dirty people have tiny insects in their heads. I'm sure you don't want to get anything like that."

"Goodness, no!" exclaimed Ruth.

"Perhaps," said Father, after stepping into the next room, "you'd like to see some old pictures of me. When I was little, I just hated to brush my hair, so one day, when my hair was all tousled, my father took me to the photographer. I wanted to smooth my hair first, but Father wouldn't let me, and I was

taken just as I was. Then Father brushed my hair nicely and the photographer took this other picture." "Why, they look like two different boys," said Paul.

"For a whole year," laughed Father, "I had those pictures standing on my bureau, and I never once forgot to brush my hair."

"I think," said Mother, "it must be six o'clock. Suppose you children put all this talk into practice by going upstairs and brushing your hair before supper.

THINGS TO DO

If you have already formed a Health-Club, add this to your health-chores. With a clean stiff brush, give your hair and scalp 100 strokes, 50 to a side, before you go to bed. This is an old-fashioned recipe for beautiful hair. Try it for one month.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Hair grows from a knob of little live cells, down deep in the skin. Connected with each hair are two little oil glands. These supply oil to keep the hair soft and shining. Tiny muscles are attached to the sides of the pit in which the hair grows. Coloring matter forms in the tiny hairs, making them brown or black or golden. But sickness, or other strain on the body, may rob the hair of this color, so that it becomes gray. Curly hair is hair that is flattened like a shaving, instead of round like a pencil. Trying to curl hair with a hot iron takes the oil out, makes it dry and stiff and causes it to fall out. From all these facts we learn how to care for the hair.

Old skin flakes off the scalp, just as it does off the rest of the body. The hair and scalp, being oily, collect dust. Therefore we must brush the hair and scalp thoroughly at least once a day, for cleanliness. Since the hair grows from live cells, these cells must be fed. By brushing the scalp hard and regularly we bring the blood to the surface, where it gives the cells the food they need to make new hair. No tonic put on the outside is as useful as regular rubbing to make hair grow.

We are not all blessed with beautiful hair, but we can make the most of what we have. First, we can keep it smooth and glossy and clean, by daily brushing with a clean brush. Second, we can wash it often enough for cleanliness. This will be perhaps once a week, perhaps once in three weeks, depending on how clean our sur

roundings are. We use hot water and thick soapsuds, for washing the hair. We never rub soap directly on our hair. After we have cleansed the hair in the lather, we rinse it several times, first with clear warm water, then with cold water, till all the soap is out. We dry the hair well with clean towels. We are careful not to go outdoors, in cool weather, until the hair is quite dry.

Finally, we never use the combs or brushes of other people, but always have our own.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

How does hair grow? What keeps it soft and shining? Why can we improve our hair by rubbing? Why do all the hair-tonics give directions for rubbing these things into the scalp? How much good do "tonics" do?

Could keeping the health-rules have anything to do with beautiful hair?

How do you shampoo your hair? How often? Is yours the best way? How can you improve it? How do you care for your hair daily? What more could you do? Some states have laws against public toilet articles. Has your state? Do you think such laws are necessary?

Why?

How do you care for your comb and brush? How could you take better care of it?

CHAPTER XIV

SEEDS OF DISEASE

RUTH laid down Grimm's Fairy Tales with a sigh. "I wish there were really fairies," she said. "I'd love to see one."

"Yes," echoed Paul, "I'd like to see one so little that he could sit in Mother's thimble."

"Dear me," said Father, “a fairy as big as that would be a perfect giant. You mustn't expect fairies to be big enough for you to see. But if we were to set a trap, I think we might catch some fairies right in this room, and then perhaps Dr. Clarke would lend us his magic glass so we could look at them."

"O, Daddy," protested Ruth, "not real fairies. here in this room!"

"Well," said Father, "I don't know what you call 'real' fairies, but there really are here in this room millions of little living things, only they are too small to be seen."

"Where are they?" demanded Paul.

Father fixed the shutters so that a single bar of sunlight fell across the floor. "Do you see those specks of dust dancing around in the sunlight?" he asked. "Each of those dust specks is carrying a load of germ goblins.

"What does 'germ' mean, Daddy?" Paul inquired.

"It means 'seed.' The germ goblins carry both

good and bad seed. Some of their seeds help to make butter and cheese, to raise our bread, to make buttermilk and to turn cider into vinegar. Some of the seeds rot fruit, make the bread mouldy, decay our teeth, and give us mumps, whooping-cough, typhoid fever and other diseases."

"Oh, I'd love to set a trap and catch some germ goblins!" cried Paul. "How can we do it?"

"There are several ways," said Father, "but one of the easiest traps to make at home is a potato trap. Come out into the kitchen and let's make one."

In half an hour the trap was made. This is how Father did it. He took a potato, washed it and boiled it carefully so as not to break the skin. Then, after putting a knife into boiling water for a few moments, he used it to cut the potato in two. He laid each half of the potato, with the cut side up, on a saucer and poured in a little water.

"Why did you boil the knife?" asked Paul.

"So no germs would get from it onto the potato. We want to catch in our potato trap only the germs from the air."

"Now where shall we set the traps?" asked Ruth. "I think I'll set mine on the window-sill in Mother's room."

"It'll get knocked off. I'm going to put mine under her bed," said Paul.

When Mrs. Weston saw the procession entering her room and heard Paul's excited explanation that they were going to "catch germ fairies," she said,