nds find it a good place in which to
hide. Trim your nails with a file, not a knife; and clean them with a
dull cleaner, for a sharp-pointed one will scrape the nail and roughen
it, or push the nail away from the skin of the finger underneath.

[Illustration: USEFUL TOOLS]

Trim and clean the edges of your nails carefully and thoroughly, but
don't fuss much with the roots of them. That little fold of skin there
may strike you as untidy, but it covers the soft growing part of the
nail; and if you push it back with a nail-cleaner, it may cause the
nail to crack and roughen or become inflamed and start a "hang nail"
or "run around." If you push it back at all, do so only with the ball
of your thumb or finger.

The edges of the nails should be trimmed in a curve to match the curve
of the end of the finger. Of course you know that you should never
bite your nails, not only because it is a bad habit and will bring a
good deal of dirt into your mouth, but because you may bite, or tear
down into, the tender growing part of the nail, sometimes called the
_quick_; and then this part may become inflamed, and you will have a
troublesome sore on the end of your finger.

[Illustration: DO YOUR NAILS LOOK LIKE THESE?]

Just as your nails are a part of your skin,--hardened from it and
rooted in it,--so, too, are your teeth; and, like the rest of the
skin, they should be kept thoroughly clean. Every morning and evening
at least they should be carefully brushed. If you take good care of
your first teeth and have them filled when they need it, you will
probably have good permanent teeth, and you won't have to suffer with
toothache.

The skin of your head, which grows such beautiful hair, and the hair
itself, should be kept clean. There are two things needed for this.

First, the hair should be brushed and combed night and morning. The
skin of your scalp is shedding tiny thin scales all day and all night,
just as the rest of your skin is doing. Fortunately, your hair is
growing from roots under the skin much in the same way as blades of
grass grow from their roots; and, as it grows, it pushes up these
scales from the surface of the scalp to where you can readily reach
them with a good bristle brush. If they are not well brushed out, the
dust and smoke from the air will mix with them, and the germs in the
dust and smoke will breed in the mixture, and you will soon have
"scurf" or _dandruff_ on your head. So give at least fif