walk, they jump,
they skip, they are seldom still. Their studies are as severe a mental
strain to them as our business cares to us. Their bodies are quite as
much exposed to loss of heat by radiation as ours--in some cases more
so. But children have a most important demand on their vitality which
adults have not: they have to grow. Who, therefore, needs strong and
nutritious food more than children? They ought to have meat, plenty of
it, as much as they desire; and with the meat, bread and vegetables,
milk, sweets, and fruits. For variety is another grand condition of
healthy food,--no one kind of food (however good) being able to supply
all the different elements the body needs for perfect health and fine
development.

If children have any urgent desire for some particular diet it would
be well for parents to hesitate and investigate before denying them.
They have no means of coming to any secret understanding with the
child's stomach; but Nature generally asks pertinaciously for any
special necessity, and Nature is never wrong. Neither is it well to
limit the quantity any more than the kind of food given to children.
Their necessities vary with causes too involved for any parent
constantly to keep in view. The state of the weather, the amount of
electricity, or moisture in the atmosphere, study, sleep, exercise,
the condition of digestion, even the mental temper of the child might
differently influence the condition and demands of nearly every meal.
No dietary theory that did not consider all these and many more
conditions would be reliable. What, then, are we to do? Have more
confidence in natural instincts. If children ask "for more," ten to
one they feel more truly than we can reason on this subject.

On general principles it may be assumed children ask as directed by
Nature; they desire what she needs and as much as she needs. Of
course, all advice must be of a general nature; special limitations
are supposed in the power of every thoughtful mother. But the great
principle is to remember that energy depends on the amount, not of
food, but of nutritive food; for if a pound of one kind of food gives
as much nutriment as four pounds of another, surely that is best for
children (and adults too) which tries their digestion least.

What the next generation will be depends upon the physical, mental,
and moral training of the children of to-day. These children are the
to-morrow of society. Are they to be puny and dysp