HELEN: But, mother, I have heard girls say that their dresses were not a bit tight, when I am almost sure they were.
MOTHER: The only safe way is not to wear corsets or tight bands at all, and the clothing should be so loose that it will not compress the body when one draws a deep, full breath.
PERCY: I should think there was enough sickness in the world without people eating, drinking, and dressing to make themselves ill.
MOTHER: Many people do not know that it is what they do that makes them ill. They think people _must_ be sick sometimes, and they do not study to know how to care for themselves in such a way that they may keep well. For this reason I wish you to learn how to care for the holy temple of your body while you are children, and we must also do all we can to help others by living right ourselves.
MOTHER: When we visited the water-works what did you admire most of all the things you saw, Elmer?
ELMER: The great engines that kept pumping all the time and never stopped to rest. How strange it seemed to think that they pump enough water for all the people in this great city! The houses on the hillsides as well as those on low ground have all they need.
MOTHER: But you would hardly think the house we live in has the most wondrous little pumping engine you ever saw, would you? Day and night it pumps “the river of life,” as the blood has been called, to every part of the body. If it should once stop, we would die, and the body-house could never be used again.
MOTHER: Yes. Can you tell me where your heart is?
MOTHER: Not quite right, little girl. The lower point is felt on the left side, it is true; but most of the heart is higher up and nearer the center of your body. Who can tell how large it is?
PERCY: About the size of the fist of the person in whom it is found.
AMY: Then the baby’s heart is about as big as his dear little hand.
HELEN: I think it is something like that of a pear or a strawberry, with the small end down.
MOTHER: Here is a picture that will help us in learning its shape. I think I have not yet told you that the trunk of the body is divided into two large rooms. There is a partition running crosswise, called the di´a-phragm (di´a-fram). This gives us a large upper room, where we find the engine and bath room. The kitchen, eating room, store room, and waste rooms are in the lower part of the trunk, below the di´a-phragm. But we want to talk about the heart now. We have found about how large it is and what it is shaped like; let us next take a peep inside and learn, if we can, how it does its work.