"'Of all the marvels of God's workmanship, none is more wondrous than the air. Think of our all being bathed in a substance so delicate as to be itself unperceived, yet so dense as to be the carriage to our senses of messages from the world about us! It is never in our way; it does not ask notice; we only know it is there by the good it does us. And this exquisitely soft, pure, yielding, unseen being, like a beautiful and beneficent fairy, brings us blessings from all around. It has the skill to wash our blood clean from all foulness. Its weight keeps us from tumbling to pieces. It is a reservoir where the waters lie stored, until they fall and gladden the earth. It is a great-coat that softens to us the heat of the day, and the cold of the night. It carries sounds to our ears and smells to our nostrils. Its movements fill Nature with ceaseless change; and without their aid in wafting ships over the sea, commerce and civilization would have been scarce possible. It is of all wonders the most wonderful.'" At another time when Dorian had a cold, and consequently, a loss of appetite, his mother urged him to eat more, saying that he must have strength to throw off his cold. "What is a cold?" he smilingly asked. "Why, a cold is--a cold, of course, you silly boy." "What does it do to the activities of the body?" "I'm not a doctor; how can I tell." "All mothers are doctors and nurses; they do a lot of good, and some things that are not so good. For instance, why should I eat more when I have a cold?" She did not reply, and so he went on: "The body is very much like a stove or a furnace; it is burning material all the time. Sometimes the clinkers accumulate and stop the draft, both in the human as well as the iron stove. When that happens, the sensible thing to do is not to throw in more fuel but to clean out the clinkers first." "Where did you get all that wisdom, Dorian?" "I got it from my text book on hygiene, and I think it's true because it seems so reasonable." "Well, last night's talk led me to believe that you would become a philosopher; now, the trend is more toward the doctor; tomorrow I'll think you are studying law." "Oh, but we are, mother; you ought to hear us in our civil government class. We have organized into a Congress of the United States, and we are going to make laws." "You'll be elected President, I suppose." "I'm one of the candidates." "Well, my boy" she smiled happily at him, "I hope you will be elected to every good thing, and that you will fill every post with honor; and now, I would like you to read to me from the 'Lady of the Lake' while I darn your stockings. Your father used to read the story to me a long, long time ago, and your voice is very much like his when you read."