GOOD HEALTH
I. YOUR OWN HEALTH
You live in a little house all by yourself. You were born in it. You will have to live in it all your life. It is your body. People who own houses are proud of them. They take care of them, and try to live in them just as comfortably as they can. The first thing necessary to live comfortably anywhere, is to keep everything sweet and clean and in order.
Your body has a framework of bones, as a house has of timbers. The muscles cover these bones as weather boards, lath and plaster cover the timbers. The skin is a sort of coat of paint to protect the house from the weather. Your body has a heart, that is a little heating and pumping plant. It has all the tools in it for preparing food for use in the body. It has lungs for ventilating with fresh air. It has sewer pipes for getting rid of waste, and it has a network of little nerve wires to give warning of trouble, inside and out. It has windows to see through, and a telephone in the ear.
It is much better to use a house than to let it stand idle. Things rust out quicker than they wear out. So it is with your body. You must use every bit of it, every day, and live in every corner of it. The bones and muscles become weak and stiff if they get no exercise. Working muscles and bones call for more blood. This compels the heart to beat faster and stronger, and the lungs to call for more air to keep the blood purified. All parts of the body should be exercised equally. Swimming, rowing, skating, bicycle riding, dancing, and just plain walking in the fresh air, are splendid exercises. Games, like base-ball, foot—ball, basket-ball and tennis are fine, too. They train both mind and body to think and act quickly. Sweeping a room, hoeing a garden and splitting kindling for mother, are good for the body, too. Laziness is rust for body and mind as well as for the hinges of a door. Don’t do anything half-way. Study hard, get your lesson and quit studying. Play hard and then rest.
