CHAPTER XXVIII 



TEETH 



Once every week I meet three pretty girls and two big 

 boys who belong to the same family. They have soft brown 

 hair, merry eyes, and they dress well, but, whenever they 

 smile they show such yellow teeth that I feel like saying, 

 " Children, children, why don't you wash your teeth ? " 



Whenever one of the girls gets a new hat, or one of 

 the boys buys a suit of clothes, my first thought is, 

 " You poor child ! you wish to look fine, and you think 

 you look quite fine already, but a toothbrush would 

 help you more than anything else in the world." The 

 trouble with their teeth is that they never wash them. 



I have a young lady friend with a funny little pointed 

 mouth. Her teeth are clean, to be sure, but the upper 

 front ones reach over the lower ones so that they never 

 help each other when she chews. When this young 

 woman was a little girl she sucked her thumb every 

 night when she went to bed. She even sucked it by day- 

 light too, sometimes, so that little by little she changed 

 the shape of her upper jaw, and now if you should see 

 her you would think that she had done all she could to 



make herself look like a squirrel. 



147 



