OFFICE
DR. SUNSHINE
DR. FRESH AIR
DR. GOOD FOOD
DR. EXERCISE
DR. REST
HOURS 6 AM-6 AM]
[Illustration]
A WONDERFUL STREAM
I am going to tell you of a wonderful stream that flows through our
bodies. We may call it the stream of life. It is made of tiny rills, and
of great branches, all of which join to form this wonderful stream.
This stream has a great, double force pump, which keeps pumping night
and day. It always pumps the same way, its engine does not make much
noise, but just a little sound that you may hear if you put your ear
close to mother's breast. You can hear this busy little engine pumping
away, forcing the stream on.
Many queer looking little boats float on its bosom. These boats carry
freight to the far-away countries in all parts in the body. They are so
small we cannot see them with the naked eye. They are of various shapes;
some are round.
They have a very important freight to carry. There are more of these
boats than there are of any other kind. They have a little cup-shaped
centre, a kind of deck, and in this centre they carry the freight. They
take on this freight at the Lung Station. They have something on deck
which holds on to the goods they get at the station, to keep it from
being lost on its long journey.
It never overflows its banks. Its color is not bright and blue as the
waters of the Hudson or Potomac Rivers. It is yellow and red, like the
Mississippi, the great "Father of Waters." If you would taste it you
would find it to be salty like the ocean.
As soon as the little boats load up at the Lung Station, off they sail
on this wonderful stream, carrying their freight to the Muscle Country,
the Skin Country or the Gland Country. When the boats reach one of these
countries, they unload and the little men of these countries (or cells)
take the freight and put it just where it is needed. The freight is
called oxygen. The Lung Station is filled with it every time a person
takes a good breath of pure fresh air.
The little boats come to Lung Station and load up with oxygen about
three times every minute, so you see how fast they travel. This freight
is the thing that paints our cheeks a rosy color and gives us good
health.
When each little boat has unloaded its cargo in the far countries, the
little cell men load them with a return cargo, which is made up of waste
matter (carbon dioxide). This cargo is carried back to the Lung Station,
and unloaded there. It is breathed out into the air, through the air
tubes.
[Illustration]
If we breathe impure air, the little boats go back to the far countries
with only a small cargo of oxygen. Then the cell men feel as if they are
cheated and refuse to do good work for us. In fact, they grow weak and
cannot do as good work as they could if the boats brought a full cargo
of fresh air.
There is another boat in the stream; just look at its queer shape, and,
queerer still, this little boat is changing its shape. Is not that
funny? Now the small end is toward us, now the large end, and now it is
round like the little freight boats, only it is larger.
I wonder what kind of a vessel it is. It is larger than the freight
boat. There are not so many of these boats either, not half so many as
there are freight boats. They are flying white flags, and belong to the
White Squadron. I wonder if that means peace.
No, they are war-vessels. Let us see what these white ships are doing.
We will call them Dreadnoughts. Watch them as they move slowly down the
stream; how powerful they look. They have their searchlights on, looking
for any enemy that may appear upon the surface.
Further on some germs or bacteria are coming up the stream; they may be
pneumonia germs, or typhoid germs. These are the Captains of the Death
Armada. The Dreadnoughts pull up along side. War is declared, a battle
royal is on. The victory will go to the strongest. When the smoke clears
away we may see the Dreadnought sailing calmly down stream. Where now
are these mighty Goliaths, the typhoid or pneumonia germs? As the
Dreadnoughts were in good fighting trim, we may find them on the inside
of the engine-room of the Dreadnought. They are being used as fuel in
its furnace.
Sometimes the battle is in favor of the germs, and the Dreadnought is
destroyed by the germs.
This happens when the little round freight boats have not found a full
cargo of fresh air and oxygen waiting for them in the Lung Station.
All this happens in this wonderful stream.
