es_. These are to the tiny _yeast_ plants
what seeds are to other plants. Seeds fall into the ground and grow,
but these yeast spores fall into the grape juice and grow. While they
are growing in the grape juice, they eat what they want from the
juice; and, as they eat, they make bubbles of carbon dioxid,--which,
you remember, forms in our lungs and looks like air,--and of another
substance called _alcohol_. Of course, when they have changed the
juice in this way, it tastes very different. It is then what we call
_fermented_.
_Fermented drinks are harmful_; but some people like bubbling drinks
so much that they leave good fresh grape juice open on purpose to let
the little yeast plants get into it and make it into what we call
_wine_. They treat apple juice in just the same way to make _cider_;
and they even take fresh rye and barley and corn, and mash them up,
and put yeast plants into the mash to ferment them and make them into
_whiskey_ and _beer_. It does seem a pity, doesn't it, to take good
foods like wheat and apples and grapes and make them into these things
that really do us harm if we drink them.
A very wise man named Solomon, who lived thousands of years ago,
warned people not to drink wine, not even to look at it when it
sparkled in the cup. He said no really wise man would drink it. Of
course not; the wise man uses the food and drink that make his body
grow strong and his brain work true, and no fermented drink can do
that.
There is no better drink for anyone than clear pure water, and no
better food and drink in one than pure fresh milk.
[Illustration: A SCHOOL KITCHEN WHERE BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS LEARN
TO COOK]
V. LITTLE COOKS
If you have to come so far to school that you cannot go back to dinner
and so must bring a luncheon with you, be sure to take plenty of time
to sit down and eat it slowly and chew every piece of food thoroughly.
Many children who bring luncheons to school just grab a piece of food
in each hand and "bolt" it down as fast as they can possibly bite it
off and swallow it, and then rush out to play.
Play is good and very important, but you had better spare ten or
fifteen minutes of it in order to chew your lunch thoroughly and
swallow it slowly, and then to sit or move about quietly for a few
minutes before starting to play hard. This will give your stomach a
chance to get all the blood it wants to use in digesting the food;
for, you remember, when you romp and pl
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