old"; but
that will last only a few days. If, however, your nose often feels
"stuffed up," there is probably something in it or behind it, that
ought to be taken away. A throat doctor can easily cure you; and, when
he has, you'll be surprised how much better you feel and how much
faster you grow.

[Illustration: A CLEAR PASSAGE TO THE LUNGS

(Follow the arrows.)]

I once knew a little girl whose nose was always blocked up. She had
headache and felt tired most of the time and was behind in her
classes. The doctor told her what was the matter, but her father and
mother were afraid that it might hurt her to have the doctor take out
what was clogging her nose. Well, what did she do? Instead of crying
and being afraid, one day she walked right into the doctor's office
and asked him to take out the _adenoids_, as we call these growths
that block up the nose. And after the doctor had taken them out, she
began to grow well and fat and strong so fast that she soon "caught
up" in her classes.

[Illustration: A PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ADENOIDS]

When you breathe well through your nose, you can smell and taste
better, too. In fact, when your nose is clogged, you cannot smell at
all.

How does this sense of smell help us? You say we can smell the flowers
and the fresh air after the rain, and cookies baking, and all the
things that we like so well. Yes, and these give us pleasure; but how
about the bad smells? The bad smells are warnings. If there is a dead
mouse or rat about, we smell it; and that leads us to look for it and
take it away. We smell the dirt and get rid of it, and thus keep away
sickness. When we walk into a room, if the air is bad we smell it at
once and open a window or a door, and so save ourselves from being
poisoned.

Some people hurt their noses by smoking tobacco. The inside skin of
the nose is very delicate, and the smoke going back and forth through
the nose and the throat keeps them from doing their work properly. It
is very bad for little children even to smell tobacco smoke. It seems
in some way to keep them from growing as they would in clear fresh
air. What a silly habit smoking is! It does no one any good. It hurts
not only the people who make the smoke, but the people who have to
smell it. Most of the people who smoke tobacco have to learn to like
it. It almost always makes them very sick when they first begin.

Sir Walter Raleigh, or the men he sent to America, first taught our
grea