If we look further we would find that the muscle men in the muscle
countries are busy making heat to keep our bodies warm. The little
workmen in the gland country are making fluids to mix with the food we
eat. The fluids change the starch, the sugar, and the meat we eat, so
that the muscle men can use it to build us large and strong. The little
workmen in the skin are pouring water out of it in order that we may
keep clean and cool.
This wonderful stream carries all these things from one country to the
other, exchanges the produce of one country for the produce of
another--so to speak.
The little freight boats on this stream cannot do the work they were
intended to do, the Dreadnoughts cannot overcome and disable the germs
that get on their decks, if they are not kept in the very best
condition. The only way in which we can keep them "fit" is by living
according to the rules of hygiene.
Eat wholesome food.
Take outdoor exercise.
Sleep with the windows open.
Drink pure water.
Bathe the body frequently.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the little round boats?
2. What do they carry?
3. What are the Dreadnoughts?
4. What are the muscle men?
5. What is the stream, and what is the force pump
that forces the stream on?
6. What are the rules for keeping the little
freight boats, and the great Dreadnoughts on this
wonderful stream in the best working condition?
TWO MILLS
Come, children, listen to the story Uncle Ned told to me. It was the
story of a long time ago when Uncle Ned was a little boy. One day his
mother took him on her knee and said, "Ned, do you know that your mouth
is like a little mill?" It is. The mill grinds corn. Your teeth grind
your food. Look in the mirror. Are your teeth all alike? Some of the
teeth in your mouth are to bite the food into bits, and others are to
grind it fine so that it will not hurt your stomach.
You have twenty now because you are a little boy and do not need any
more. When you have grown to be a man you will have thirty-two teeth.
You will have more grinders in your mouth when you are a man than you
have now. The jaw teeth are called grinders, because they grind the food
you put into your mouth, just as the big mill stones grind the corn into
meal down at Grandpa's mill.
You wear clothes to keep your bodies warm, so the teeth need some
covering to keep out the cold. The enamel, a hard outer covering on the
teeth, keeps them from feeling the cold. Down in the middle of the tooth
is a place for the nerves of the tooth. When you break the covering on
the tooth the cold and hot things that you sometimes put into your mouth
will make the nerves ache. Sometimes things that are very sweet or very
sour hurt the covering on the teeth.
To use the teeth to crack nuts or ice will harm them, for it often
breaks the outer covering, and it will not grow again.
Your teeth should last you all your life if you will take care of them.
Grandpa's mill would not grind the corn well, nor would the mill last
long, if he did not take care of it and keep the big stone grinders
clean and free from grit and dirt. Your teeth must have just as good
care as the stones in the mill if you wish them to last you a long time,
and if you want them to grind your food fine.
This is why you must use your toothbrush, and wash your mouth out
regularly every day. If you do not keep your mouth clean, germs will
creep in and cause the little boy to have toothache. You are wondering
what the germs have to do with toothache.
These little germs always get into places that are not kept clean, and
when they get into the mouth they go to work, like so many little
carpenters, with pick and drill, and pick away the outer covering of
the tooth and then the tooth decays, and this causes toothache.
We all want to have pretty white teeth like Ned's, do we not? When we
are little we must take care of the teeth, and if they begin to decay we
must have them filled or treated by the dentist. Let us look at our
teeth and see who has the prettiest and the best ones. Has every one a
toothbrush? We must each have one. We must brush our teeth every day and
rinse them with pure clean water. This will wash out all the germs that
would soon injure our teeth if they were left in the mouth.
If we will care for our teeth when we are young we will not need to have
false teeth when we are old.
QUESTIONS
1. What are our mouths like? Why like a mill?
2. What is there in the mouth that corresponds to
the rocks in the mill?
3. Is there a little baby in your home? Has it any
teeth? Can you tell me why? Yes, that is right.
Teeth are given us to chew food with. The little
baby does not eat any hard or solid food, and
therefore he does not need any teeth yet. When he
is a little older pretty white teeth will be given
him. By the time he is four or five years old he
will have twenty of these little baby teeth. But
he cannot keep the first teeth long. They would be
too little and weak to do him much good when he
gets to be a big boy.
