put into water. So you see that alcohol keeps dead bodies from
decaying.

Pure alcohol is not often used as a drink. People who take beer, wine,
and cider get a little alcohol with each drink. Those who drink brandy,
rum, whiskey, or gin, get more alcohol, because those liquors are nearly
one half alcohol.

You may wonder that people wish to use such poisonous drinks at all. But
alcohol is a deceiver. It often cheats the man who takes a little, into
thinking it will be good for him to take more.

Sometimes the appetite which begs so hard for the poison, is formed in
childhood. If you eat wine-jelly, or wine-sauce, you may learn to like
the taste of alcohol and thus easily begin to drink some weak liquor.

The more the drinker takes, the more he often wants, and thus he goes on
from drinking cider, wine, or beer, to drinking whiskey, brandy, or rum.
Thus drunkards are made.

People who are in the habit of taking drinks which contain alcohol,
often care more for them than for any thing else, even when they know
they are being ruined by them.

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

1. How does alcohol look?

2. How does alcohol burn?

3. What will alcohol do to a dead body?

4. What drinks contain a little alcohol?

5. What drinks are about one half alcohol?

6. How does alcohol cheat people?

7. When is the appetite sometimes formed?

8. Why should you not eat wine-sauce or
wine-jelly?

9. How are drunkards made?

CHAPTER VIII.

TOBACCO.

[Illustration: A] FARMER who had been in the habit of planting his
fields with corn, wheat, and potatoes, once made up his mind to plant
tobacco instead.

Let us see whether he did any good to the world by the change.

The tobacco plants grew up as tall as a little boy or girl, and spread
out broad, green leaves.

By and by he pulled the stalks, and dried the leaves. Some of them he
pressed into cakes of tobacco; some he rolled into cigars; and some he
ground into snuff.

If you ask what tobacco is good for, the best answer will be, to tell
you what it will do to a man or boy who uses it, and then let you answer
the question for yourselves.

Tobacco contains something called nicotine (n[)i]k'o t[)i]n). This is a
strong poison. One drop of it is enough to kill a dog. In one cigar
there is enough, if taken pure, to kill two men.

[Illustration]

Even to work upon tob