fresh
butter, rich milk, cream, fruits both raw and cooked, macaroni, fish,
corn, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, ice creams, desserts without
pastries, and nourishing broths. Cereals, poultry, game, chocolate and
sweet grapes are all excellent. Avoid all spiced, acid or very salty
foods. While plenty of outdoor life is most essential, a great deal of
exercise is not. If there is any internal disease, especially the
slightest inclination to dyspepsia or liver trouble, one cannot
possibly gain flesh until the cause of the extreme slenderness is
removed. When the body is plump in one part and fails in another,
either massage or a gymnastic course is advised. Dumb-bells and Indian
clubs will develop the arms; massage with a fattening emollient,
together with loose clothing, tepid baths and breathing exercises, will
increase the size of the chest and bust, while swimming, moderate
bicycling and walking are good for nearly all plaints of the thin lady.

But until these changes are brought about--and it will take lots of
time--do not fret or worry. Merely wear your clothing very loose,
substitute a comfortable little waist for stiff, unwieldy corsets, and
see that your gowns are made full and dainty. In this last particular
you will have an immense advantage over the woman who would sell the
shoes off her feet to be thin and "willowy."

THE PLUMP GIRL

"What's female beauty but an air divine,
Through which the mind's all-gentle graces shine?
They, like the sun, irradiate all between;
The body charms, because the soul is seen."

--_Young._

If one had to choose between being too fat or too lean, the wise woman
would certainly take the smaller allowance of flesh. Jack Sprat might
incite pleasant ridicule, but Jack Sprat's wife--lo! there would be
naught but pity and tears for her! It is better by far to be the butt
of jokes concerning "walking shoestrings" or "perambulating umbrella
cases" than to waddle through life burdened to death with an excessive
amount of flesh. The thin sister can pad out the angles, put frills and
puffy things over the bony places, but alas for the fat one! She gets
into clothes that are skin-tight, and she draws in her corset string
until it snaps and gives at every breath and sneeze, and even then she
does not look graceful and pretty, for the fat--like secrets--will out,
and it rolls over and around like the little bumps and humps in a
pudd