4. Did you ever notice the twig of a tree just
after the leaves had fallen? What did you find on
the stem where the old leaf had grown? That is
right, a tiny new leaf was pushing its way out.
And that is just what happens to the teeth. When a
boy or girl gets to be about eight or ten years
old, a set of new teeth begins to grow down in the
gums under the baby teeth. As these new teeth grow
longer they push up the baby teeth, and cause them
to get loose and fall out. When the new teeth
appear they are strong and hard, that they may
last a long time, if taken care of as Uncle Ned
did his.
5. How many things do we know that we may do to
make our teeth last a long time?
A CHILD'S CALENDAR
"January first is cold,
February winds are bold,
March runs whistling round the hill,
April laughs and cries at will.
Lovely are the woods in May,
Happy June is our time to play;
In July we lazy grow,
August hours are quite as slow.
But September school days are fleet!
In October nuts grow sweet;
Sad November's friends are few,
But, December, we love you,
For you bring Saint Nick!"
THE TOOTHBRUSH BRIGADE
The toothbrush brigade is a happy club
We boys and girls have made,
We try to care for our teeth
So they'll not be decayed.
And so we have promised one and all,
At morning and at night,
To brush them clean and white.
First across we'll brush them,
Well then up and down we go,
Then open wide the mouth you see,
And do just as before.
So carefully we'll rinse them, too,
You'll see a healthy sight.
Our teeth so clean and white.
[Illustration: TOOTH BRUSH BRIGADE]
And now my friends a word to you
Before we leave the stage,
If your teeth you would preserve,
Down to a nice old age,
Go get your toothbrush and water, too,
And start this very night
To brush them clean and white.
CHORUS
Happy, healthy, little children,
Happy, healthy, little children,
Happy, healthy, little children,
In our toothbrush brigade.
--_M. E. Stokes._
MR. FLY AND MRS. MOSQUITO
One day in the summer, Mr. Fly and Mrs. Mosquito stopped to rest on the
window pane of a house in the country.
[Illustration]
Mr. Fly, after sitting for some time rubbing his nose with his front
feet, looked up and said, "Good morning."
"Mr. Fly," replied Mrs. Mosquito, "I do not believe that we have met
before."
"No," said Mr. Fly, "but I am glad to meet you to-day. I have long
wanted to do so. May I ask where you live?"
"Ah me, Mr. Fly," replied Mrs. Mosquito, "I have been having a rather
hard time lately. You have heard of my family, and know that with a
number of brothers and sisters, I was hatched in a small pond near the
meadow. Life went well with us for a while. But one afternoon I heard
footsteps coming nearer and nearer. I could not understand what
terrible beast was coming down to the pond to drink. I shivered with
fear and darted as fast as I could to the bottom of the pond. However, I
soon had to come to the top again to get a good breath, as I thought I
was going to suffocate. Dearie me, why cannot we get air at the bottom
of the pond as well as at the top.
"My heart was beating with fear as I still heard the footsteps, and
presently I could hear voices. A voice said, 'Where are all the members
of this brigade?' What could it mean? What is a brigade? Someone cried
out, 'Here we come to give him the oil.' Looking up I saw a number of
girls and boys, 'The Mosquito Brigade,' they called themselves. They
laughed and talked as if they were a gay crowd. One said, 'Here they
are,' and then said, 'This will get them.'
"I wondered what in the world they could mean. I soon learned what they
were about.
"I smelled a terrible odor, and peeping out from the mud (at the bottom
of the pond in which I was hiding), I saw something thick and terrible
coming down like rain in the pond.
"I ran through the mud to the far end of the pond and hid. Oh, how that
stuff did smell! I thought it would surely smother me.
