If early rising is insisted upon, a child should never be set at any task before breakfast, especially in winter; and if it is not expedient to serve a full breakfast at half-past six or seven, the child should be given a bowl of milk and bread, a cup of cocoa with a roll or other light food. Breakfast may be served later, after the first exercises of the morning, and should consist of porridge of wheaten grits, hominy, fish, eggs, fruit (raw or cooked), bread and butter. Dinner, which should always be served near the middle of the day, should comprise meat, potatoes, one or two green vegetables, some form of light pudding or sweet. Supper, it is generally admitted, should comprise easily digested articles of food; such substances as pastry, cheese and meats are better omitted; it should consist of a porridge, with milk or cream, or a light, farinacious pudding of rice, tapioca or sago, with bread and butter, and some simple form of preserve, stewed apples or prunes, or very light, plain cake. A good bowl of nutritious broth--or soup--with bread or crackers, may be substituted for the porridge or pudding. It will sometimes be found best to serve this meal at seven or half-past seven o'clock; in this case the child should be given a slice of bread and butter or a glass of milk (drinking it slowly), at half-past four or five. Some of the more important articles of school diet require special mention; the following extract from Dr. Thompson's Practical Dietetics may prove helpful:-- _Bread._--"Bread, as a rule, should be made of whole meal, but must not be too coarse. The advantage of this bread for children consists in its containing a larger proportion of salts, which they need, than is found in refined white flour, and butter should be freely served with it to supply the deficiency of fats which exist in meat. Children need fat, but they do not digest meat fat well, as a rule, and are very apt to dislike it. They will often take suet pudding, however, when hot mutton fat wholly disagrees with them." _Milk._--"Milk should be freely supplied, not only in the form of puddings and porridges, but as an occasional beverage, and children should be made to understand that when hungry, they can obtain a glass of milk, or a bowl of crackers or bread and milk, for the asking. Chambers says, 'The best lunch that a growing young man can have is a dish of roast potatoes, well buttered and peppered, and a draft of milk.'" _Meat._--"Meat may be given twice a day, but not oftener. It may sometimes be advisable to give it but once a day when fish or eggs are supplied; it should, however, be given at least once daily, to rapidly growing children." _Sweets._--"The greater number of children have a natural craving for sweets."