MOTHER: Yes, and we must remember that some parts work night and day, summer and winter, as long as we live. Yet they are wearing out all the time, and must be fed and cleaned and cared for while they are working. There are some railroads made with tanks or ditches between the rails, and the engine takes water without stopping. So our bodies must take food, drink, and all they need without stopping the living machinery. It is true some parts must rest every day; but others never stop working till we die. We should study, then, to know what we ought to eat and drink to make up the waste and keep the body well. Some kinds of birds and animals live on flesh. Others eat only grass and grains. The squirrel and the monkey eat nuts and fruits. Can you tell me some of the different things that men use as food? [Illustration: A squirrel] AMY: They eat flesh, grains, and fruits. ELMER: And we eat other things, such as salt, sugar, and milk. MOTHER: Yes, while people _can_ eat all these things, yet _all_ of them are not the very best food, and, like the careful engineer, we should learn just what is good for the human machine, and give it only the best of what it can use. What do you think was given to men to eat at first? AMY: Where can we find out, mother? MOTHER: In the first chapter of the Bible. Perhaps Helen will read it for us. HELEN: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” MOTHER: The word “meat” means food. This was spoken before God had cursed the earth on account of sin, and so everything that grew was “good,” as He had said. We see from this that all kinds of plants bearing seed, and all kinds of fruit, were good for food. No doubt if God had thought meat was good for man, He would have had a butcher shop somewhere in the garden of Eden, and some beef or mutton hanging from the limb of a tree. PERCY: But what made the people begin to eat flesh, mother? MOTHER: After a time the flood came and destroyed everything on the earth except what Noah had in the ark with him, and when he came out of the ark, God told him that people might eat the flesh of animals, and they have kept on eating it ’til the present time. ELMER: But is it the best food, mother? MOTHER: No, we can not say it is the very best; for, as time has passed, the animals have become sickly, and many wise doctors say it is unsafe to eat their flesh. Cattle which have been killed to eat have been found with diseased lungs, livers and kidneys. People sometimes become very ill and many have died from eating their flesh. HELEN: I should think if they choose such food it would be like the engine driver filling his furnace with poor coal when he could get plenty that was better.