14 GOOD HEALTH 



Both of these stories show what tobacco smoke does 

 for insects. But it is more important for you and me to 

 know whether it can do us any harm. I met a man the 

 other day who used to smoke sweet fern and grapevine 

 stems when he was a young boy. He says smoking was 

 great fun in those days and that it never made him sick, 

 until once when he thought he would try a real cigar. 

 He then took his pennies, bought the biggest cigar he 

 could find, lighted it, and smoked about half an inch. 

 He said he was so sick for five hours afterwards that 

 he thought he was going to die. He went into the barn, 

 lay down on the hay, and wished he could be a cow and 

 not suffer so. When his father found him he felt better, 

 but after that he never wanted to smoke again. 



It is the poison in tobacco smoke that makes it so dif- 

 ferent from any other kind of smoke. It is this that 

 made the boy sick when he tried to smoke the cigar, 

 and it is this that killed the insects. 



In another case the boy was not to blame. He was 

 three years old and had a father who was a great smoker. 

 This man played with his son, petted him, held him in 

 his lap, and often they slept together; but he also 

 noticed that whenever he stayed at home for several 

 weeks his son grew pale and weak and did not care to 

 eat. Later he noticed again that when he went out of 

 town and stayed away from home for a good while the 

 boy grew merry and strong and as well as ever. This 



