VEGETABLE FOODS 61 



the most difficult to be shaped and changed to the 

 form his building needs. 



Children often eat a second piece of pie or cake at 

 meals, or buy doughnuts or other indigestible bread- 

 stuffs at the baker's shop between meals, and feel great 

 satisfaction because for a few moments their taste is 

 pleased. But what foolish enjoyment this is ! To 

 load our digestive organs with cumbersome food when 

 they could get a greater amount of building material 

 far more easily from other sources ! How often it 

 happens that people who please their palates in this way 

 lose much of the real fun and satisfaction that come from 

 the full enjoyment of play and work ! How many times 

 children who are naturally pleasing and bright become 

 disagreeable and dull in school, largely because their 

 digestive organs are burdened with indigestible food ! 



What a poor trade it is to spend pennies, that might 

 buy something useful, for food that handicaps the body ! 

 How thoughtless children are to exchange the chance 

 of doing their best work in school and having the 

 fullest enjoyment of play for just a few moments of 

 pleasing the taste ! We should remember that bread, 

 if simply and properly prepared, may well be called 

 the " staff of life/ 7 for, when eaten with butter or 

 some other food rich in fat, it furnishes a good pro- 

 portion of all the building elements. We should also 

 keep in mind the fact that flour, when made into pies 

 and cakes, makes a weak staff, indeed, and one we 

 should lean upon very little. 



