CHAPTER III. ABOUT FOOD. Shall we go to market to-day? Let us go to one of the large new buildings that the government has put up in Manila, to be used as markets. They are well fitted for this purpose. They have cement floors, which can be washed every day, and clean, well-built stalls, where goods are sold. The floor of a market should be washed often, and every bit of waste matter should be carried off. If this is not done faithfully, the food sold there spoils and becomes unfit for use. [Illustration: A BADLY ARRANGED MARKET. ] What quantities of fruit! It would take a long time to count all these bunches of bananas. The mangoes are in season now, and look very tempting. It is not well to eat too many of them at the beginning of the season, however, and we should be sure that those which we do eat are ripe and sound. Unripe fruit is very hurtful, and so is fruit which is too ripe, which has begun to decay. Some of these bananas, for instance, are so black and so soft that no one should think of trying to eat them. In some countries a merchant who tried to sell such fruit would soon find himself stopped from selling any fruit at all. The law would not allow him to offer poison for sale, and decayed fruit is poison. We will buy some of these sound, clean-looking bananas, and a few oranges this morning. We will choose oranges that are of a fine, rich green, not too hard, but firm and of good weight. Oranges that feel light in the hand are dry and not wholesome. Here are radishes and lettuce, for salad; but if we buy these, we must be sure that they are well washed in boiled water before we eat them. There are little creatures, so small that they cannot be seen without a strong microscope, that live among the lettuce and other green leaves. These tiny creatures are the cause of the worst form of dysentery. All sorts of vegetables which we eat raw should be washed clean, and it is of no use to wash them in unboiled water, as the amœba (which is the little creature’s name) may be in that, too. We need camotes to-day, and here are some fine ones. We will not buy them, however. Why? Do you not see that some one has been chewing betel nut, and has spit close beside them, and the camotes are all spattered with the red stain? It is a terrible thing that not even our markets can be kept clean from this bad habit of so many people. In some parts of the world the man who spit upon the sidewalk, the floor of a car, or in any public building would be arrested and taken to prison. This may seem to some a hard punishment for what many people think is a small offense. We know, however, that many diseases are caused by this practice, and the man who willfully does anything which puts his fellows in danger from disease does as great wrong as he who endangers their lives in any other way.