"I stayed in the mud until the next day. I did not dare peep out. When I
did look out nothing could I see on the bottom of the pond but my dead
brothers and sisters. They had not been as quick as I and had been
smothered by that dreadful stuff. Ah me! I had scarcely strength enough
to live. Life seemed very hard.
"The next thing I remember I was sailing down the pond in a canoe Mother
Nature built for me. It was just large enough to be perfectly
comfortable. I slept the greater part of the time I was in the little
canoe. I stayed in there several days and many times old Father Wind
sent a breeze that nearly upset my little craft. I grew some wings
finally and flew away from that awful pond. I hope that I can always
escape that 'Mosquito Brigade' and that deadly oil. I shall be very busy
for a while and may yet have my revenge, if I can poison some member of
it with malaria germs.
"I have finished my story. Pray, tell me of yourself, Mr. Fly, you look
very happy." "Well," said the fly, "I was hatched in the corner of a
stable where it was damp and warm. I stayed in an egg one day. Then I
was a white crawling thing for nine days. I ate all this time. At the
end of that time I slept a while and then I was grown. I can't tell you
how big I felt the day I first stretched my wings for flight.
"Just listen to what I have done since that happy day. I have crawled
over a person who had small-pox and got some germs which I carried to a
girl across the street. I went into a house and sat on a bed in which a
little girl was lying. The doctor came in and after staying there a
while he said, 'Typhoid fever.' I was sorry for the little child with
her red swollen face. I left her and walked on the bed. I knew that my
feet were loaded with germs when I flew out. Off I went to the country.
"The first home I passed, a little tot of a boy, sitting on the step,
was eating milk and mush out of a bowl. When he took the spoon from his
mouth I got into it and sucked all the milk I could get. I left him the
germs that I had been carrying. This was a pretty good day's work, don't
you think? The next morning I flew away to the next house, but dear me,
I found that a fly would have to carry his own rations there.
"This was a new thing to me. I met one of my friends who told me that it
would be just as well for me to travel on. The folks who lived in this
house had been going to the lectures of the Health Doctor. The doctor
had told them to clean up the stable, to screen the house, and to cover
the well. I tell you, Mrs. Mosquito, that man is trying to put me out of
business. I fear that I shall have a hard time in the future if he stays
in this neighborhood. I am not as happy as I once was, so I will say
good-bye."
"Good-bye, friend Fly," said Mrs. Mosquito, "I am glad we met near our
old home."
QUESTIONS
1. Where did the mosquito meet the fly?
2. What did the mosquito carry?
3. What did the fly do to the man who had
small-pox?
4. Why could not the fly get in the house in the
country?
5. What was the Health Doctor teaching the people
in the country?
A HYGIENE SONG
TUNE:--"YE-HO"
A FOLK SONG
[Illustration: Music]
1. We're for happiness and health, hurrah!
But we have no claims on wealth, hurrah!
And we stand for all that's clean,
Flies must go, this sure doth mean,
So we trap and swat and screen, hurrah!
2. We're for sunshine and fresh air, hurrah!
Microbes cannot live in there, hurrah!
Sanitation is our aim,
No mosquitoes do we claim,
For we oil and screen and drain, hurrah!
Chorus:
Then it's rah, rah, rah, for the Hygiene work,
The best we've ever done.
We'll have none who duty shirk,
We'll have only those who work,
Many to our cause are won, hurrah!
[Illustration]
OUR LITTLE ENEMIES
"Hello, Central, give me 1882, Mrs. Consumption Germ. Oh, is that you, I
am so glad to hear your voice. Do tell me what you have been doing this
long time!"
"Oh, my good friend Pneumonia, I have been hiding away all these years
to keep the doctors from finding me. I did not want them to learn about
me. I feared that they would destroy me entirely.
"But with all my care, do you know that just a few years ago, an old
German doctor pulled me out of my hiding place and showed me to the
world. Since then I and my family have had little peace.
