CHAPTER II 



PURE AIR AND THINGS THAT SPOIL IT 



Sometimes when you get up in the morning you feel 

 happy and rested and good-natured. When your shoe 

 string breaks you laugh, and when a button comes off 

 you think it quite a joke. Then perhaps the very next 

 day everything goes wrong from morning until night; 

 it is hard to be good on such days, and harder yet to be 

 cheerful. 



Of course the reason is not always the same, though 

 you will often find that you slept in pure air the first 

 night and in impure air the second night. In fact, that 

 is always enough to make a great difference in our feel- 

 ings the next day. In pure air our lungs get more oxygen 

 and we sleep well ; if we sleep well we are rested, and 

 when we are rested, it is the easiest thing in the world 

 to be kind and cheerful. On the other hand, when we 

 are not rested we can hardly help feeling cross. 



The same is true about learning our lessons and 

 reciting them well, though even teachers forget this 

 sometimes. 



I can think of two schoolrooms. In the first the 

 children look unhappy; their eyes are dull and their 



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