The Childs Day | Page 3

back the covers and turn them over
the foot of the bed, so that the air and the sunlight can get at every part
of them and make them clean and fresh and sweet to cover you at night
again. Though you may not know it, all night long, while you have
been asleep, your skin has been at work cleaning and purifying your
blood, pouring out gases and a watery vapor that we call perspiration,
or sweat; and these impurities have been caught by the sheets and

blankets. So after a bed has been slept in for four or five nights, if it has
not been thrown well open in the morning, it begins to have a stuffy,
foul, sourish smell. You can see from this why it is a bad thing to sleep
with your head under the bedclothes, as people sometimes do, or even
to pull the blankets up over your head, because you are frightened at
something or are afraid that your ears will get cold. Your breath has
poisonous gases in it, as well as your perspiration; and the two together
make the air under the bedclothes very bad.
Now you are ready to wash and dress. But before you do this, it is a
good thing to take off your nightdress, or turn it down to your waist and
tie it there with the sleeves, and go through some good swinging and
"windmill" movements with your arms and shoulders and back.
(1) Swing your arms round and round like the sails of a windmill; first
both together, then one in one direction, and the other in the other.
(2) Hold your arms straight out in front of you, and swing them
backward until the backs of your hands strike behind your back.
(3) Hold your arms straight out on each side, clench your fists, and then
smartly bend your elbows so that you almost strike yourself on both
shoulders, and repeat quickly twenty or thirty times.
(4) Swing your arms, out full length, across your chest five or ten
times.
(5) Swing forward and down with your arms stretched out, until the tips
of your fingers touch the floor.
(6) Set your feet a little apart, swing forward and downward again, until
your hands swing back between your ankles.
[Illustration: STARTING THE DAY]
When you come back from these down-swings, bend just as far back as
you can without losing your balance, so that you put all the muscles
along the front of your body on the stretch; and then swing down again

between your ankles. This will help to tone up all your muscles, and
limber all your joints, and set your blood to circulating well, and give
you a good start for the day.
III. BATHING AND BRUSHING
Now you are ready to wash and dress. You can easily take off the gown,
or garments, that you have worn during the night; but there is one coat
that you cannot take off--one that is more important and useful and
beautiful than all the rest of your clothes put together, no matter of how
fine material they may be made, or what they have cost.
Do you remember the old Bible story about Joseph and his "coat of
many colors"? Perhaps you've wished you had one just as nice. Now,
the fact is, your coat is more beautiful even than Joseph's; and, as for its
uses, it is the most wonderful coat ever made!
This coat of yours changes its color from time to time; sometimes it is
pink, sometimes red, sometimes a soft milky white, and sometimes a
dull dark blue, or purple. I wonder if you guess what it is. Sometimes it
is dry and sometimes wet, sometimes it is hot and sometimes cold,
sometimes rough and sometimes smoother than the softest silk--just run
your hand gently over your cheek!
Now you have guessed my riddle. This "wonderful coat" is your skin,
which covers you from top to toe. It fits more closely than any glove,
and yet is so easy and comfortable that it never rubs or binds or hurts
you in any way.
[Illustration: THE SKIN-STRAINER
The little pores open in furrows of the skin. This drawing is many
hundred times as large as the piece of skin itself.]
Will the wonderful coat wash? Yes, indeed, and look all the prettier. In
fact, to keep it white and clear you must bathe often, not only your
hands and face, but your whole body. Your skin is a strainer, you know.
It is a "way out" for some of the gases and waste water from the blood.

What will happen, then, if you don't wash your skin? The little holes, or
pores, that the sweat comes through may become clogged. The strainer
won't