Confidences | Page 4

girls are, after all, even if they do not look at all alike?
You have lungs just the same as the bird, and breathe as it does. You have two feet, but instead of wings you have arms and hands. You have a sign language, as the flowers have, and you have a language of sounds that is even better than the bird language. When you are happy, I can tell it by the smiles on your face, and sometimes when you are a wee bit cross, I know it by a tiny frown that mars the beauty of your face. But, of course, that does not happen very often, because, you know, as we grow older, our faces do not change their expressions as easily as they do when we are young. And would it not be dreadful, if when you grew up, you always had a frown on your face and were not nice looking at all? You know the frown wrinkles try to stay, and every time we let them come out they leave a tiny mark.
When the flower took in the fresh air it made green coloring matter, but when you take in the fresh air it makes red coloring matter. So if you want to have red cheeks and red lips you must have plenty of fresh air. I know you get a great deal in the daytime when you are playing, but you must be sure to get it at night, too, or you will lose all your pretty color. Be sure that your window is open every night.
You remember, the leaves not only had to breathe but they had to digest the food for the plant, too, but the bird had a stomach to perform that work.
In this way you are like the birds, for you have a stomach which takes care of the food you eat. If you wish to grow strong and well so as to be able to run and play and also to help your mother with her work, you must eat plenty of good, nourishing food. You know some food makes muscles, but other things are not very good for people to eat. Plenty of bread and milk and cereals, also meat, potatoes and fruit, are very good things to make girls grow. You must take care of your stomach, too, and give it time to rest, for it works very hard and might get tired out. Then what would you do?
You have seen, Violet, that in a great many ways you are like the birds and flowers, but now I am going to tell you something that perhaps you did not know. Girls have ovaries just the same as flowers and birds, and inside each ovary are a great many little ovules that after a while will ripen as the seeds did, only instead of growing into flowers or birds they will grow into babies. Is that not lovely, and are you not glad that perhaps some day you will be able to have a baby all your own? But of course that will not be for a great many years yet, for you must wait until you have grown into a strong woman and have a home of your own and a husband to help take care of the baby.
When the little ovules are ripe there must be a nest prepared for them, just the same as there was one prepared for the flowers and birds. But now I shall tell you another wonderful secret. Mothers do not have to build nests, for they are already prepared for them right inside their bodies close to their hearts. The nest is called the womb. Although we do not have to build the nest, we have to take good care of it so it may grow strong.
This nest and the tiny ovules are growing constantly from the time the girls are babies, but they grow so very slowly that none of the ovules are ripe until the girl is about twelve years old. After that one ripens every month and passes to the nest or womb. At the same time an extra amount of blood is sent to the womb to provide nourishing material for the ovule to use in its growth. But the womb, or nest, is not strong enough yet to hold a healthy baby, so this extra amount of blood with the ovule is sent out of the body through the vagina, which is a muscular tube leading from the womb to the external parts (private parts). We call this flow the menstrual flow. This occurs every month and each time the womb becomes a little stronger and better able to hold a growing babe. But the womb is not fully developed until the rest of