HOW TO GET STRONG
games bring them really vigorous exercise. Set them to running; and hardly one has the swift, graceful, gliding motion she might readily have. Not one can run any distance at a good pace. There is vivacity and spirit; they are willing to play with great freedom; but very little such play as there might be, and which would pay so well. Most of their exercise is for their feet alone, the hands not having much to do. The girls of the most favored classes are apt to be the poorest players. The quality and color of their clothing makes them avoid all active, hearty play; while it is the constant effort of nurse or governess to repress that exuberance of spirits which ought to belong to every boy and girl. Holding one's elbows close to the body while walking, and keeping the hands nearly or quite motionless, may accord with the requirements of fashionable life; but it is bad for the arms; keeping them poor and thin, when they might be models of grace and beauty.
As the girl comes home from school, not with one book only, but often six or eight; instead of looking light and strong and free; she is too often what she really appears to be, pale and weak. So many books means much work for one day, at any rate for one evening; and she seems overworked. The truth is that the advance to be made in each book is but trifling, and the aggregate, not at all large; by no means too great for the same girl were she strong and hearty. It is not the mental work which is breaking her down; but there is no adequate physical exercise to build her up. See what ex-Surgeon-General Hammond says, in his work on "Sleep," as to the ability to endure protracted brain-work without ill result:
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