Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1: An Illustrated MagazineVarious
General
Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1: An Illustrated Magazine
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
The arms are almost as necessary in walking as the legs. The first time
you are walking with your arms at liberty, stop moving them and hold
them by your sides. You will be surprised to find how soon your
companion will leave you behind, although you may hurry, twist, wriggle,
and try very hard to keep up. One reason for the slow walk among girls
is to be found in this practice of carrying the arms motionless. Three
miles an hour with the arms still, is as hard work as four miles with
the arms free.
I have seen the queens of the stage walk. I have seen a few girls and
women of queenly bearing walk in the street and drawing-room. They moved
their arms in a free and graceful manner. Could this habit become
universal among girls, their chests would enlarge and their bearing be
greatly improved. See that girl walking with both hands in her muff. How
she wriggles and twists her shoulders and hips! This is because her arms
are pinioned. Give _them_ free swing, and her gait would soon become
more graceful.
You have seen pictures of our muscles. Those of the upper part of the
body, you remember, spread out from the shoulder, in all directions,
like a fan. Now if you hold the shoulder still, the muscles of the chest
will shrink, the shoulders stoop, and the whole chest become thin and
ugly.
But some girls will say, "Swinging the arms must be very _slight_
exercise." True, it is very slight, if you swing the arms but once or
ten times, but if you swing them ten thousand times in a day, you will
obtain more exercise of the muscles of the chest than by all other
ordinary movements combined. Indeed, if I were asked what exercise I
thought most effective for developing the chests of American girls, I
should reply at once, _swinging the arms while walking_.
_Dio Lewis._
ANDY'S ADVENTURES;
OR THE WORLD BEWITCHED.
Andy's folks had gone to town, and left him at home to take care of the
house, watch the garden, and amuse himself.
Andy had a new bow and arrow, and he thought it would be great sport to
have nothing to do all the afternoon but to shoot at the robins and
woodpeckers.
So, as soon as the wagon was out of sight, and the gate shut, he ran
into the orchard, and began the fun. He kept near enough to the house to
see if anybody came to the door, and near enough to the garden to see if
the pigs got into it; and whenever he saw a bird, he sent an arrow
after it. But the robins soon found out what he wanted, and flew away
when they saw him coming. Their beautiful red breasts would have been
capital marks, if they had only waited for him to get a good shot. The
wrens were not afraid, but they were so small he could not hit them. And
the swallows kept flying about so, twittering and darting here and
there, that he knew he would have to practise a long time before he
could take them on the wing. The yellow-birds and blue-birds were so
shy, that he could hardly see one in sight of the house. So there was no
game left but the woodpeckers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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