HOW TO GET STRONG
and simple work, adapted to the pupil's present strength, and done under the teacher's eye; or in heavier work after he has been trained gradually up to it.
As will be shown in a later chapter, there is a wide variety of exercises which could be practised in a schoolroom, which do not need one cent's worth of apparatus. They simply need to be known, and then faithfully practised; and gratifying results are sure.
Look at the next ten children you meet, and say if three of them are well built, strong and hearty; clear-skinned, lustrous-eyed, quick and sure of movement; rich with life and vigor; and in every way satisfying in build and action. You would not buy a horse that did not embody these qualities. Is not your child almost as important as your horse? And there are many special cases. You will find them in every school-room in America; poor, half-built—no, not even quarter-built children; with thin legs; thinner arms; slim necks; with every chest-chamber too small; pallid faces; a weak walk; and run—they can scarcely run a block—and they look ready to faint if they try it. Weak and timid all the time; living—well, they exist—but do not live. Yet each such child is just as dear to its parents as yours are to you. If these can be raised; and not only raised; but built up just where they need it; and can be at length brought to a lusty, splendid manhood, ready for anything; will not he be a friend indeed who does that for such a boy? Saving his very life even; and with his unusual brain—for such boys often have uncommon brain-power, once it is decently nourished with ruddy, life-bearing blood—fitting him perhaps for high-class work, of vast help to his fellows far on through a long and valuable life.
But can this be done? It can be; and has been;
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