MOTHER: It is called Tobacco. It was first found in America when the country was discovered, but it did not begin to steal from white men for nearly one hundred years. Sir Walter Raleigh, of whom you will learn in your history, took it from America to England. It is said that Sir Walter one day sent his servant for some beer, and he came back sooner than was expected. He was greatly frightened to see smoke coming out of the mouth and nose of his master, and at once threw the beer into his face to put the fire out, calling loudly for help, and saying that his master was on fire inside, and would surely burn up. [Illustration: _Tobacco._] HELEN: It is a pity there are not more such servants now, for they might cure some people of this filthy habit. ELMER: But why do you call tobacco a thief, mother? MOTHER: Because it steals. PERCY: But what does it steal? I thought people just chewed, smoked, and snuffed it, and I can not see how that is stealing. MOTHER: It steals health. Its first effect is to cause sickness and vomiting. Every servant in the body-house rises up in arms against it, and there is a great uproar as they try to defend their master from the deadly poison. The servants in the kitchen throw all there is in that room out at the front door. The lungs throw it out headlong in the breath. All the little waste-pipes in the skin work as hard as ever they can to push it out that way. The kidneys, bowels, and, in fact, every servant in the house, shows it the door, and will not let it stay inside if he can help it. ELMER: But can’t the master keep it out? MOTHER: Yes, if he _would_. That is the trouble. But tobacco pretends to be such a good friend, and makes so many good promises, that the master believes its lies, and lets it in. Boys think they are almost men if they can only smoke cigarettes. Some men say “a good smoke” rests them when they feel tired. Others say they must have it “to keep their food down.” Many smoke or chew because others do. And so tobacco deceives them all. PERCY: But doesn’t tobacco do some good, mother? MOTHER: I have never heard of it if it does. The nicotin of tobacco is such a deadly poison that one drop will kill a cat in about three minutes. It does not take a large amount to kill a man in five minutes. If a tea is made from it, it will cause death in three hours. Sometimes soldiers who do not wish to do their duty will put a leaf of tobacco under the arm or over the stomach to make them sick. AMY: I should think if it is such a poison it would kill people to use it. MOTHER: It would if they took enough of it. You know arsenic is a deadly poison, yet some people take it in small doses and live a long time. When the servants of the body-house find that their master _will_ use it whether it hurts them or not, they give up making so much trouble as they did at first; but they still keep turning it out as quietly as they can, and say but little about it.