MOTHER: I think so, and not only some parts, but the whole house needs a good scrubbing with soap and warm water as often as twice a week, and if he will then take a bath of some kind each day, that will keep the skin clean and healthy. Even rubbing the whole body once a day with a damp towel and then with a dry one, will keep the waste-pipes open, so they can do good work, if there is a thorough scrubbing twice a week, as I have said. We should also be careful to wear clean clothing next to the skin, for there is about a quart of waste matter carried through the pores every day. Can you think of any other ways in which the skin is useful besides being a covering and carrying away the waste? HELEN: It helps us _feel_ different objects. Those who are blind learn to do many useful things by the sense of touch. [Illustration: “_A thorough scrubbing._”] MOTHER: Yes, we learn many things by this sense. You know when you show anything to a baby it stretches out its little hands to “feel” of the object. How do you think such poisons as alcohol and tobacco affect this covering of the body? AMY: They must make more waste in the body, and so the skin has more to do. PERCY: I think it must fill it full of poison. ELMER: Does alcohol make the skin look red, mother? MOTHER: Yes; that is why a man who drinks beer or other drinks containing alcohol, has such a red face. Sometimes his nose is called a “rum blossom.” The alcohol makes the blood-vessels larger than they should be, and so his nose and face become very red. Bad food is also hurtful to the skin, for it can not be clear and healthy if the blood is not clean. Pimples and sores are caused by bad blood, and they show that better food is needed in the body. AMY: But you haven’t told us what the roof of the body house is, mother. MOTHER: Have you ever seen a house with a thatched roof--I mean one covered with hay or straw instead of iron or shingles? ELMER: Oh, yes, we saw some when we were out in the country! MOTHER: Well, the roof of the house we live in is more like that than like a shingled roof. PERCY: Now I know what you mean: the body-house has a roof of hair. MOTHER: And it is a most beautiful covering, too. Each hair grows in a little pocket, which is furnished with a tiny bag of coloring matter and a bottle of hair oil. These give color to the hair, and keep it soft and smooth. If we put much oil on the hair, it causes the oil bottles in the skin to dry up. There is no dressing so good as that which is made in the skin. We should brush and comb the hair carefully, to keep it shining and healthy.