Part 33

MOTHER: I will try, and perhaps we can find out some things about it. Here is a picture which may help us. You see the front of the eye bulges out like a watch crystal, and it has a strong, glassy covering, called the cornea, which lets the light through. Passing through the pupil we come to the lens, which is shaped as you see in the picture. You have seen old persons wear spec´ta-cles to help them see. The glasses in the frames are lenses; but you must not think from this that the lens in your eye is made of glass. It is because of the shape that it is called a lens. A picture of people, houses, trees, or anything else you look at, is made by the lens on the inner part of the eye, which is called the ret´i-na. It is almost wholly made up of the little branches of the nerve of sight.

HELEN: And is that the way we see?

MOTHER: Partly. The picture passes through the clear, jelly-like substance of the eye to the back, where it is spread out, and the nerves of sight carry it into the brain, for the master to see. We may have perfect eyes, but if anything is wrong with the eye nerve, we can not see; so we really see and hear with our brain instead of our eyes and ears.

ELMER: Isn’t the eye something like the camera used to take photographs?

MOTHER: Yes, in some ways. One curious thing about it is that it turns its pictures upside down before they strike the nerves of sight, and in this it is like the camera.

HELEN: I am so glad that we all have good eyes.

MOTHER: And well you may be. We should always take the very best care of our eyes. Alcohol makes them red and bloodshot; for it makes too much blood go into them, just as it does all over the surface of the body. Tobacco injures them by making the nerves weak. It is a dreadful thing to be blind or have weak sight, and while we prize our eyes we will never take such poisons to injure them.

PERCY: I wish I could get a peep at the master when he looks through the windows.

MOTHER: You may at any time. We know just how he feels by the “look” of his eyes. When he is displeased and angry, they look so hard that it almost seems as though sparks flew from them. When he is pleased, they light up with kindness and pleasure, and you wish to be near him, he seems so happy, and it makes you glad, too. When he is loving and kind, there is such a tender feeling shines through that it seems like a warm, comforting fire, and you love him better than ever before. So the eyes “speak,” though they never say a word.

MY TWO WINDOWS.

“Two wonderful windows The Lord gave me; And through these windows His wonders I see.

“The beautiful flowers, The grass and the trees, The hills and the valleys, The birds and the bees,

“The faces of parents So dear to me, The stars in the sky, The fish in the sea,—

“All these through my windows Most gladly I see, And praise my Creator For giving them me.”

—C. M. Snow.

A GOOD SERVANT

MOTHER: A little boy was once asked to repeat his Bible verse, and he said, “I don’t remember just what the words are, but it is the one where Paul said he kept his soul on top.”

ELMER: I think this must have been the one he meant, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into sub-jec´tion.”

MOTHER: Yes, and the child no doubt thought if his body was “under,” his soul must be “on top.” I think it means that the mind should be the master of the body, doing only that which will be for its good. The master, when he knows what is best, will not let one of his servants be master instead of himself.

HELEN: I should think every one would want to do what is best to keep the body well.

MOTHER: We would all think so, but there is one of the servants who often gets control of the master and coaxes him till he gets his own way. But, though he may be a good servant, he is a very bad master, and the body has a sorry time when this servant has his own way.

AMY: What is the servant’s name?

MOTHER: He is called Taste. His room is the passage where we found so many servants dressed in white. He wears a pink dress, and stays in the house most of the time, but once in a while he peeps out between the folding doors.

AMY: That is the tongue, I know.

MOTHER: Yes, that is where we find Taste at home. Sometimes when he has his own way, his dress becomes a dirty yellow or brown color, and if the master finds himself quite ill, he sends for a doctor, who comes, and about the first thing he does is to ask the tongue to step outside a moment, and as soon as the wise man looks at its dress, he knows whether Taste has been doing his duty or not.

PERCY: But what is his duty?

MOTHER: To tell the master what is good to build and mend the body, and to help him enjoy his food. If some good whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, or some fresh fruit passes the guards, Taste rolls it over and over and sends word to the master through some of the little telephone wires: “This is very good. I think we will have more of this.” Then the servants in the kitchen are pleased, and all goes well. You have heard that

“Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, Eating a Christmas pie,”