d he must be born again, and he said in
surprise, 'Can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born?'"

"O, I see now what he meant. I could not understand it before. Of
course, he knew that was impossible, and so he could not see what Jesus
meant."

"David says, 'Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise
thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' Poets sometimes speak of
the womb of the morning, meaning the place where morning lies and grows
until it is ready to burst forth in beauty on the world."

"I like the Saxon word better than the Latin one, don't you?"

"Yes, but as scientists use the Latin word we shall use that, so that
we will know how to talk on these subjects scientifically. The uterus
hangs suspended by two broad ligaments (marked _ll_ in the picture).
There are also round ligaments from the back and front which hold it
loosely in place. On the back of each broad ligament is an oval body
called the ovary (marked _o_).

"Do you remember once seeing in a hen that Ellen was preparing for
dinner a great number of eggs of all sizes? That was the hen's ovary.
_Ovum_ means an egg, and _ovary_ means the place of the eggs."

"O, mother, women don't have eggs, do they? I don't like that."

"Well, if you do not like to use the word egg we can say _ovum_, which,
you know, is the Latin word for egg. The plural is _ova_. Or we may call
the _ovum_ the germ, which means the primary source. The ovum or germ is
a very tiny thing, so small that it cannot be seen without a microscope;
240 laid side by side would make only one inch in length."

"O, mother, that is wonderful."

"Yes, dear. The whole process of life is very wonderful and very
beautiful. The uterus and ovaries belong to what is called the
reproductive system. As I said, until now your vital forces have been
employed in keeping you alive. Your nutritive system, your muscular
system, your nervous system and so on, have all been busy taking care
of you only; but soon your reproductive system will awaken and begin to
take on activity."

"And what does that mean, mother?"

[Illustration: Ova.]

"It means that you are entering on what is known as the maternal period
of your life; are actually becoming a woman with all a woman's power of
becoming a mother."

"But you don't mean that a girl of fourteen could become a mother?"

"Yes, it might be possible; but no girl of fourteen should be a mother,
for she is not ful