rink there's danger."

A QUEER CASE

Agnes, you and John may look at this watch. Don't you think its covering
is very pretty? The covering of the watch is called its case. Now we
will open it, and you may look inside and see what this pretty case
covers. Look at all these little wheels. How small they are! Do you
think they would stay in place long, or run and keep time, if we bruised
them or took off the case? Then you see the case is not only pretty, but
useful. It keeps the little wheels from getting broken or dirty. It
protects them from harm.

Look at the covering or case of your body. It covers and protects you
just as the case does the works in the watch. Well, let me tell you a
story about it. The covering of your body covers a number of organs
which are even more wonderful than the little wheels in the watch.

This covering of your body is full of little holes. These holes are too
small to be seen with our naked eyes. Through these holes air and
sunshine get into your body, and through these tiny holes little drops
of water come out. This is sweat, and it helps to keep our bodies cool.
When you run and play, these little drops of water keep you from
getting too warm. They also help to keep your body clean by bringing out
the little bits of dirt.

[Illustration: IS THIS YOU?]

I wonder if we are like a little pig, who, when his mother asked him
what kind of a house he wanted, said, "mud house?" If so, we will have
the little holes all closed up. Then we won't have a nice, soft, pink
skin that will let the little drops of water through, but we will have a
dirty, muddy-looking skin. When we run and play we get so warm that it
will make us sick. But if we take nice warm baths twice a week at night,
and a cool sponge bath every morning, with good clear water and soap, we
will be like the watch, and have a beautiful covering, and this will
help to keep our wonderful organs and body well and strong. We must
bathe our hands often, and keep the covering on them nice and clean.
Sometimes germs get on our hands, and, if we do not wash them often, we
may carry them to our mouths. Sometimes this is the way we "catch" a
disease, because we do not keep the covering, or case, on our hands
clean.

[Illustration: WATCH THE BIRDS]

Did you ever watch the little birds as they fly down to a gutter, or
little stream of water, how they dip their bills into the water? Do they
just fly down into the water only to get