After bathing, rub your body dry and dress without delay. Do not lounge on the shore in your bathing dress. If you do, the body becomes chilled, and ill results are likely to follow.
What is one of the first things to remember?
Of what is the skin composed? What is said of the outer skin? What of the pores? What follows if the pores are allowed to become clogged?
How can the pores be kept open? Describe how one should bathe when the weather is cold?
How often is it well to bathe during summer?
Which, is the better, fresh or salt water? What are boys apt to do?
What should be avoided? What affords good bathing?
When should you avoid bathing? How long ought you to remain in the water?
What is the best manner of entering the water? Why?
What should be done after bathing? What should you avoid? Why?
CHAPTER III
DRINKING
Many diseases of the body are caused by what we take into our stomachs. You can see, therefore, how important it is that we should know what and how to eat and drink.
If I say that tea, coffee, and chocolate are poisonous, and that they shorten life, you will smile and shake your head. Very likely some of you have kind grandmothers who have drunk tea all their lives and still enjoy good health. Perhaps your father is fond of his coffee and feels no ill effects from its use.
No doubt it would be better for all if only water was drunk, but it cannot be said that a temperate use of tea, coffee or chocolate and what are known as temperance drinks, are injurious. Milk is a drink of nature, and therefore excellent, though it does not agree with every person.
If you have formed the habit of drinking while eating, stop it at once. At first your mouth will be dry and your thirst great, but persevere and in a short time you will not feel the least desire to drink until you have finished your meal, when a few swallows will be all you wish.
Nearly every one drinks too much. If you are thirsty, you fill a tumbler and drink its contents and sometimes take even more than that. Now if instead of doing so, you sip the water slowly, your thirst will be gone before half the water is consumed.
An hour or two after a hearty meal, you may feel a slight degree of thirst. This is caused by the digestion going on in the stomach. If you drink, you will soon be thirsty again and will be forced to drink often through the day; but, if you refrain, at first, the thirst will soon depart and will not return for hours.
During warm weather, or when perspiring from exercise, you need more water than at other times. Even if very cold, it will do no harm, if slowly sipped. Many people learn to like warm water, which is more healthful than cold.
Pure soda water, lemonade, root beer and similar drinks are not hurtful, but the sugar they contain increases our thirst and leads us to drink more than is good for us. Water is the provision of nature, and though it has no color, taste or smell, nothing in the world is so delicious and refreshing.
Very hot and very cold drinks are hurtful, but much of the ill effects may be averted by sipping them as I have already advised. Few will believe until they make the test, how little water is needed through the day. The less we take the more comfortable will we feel.
How are many diseases caused? What, therefore, is important?
What have you to say about tea, coffee, and chocolate?
What of a temperate use of those and of temperance drinks? Of milk?
What have you to say of the habit of drinking while eating?
What does nearly every one do? What is the best way to drink water?
What should be done when slightly thirsty an hour or two after a meal?
When do you need more water than at other times? In what manner may very cold water be drunk without harm? What of warm water?
What is said of soda water, lemonade, etc.? What of water?
What of very hot and cold drinks? What will be the effect if we drink only a small quantity of water?
CHAPTER IV
EATING
Always eat slowly and do not swallow your food until it is chewed to a pulp. The glands inside the mouth give out enough saliva to moisten the food and fit it for digestion in the stomach. Children love to soak their bread in coffee, or to sip the coffee while eating. By doing so they stop the flow of saliva and weaken a fluid which digests the food in the stomach.
In the way of food, bread and butter, well cooked meat, and fruits not too green nor over ripe, should form your principal diet. Pies and cakes are injurious, and if you eat them, do so sparingly. Never ask for a second piece.
Fat meat and butter cause heat and often make the blood gross. Such diet is improper during warm weather and, therefore, we do not crave it. If we lived in the arctic regions, we would soon learn to drink oil like water, and to eat tallow candles as though they were pieces of crisp celery.
Highly seasoned food should not be eaten. It may be salted to suit the taste, but pepper is harmful.
Eat nothing between meals, which should always be at regular hours. Partake sparingly of sugar, candy, and sweetmeats. In eating the meat of walnuts, filberts, chestnuts, etc., use salt.
Children, like some grown persons, are apt to eat more food than is good for them. You have heard people say that you ought to leave the table while still hungry, but if that is true, there can be no need of sitting down to eat. The true course is to cease eating, while you still have a relish for food.
The table is not the place for argument or dispute. The conversation should be cheerful, and all should try to be happy. Do not begin any kind of work, physical or mental, until fully a half hour after the meal is finished.
Eat very little if the mind is excited, and do not eat at all, if you do not feel hungry. Never coax the appetite. Do not eat heartily within a few hours of bed-time.
If your appetite is poor, it is well to omit the last meal of the day. One of the best medicines in the world is a scant diet of wholesome food. Overeating and fasting are hurtful.
Remember that that which agrees with one may disagree with another. Rice is one of the most easily digested articles of food, and yet some persons cannot retain it on their stomachs. Your own sense will soon tell you what best agrees with you. Follow the advice of your parents, who know what is good for their children.
In what manner should we eat? Why? What bad habit are children likely to form?
What should constitute our principal diet? What is said of pies and cake?
What is said of fat meat, butter, and greasy food? How would our tastes change, if we lived in the arctic regions?
What is said of highly seasoned food? What is said of salt and pepper?
Of eating between meals? Of sugar, candy, and sweetmeats? How should nuts be eaten?
What are children apt to do? What is the true course?
What of argument and dispute at the table? What advice is given?
What should be done if the mind is excited, or you do not feel hungry? Should the appetite be coaxed?
Suppose your appetite is poor? What of overloading and fasting?
Is the same kind of food good for everybody? How can you learn what is best to eat? What advice should be followed?
CHAPTER V
THE HAIR, EARS,