"I have to be mighty careful, or I fear that these doctors who are
turning all sorts of magnifying glasses on my people will finally drive
us from the earth. They already have us on the run. In the meantime we
are playing a game of 'catch me if you can.' Sometimes we get on pencils
or sticks of candy. Then again we roll and turn somersaults on a nice
red apple and are passed from one mouth to another by over-polite
children.
"Sometimes, some of my children swim in the milk or travel on a fly's
foot.
"I don't like sunshine at all. I dote on dark places where the wind does
not blow.
"I like poor people better than rich ones, because the poor have not
money enough to buy good food, fresh air, and rest, the weapons the rich
use to fight us with.
"Last week I went to a Fourth of July celebration on a grain of dust--my
airship, I called it. Whom do you think I saw there? Young Mr. Lockjaw
Germ; do you know I think that he has gotten the big head. Probably the
war in Europe has something to do with it. For I believe that he and his
family are very prominent among the soldiers in Belgium. I hear also
that in America the folks are trying to put him out of business,
especially since fire-crackers are not used so much. Some man had to
start a 'Sane Fourth of July.' That was a sane Fourth of July
celebration that I attended, and I must say that Mr. Lockjaw Germ looked
a bit lonely."
"Do tell me, Mrs. Consumption Germ," said her friend Pneumonia Germ,
"have you heard about the Diphtheria family? They are having a hard
time."
"These French doctors have found something that will even prevent
children from having diphtheria. They call it anti-toxin. I never did
like antis anyway, did you?
"Mrs. Typhoid Germ tells me that her family is not as large as it used
to be, all because of an anti-toxin."
"My, my, what shall we do!" said Mrs. Consumption Germ, "even the school
people are after us. I heard Miss Measles and little Master Scarlet
Fever say that a doctor comes every day to some of the schools. They
said that in some of the school-rooms the teacher had the nerve to hang
a placard, on which was printed, 'Prevention Better Than Cure.'
"I'll tell you I don't like these new times; this Hygiene the people
talk of is a regular ogre to our children.
"In some schools the teachers are even having lunches for the little
children who are pale and thin. They are having their eyes examined.
Some are having adenoids taken out, just to make those children so
strong that we can't catch them.
"I thought that I had a fair chance to get little Jimmy Brown, but his
teacher talked to his mother one day at recess. The next day his mother
whisked him off down town and had the doctor take the adenoids from
behind his nose. Now he is as strong as any little boy, because he can
breathe through his nose. So I lost my chance at him, you see."
"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Consumption Germ, "one can't even hide in an
old stump of a tooth. Some man with sharp-looking things tells you that
o-u-t spells 'out and begone,' as we used to say in playing the game."
"Do you know I believe that man Pasteur was our greatest enemy?"
"Tell me, who was he?" said Mrs. Consumption Germ.
"Well, he was a man who lived in France. He discovered the germ that
killed the silk-worm and also the cause of the loss of grapes in that
country.
"The wine and silk merchants of that country paid him immense sums of
money for this work.
"He studied all about our friends and relatives, and it was he who first
started all this anti-toxin, which saves the people, but which kills us
by the millions.
"But with all this great work and the work of their great men, we
sometimes catch folks napping. We catch our greatest enemy, the white
blood-cells, when they are without their fighting clothes on, and then
we get busy. In this way we can make up for a great deal of lost time.
"Of course, you have heard of Dr. Jenner. He was another enemy of ours.
He taught the people about vaccination, which keeps them from having
small-pox. I am glad to say there will always be a few persons who do
not follow these new ideas. If this were not true, one would starve to
death."
"I know, Mrs. Pneumonia Germ, that you love close, damp, places. I am
sure that fresh air makes you nervous. What will you do now that the
factories and mills are to be cleaner and better ventilated? We used to
find plenty to do with the old order of things.
"Dr. Sunshine, Dr. Fresh Air, and Dr. Good Food are certainly doing all
they can to drive us out of the country.