You can, however, help her very much by keeping the _scratch_ or _cut perfectly clean_. This is the chief thing to remember. Wash it thoroughly in clean water. Hold it under the pump, or faucet, and let the water pour down on it. If you can, pour some _antiseptic_, or germ killer, over the cut, and wrap it up in a clean cloth. There is a medicine called _peroxid of hydrogen_, which is good for cuts and wounds, but an older person will have to put it on for you. If the scratch is from a finger nail or the claw of a cat, or if the wound is the bite of some animal, you must be sure to have your mother or a doctor clean the wound with strong medicine. You see, nails and claws and teeth are, as a rule, dirty, and have on them germs that will get into the cut and make it swell and be very sore indeed. [Illustration: THE TIGHT BANDAGE HIGHER THAN THE CUT] Sometime you may have a cut that is deep. You will see the bright red blood spurt from it. This means that you have cut one of the blood pipes called arteries. If the cut is on the arm or the leg, you should take a cloth or bandage and tie it tightly around the arm or leg _above_ the cut; and if that does not check the blood, put a piece of stick under the cloth and twist the stick, as in the picture. For a cut like this you must get help as soon as possible, and keep quiet, or else you will increase the flow of blood. If you get anything in your eye, be sure not to rub the eye; don't even wink hard if you can help it. You will only make the pain worse, because you will scratch the eyeball. Let some one take out the bit of dust or the cinder or the fly, or whatever it is, as quickly as possible. Often, if you close the lids gently and hold them so, the tears will wash the speck down for you. If you should bruise yourself, the best way to treat the bruise is to pour either quite cold or quite warm water over it, and keep this up for several minutes; or to put it into a bowl of hot water. Then tie it up in a bandage of soft cotton cloth or gauze and pour over it a lotion containing a little alcohol--about one sixth or one fourth. This, by evaporating, cools off the bruise and relieves the pain. If your ear, or nose, or a finger should happen to be frozen or frost bitten, the best thing to do is to rub it hard with snow until it thaws out and becomes pink again. Above all, don't go too near the fire, and don't go into a very warm room too soon. If you get one of those uncomfortable itchy swellings on your feet called _chilblains_, which come from cold floors in your houses, or from wet feet, or from wearing too thin shoes and stockings, don't put your feet too near the fire, but rub them well with turpentine just before going to bed at night. This will often take all the pain and itching out of them.