How Girls Can Help Their Country Part 21

My Physical Development

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Fill in this page quarterly, the progress shown should be a useful incentive.

Games to Develop Strength

Skipping, rowing, fencing, swimming, tennis, and handball are all valuable aids to developing strength.

Use also:--

Staff exercises, to music if possible. Maze and spiral; follow-my-leader, done at a jog-trot in the open air. A musical accompaniment when possible. If done indoors, all the windows in the room must be kept open top and bottom. Sing the tune.

FLAGS.--Choose sides; each player lays down a flag or a handkerchief at her own goal, and each side tries to capture the flags of the other; once she touches the opponent's flag she cannot be taken prisoner, but goes back with the flag to her side.

Players can rescue a prisoner by touching her in prison. Players should keep moving as much as possible all the time, and try to evade being captured.

PRACTICE throwing at a mark. Put a pebble on the top of a staff and stand at a certain line so many paces off.

Morris dances (old English country dances) and the folk-songs.

ENDURANCE IS USEFUL

Have you not often heard of accidents on the ice? In the winter of 1895 some schoolgirls were sliding on a frozen ca.n.a.l, when one girl twelve years old ventured into the middle. Then there was an ominous cracking, and in a moment she was struggling in water many feet deep.

Miss Alice White, a teacher, happened to witness the accident.

Notwithstanding the warnings of several persons standing on the towing-path, who a.s.sured her it was most dangerous, she at once went on the ice and approached as close to the hole as she dared with safety.

She then lay down at full length, so as to more equally distribute her weight, and tried to seize the struggling child. But under her weight the ice broke, and the brave girl was precipitated into the cold water.

The bystanders shouted to her to forsake the child, and at least save her own life, but she did nothing of the kind. She held on to her precious burden, and literally fought her way out. Piece after piece of the ice broke off, but she at length reached the bank in a state of great exhaustion. Her hands were cut in many places by the sharp ice, but they were wounds of which any one might well have been proud. Miss White was only sixteen years old, and it was the second time she had saved a life.

Laying a pole or a branch across the hole is a good plan.

An Easy Way to Grow Strong

It is possible for any girl, even though she may be small and weak, to make herself into a strong and healthy woman if she takes the trouble to do a few body exercises every day. They take only about ten minutes, and do not require any kind of apparatus.

This should be practiced every morning, the first thing on getting up, and every evening before going to bed. A girl of ten years should weigh at least fifty pounds, the average height at that age being forty-nine inches. The value of this exercise is much increased if you think of the object of each move while you are doing it, and if you are very particular to breathe the air in through your nose. A great many people who are pale and ill are made so by living in rooms where the windows are seldom opened and the air is full of poisonous gases or germs. Open your windows, especially at the top, every day to let the foul air out.

Do not exercise immediately _after_ eating; let your meal be digested.

Girls who have not done these exercises before should begin them gradually with care, bit by bit, doing more every day. Brush your hair, clean your teeth, wash out your mouth and nose, drink a cup of cold water, and then go on with the following exercises.

It is best to carry these out with as few clothes on as possible, either in the open air or close to an open window. The movements should be executed vigorously.

First Series

EXERCISE I.

Stand erect, hands at side.

Count 1. Bend knees deeply with trunk held vertical.

Count 2. Straighten knees and return to an erect position.

Count 3. Let the body fall directly forward until it reaches an angle of 45 degrees, advancing the left foot a long stride to catch the weight of the body, and bringing the closed hands to shoulders, palms forward, elbows close at side, shoulders drawn back and chest out.

Count 4. Bend at the waist without moving the legs and touch the floor with both hands.

Count 5. Return to the third position.

Count 6. Stand erect.

Repeat ten times, using first one foot, then the other. At the end of one week use this exercise fifteen times. Continue to increase the repet.i.tions by fives each week until you can do thirty.

EXERCISE II.

Take five deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling, filling the lower part of the chest, and at the end of the breath expelling all the air you can.

Second Series

EXERCISE I.

Run in place, that is go through the movements of running without gaining ground, twenty steps, rest a minute and do fifty counts.

EXERCISE II.

Lying on the back, hands at side, raise the body and touch the toes with both hands, ten times.

EXERCISE III.

Count 1. Charge sideways, raising the arms sideways to a vertical position.

Count 2. Bend and twist to the left, touching the floor with both hands on the left side of the foot.

Counts 3 and 4. Make the return movements.

Repeat ten times in each direction.

EXERCISE IV.

Deep breathing eight times.