mand, ready for use whenever we require them. We are not soon worried and irritated; we are not easily weighed down by passing annoyances and grievances: the wheels of life run easily, and we find it no hard task to be pleasant, cheerful, and friendly with those around us.

But how different is the state in which we live when any part of our frame gets out of order! If one nerve is set aching, if one organ is affected, what a change is wrought!

We go to bed to spend a wakeful, restless night, or to have our sleep broken and disturbed by agitating dreams; we get up weary and languid, and oppressed with heaviness; when we sit down to eat, it is without any sense of hunger. We take our food, not because we wish for it, but because others eat, and we must do the same; or because we consider it a duty to eat. Often the mere sight of food is disagreeable to us.

Every mole-hill becomes a mountain to us; we lose our energy and spirit; our tempers are variable; we are apt to be cross, and peevish, and irritable; and if we do not make an effort to control ourselves, we become a trial to every one who has to do with us.

How can we best preserve our health? This is a question of real importance to us all, and it is our object to teach you what you ought to do in order to secure for yourselves, as far as it lies in your power to do so, a continuance of health and strength.

There are some things necessary to health which, unfortunately, you may find difficult or impossible to obtain. Those who are poor and have to work hard for a living, are often obliged to lead very trying and unwholesome lives. They cannot command their circumstances, and their health in too many cases fails in consequence. But there is such a thing as

making the best of our situation, and of striving to lessen rather than to increase the evils attendant upon it. If you once learn what it is on which health depends, and what are

the things by which it is most certain to be destroyed, you will be able, even under unfavourable circumstances, to keep it unimpaired longer than those will who take no care of it at all.

Remember that the four great things necessary to health are, good food, good air, sufficient exercise, and sufficient rest.

With regard to the first, good food. Many people really are unable, from their great poverty, to procure either the quantity or the quality of food which they require for their support; they are obliged to be contented with the poorest and scantiest fare. But there are many others who could get good food if they choose, but will not do so. Some spend on finery, some on drink, what they ought to spend on good food. Others err in a different way. They eat too much, and they eat all sorts of things that are unwholesome and injurious. Some give too much importance to what are called "the pleasures of the table; it may be said of them that they do not eat to live, but live to eat. These persons are as certain to lose their health as the man who is half starved.

There is little to choose between these extremes. It is a great thing to know when we have had enough. If we go on eating after we have ceased to feel any appetite, we do ourselves more harm than good. We should eat moderately, and we should always choose what is most wholesome and sustaining. Bread, meat, and vegetables: these are what constitute the "good food" necessary for the preservation of health and strength.

2. Good air.

If your home is in the country, it will generally be your own fault if you go without this blessing. In most cases it is necessary only to throw open your windows, or to step outside your door, and you can have as much of it as you desire. But if you live in a town, the case is very different. You may open your windows, and you may stand outside your door, but the air you breathe is not the same as that of the country.

It is seldom pure and fresh; and this is the reason why country people are generally so much healthier than those who live in towns.

If, however, it is our lot to live in a town, we must do the best we can for ourselves. If we have the power of choice we must fix upon the least unhealthy part we can find. If we are compelled to live in a court or alley rather than in the wide, open street, we must choose the lightest and airiest, rather than the closest and darkest. But wherever we are, whether in town or country, open street or narrow yard, we must always keep our windows open during a great part of the day, so as to get all the outer air that we can; for even if the outer air is wanting in freshness and sweetness, it will generally be fresher and sweeter than the air inside the house which we have been breathing all day long. Nothing is more unwholesome than living in a close, pent-up atmosphere, that has been breathed over and over again till all its freshness is exhausted. Such an atmosphere becomes highly injurious; and those who live in it will be poor, sickly, miserable creatures. If they do not absolutely contract some illness, they never can know the real meaning of the word health.

And next to good air comes sufficient exercise.

If we were never to exercise our limbs they would grow stiff and powerless, and our whole frame would become disordered. But, on the other hand, if we take too violent exercise, if we make too great a demand on our strength, we shall equally run the risk of losing our powers, and of falling into a state of illness. Many take a pride in surprising their friends by telling them of some incredible number of miles they have walked, or of some astonishing feats of strength they have performed. They overtax their strength, and it breaks down.

We must avoid the two extremes. We must take moderate and regular exercise, if we wish to keep our health; but we must be equally careful not to over-exert and, so, over-exhaust ourselves.

And in the same way with rest; it must be sufficient, but not more than sufficient. If we were never to go to sleep at all, we should lose not only our health, but our reason also; but, on the other hand, if we take too much sleep, if we are constantly in the habit of lying longer in bed than is necessary for getting the rest our body needs, we shall become weak and without energy. The late riser is seldom the strong, vigorous, active man or woman.

We should endeavour always to be in bed by ten or halfpast ten, and then we shall be ready to get up with the lark next morning.

And to the four things we have been considering, we may add yet a fifth-cleanliness.

A dirty, unwashed person may not actually be in a state of illness, but he never knows what it is to feel the real glow of health; he is never conscious of the same sensation of freshness and vigour which is felt by his neighbour who washes himself thoroughly every day of his life.

If you cannot manage to wash yourself from head to foot every day, you must never fail to do so at least once a-week. The skin diseases and eruptions, so frequently seen amongst children, are often produced by nothing but dirt. The skin never gets thoroughly washed, and therefore never is healthy.

And there is another thing which it is important for us to attend to our linen should be often changed. We ought never to go on wearing the same things next our skin for more than a few days at a time. We ought to change them always once, and if we can afford to do so, twice a-week.

And we must keep our houses as well as our persons clean. We must take care that there is no dirt or refuse of any kind left lying about the rooms in which we live, or collected in heaps before our doors.

It was dirt which was the chief cause of the Great Plague that broke out in London in the year 1665; and it is dirt which

is the cause now of half the dreadful fevers that visit our large towns.

And there is still one more enemy against which to warn you, before we conclude, and that is damp.

We must beware of ever sitting in damp clothes or damp shoes and stockings; and, above all, we must beware of ever passing the night in a damp bed.

Damp clothes and damp beds lay the foundation of rheumatic fever, ague, consumption, and other equally serious or fatal illnesses.

And now, having told you what are the best means of preserving your health, we will add one word as to the best means of restoring it, when, either by misfortune or carelessness, it may have left you.

1. Never neglect the first symptoms of approaching illness. Seek advice early, before your disorder becomes serious.

2. Do exactly as your doctor tells you. Never allow your self any indulgence which he forbids, and never neglect any order he gives you, however disagreeable or painful it may be.

3. Never allow your mind to dwell upon your symptoms; think as little as you can of your illness. Do not be always brooding over your aches and pains; try to forget them, if possible, by thinking of other things.

CHAPTER XXIX.

FIRE.

"FIRE," it is said, "makes a good servant, but a bad master;" and we seldom take up a newspaper without finding in it an account of some accident, great or small, caused by fire; some property destroyed; some life sacrificed, or else endangered.

After each accident, the first question asked by those who