KEEP-WELL STORIES FOR LITTLE FOLKS

BY

MAY FARINHOLT-JONES, M.D.

Professor of Hygiene and Sanitation, and Resident Physician
Mississippi Normal College


ILLUSTRATED BY
PAULINE WRIGHT
Sophie Newcomb College

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

FOREWORD

The Author, in her work with young teachers, has frequently noted the great difficulty they seem to have in presenting hygienic facts to little children in a manner so attractive as to catch and hold their attention.

The child's mind dwells constantly in the realm of imagination; dry facts are too prosaic to enter this realm. The "Land of Story Books" is the most fascinating of all lands, and therefore the Author has endeavored to weave hygienic facts into stories that will appeal to the child's imagination. She believes the truths of hygienic living and habits in the stories will "creep up on the blind side," so to speak, and impress themselves upon the young mind.

The child can appreciate only those hygienic facts which can be applied in every-day living: he has no interest in health as an end in itself. Furthermore, that instruction in hygiene which is given as an end in itself, and which does not reach beyond the school-room in its influence, is a failure. Therefore, that instruction in hygiene which is in line with the child's interest is also the instruction which is most effective.

The effort throughout has been to make scientific truths simple and concrete, and so captivating that the young pupil will at once find interest in them. The early years of child-life are the most impressionable; it is, therefore, especially important that we stress during these years that which means more to the conservation of life than any other one thing, viz., hygiene.

Lessons of personal cleanliness, the necessity for good food, fresh air and exercise are the truths which are the underlying principles of these stories. With these as suggestions, the teacher may easily develop further.

The mother as well as the teacher will find them helpful as she gathers her little ones around her knee at the evening hour, in response to the request for "a story."

The questions following each story, a kind of catechism, supply more information than it was thought best to give in the story itself.

The illustrations have been prepared especially for this work and make the lessons of the story more impressive.

The Author desires to acknowledge her obligations to Mr. Charles Jerome for permission to use "The Sand Bed"; to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for "The White Ship," and "Clovis, The Boy King," by Miss Christine Tinling. To Misses Marion Chafee and Bessie McCann, students of the Hygiene Department of the Mississippi Normal College for the "Hygiene Song" and "Little Fairies": also to Miss M. Larsen for "One Little Girl" and the poem, "Jack Frost"; to Mr. O. S. Hoffman for the poem, "The Five Best Doctors," to Messrs. Flanagan and Company, for permission to use the anonymous poem, "Merry Sunshine," and to Miss Virginia R. Grundy for "A Child's Calendar."

July, 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE The Wonderful Engine 1 Two Little Plants 6 The Story of a Fly 11 Swat the Fly 18 The Story of the Rain Barrel 19 Malaria 24 Jack Frost 29 Jack Frost, a Poem 34 A Story of Tuberculosis 35 It Is Time That You Should Stop 41 A True Story 42 Two Little Windows 46 Merry Sunshine public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@32521@[email protected]#Page_50"