Two Mills

: Keep-well Stories For Little Folks

Come, children, listen to the story Uncle Ned told to me. It was the

story of a long time ago when Uncle Ned was a little boy. One day his

mother took him on her knee and said, "Ned, do you know that your mouth

is like a little mill?" It is. The mill grinds corn. Your teeth grind

your food. Look in the mirror. Are your teeth all alike? Some of the

teeth in your mouth are to bite the food into bits, and others are to

gr
nd it fine so that it will not hurt your stomach.





You have twenty now because you are a little boy and do not need any

more. When you have grown to be a man you will have thirty-two teeth.

You will have more grinders in your mouth when you are a man than you

have now. The jaw teeth are called grinders, because they grind the food

you put into your mouth, just as the big mill stones grind the corn into

meal down at Grandpa's mill.



You wear clothes to keep your bodies warm, so the teeth need some

covering to keep out the cold. The enamel, a hard outer covering on the

teeth, keeps them from feeling the cold. Down in the middle of the tooth

is a place for the nerves of the tooth. When you break the covering on

the tooth the cold and hot things that you sometimes put into your mouth

will make the nerves ache. Sometimes things that are very sweet or very

sour hurt the covering on the teeth.



To use the teeth to crack nuts or ice will harm them, for it often

breaks the outer covering, and it will not grow again.



Your teeth should last you all your life if you will take care of them.

Grandpa's mill would not grind the corn well, nor would the mill last

long, if he did not take care of it and keep the big stone grinders

clean and free from grit and dirt. Your teeth must have just as good

care as the stones in the mill if you wish them to last you a long time,

and if you want them to grind your food fine.



This is why you must use your toothbrush, and wash your mouth out

regularly every day. If you do not keep your mouth clean, germs will

creep in and cause the little boy to have toothache. You are wondering

what the germs have to do with toothache.



These little germs always get into places that are not kept clean, and

when they get into the mouth they go to work, like so many little

carpenters, with pick and drill, and pick away the outer covering of

the tooth and then the tooth decays, and this causes toothache.



We all want to have pretty white teeth like Ned's, do we not? When we

are little we must take care of the teeth, and if they begin to decay we

must have them filled or treated by the dentist. Let us look at our

teeth and see who has the prettiest and the best ones. Has every one a

toothbrush? We must each have one. We must brush our teeth every day and

rinse them with pure clean water. This will wash out all the germs that

would soon injure our teeth if they were left in the mouth.



If we will care for our teeth when we are young we will not need to have

false teeth when we are old.





QUESTIONS



1. What are our mouths like? Why like a mill?



2. What is there in the mouth that corresponds to

the rocks in the mill?



3. Is there a little baby in your home? Has it any

teeth? Can you tell me why? Yes, that is right.

Teeth are given us to chew food with. The little

baby does not eat any hard or solid food, and

therefore he does not need any teeth yet. When he

is a little older pretty white teeth will be given

him. By the time he is four or five years old he

will have twenty of these little baby teeth. But

he cannot keep the first teeth long. They would be

too little and weak to do him much good when he

gets to be a big boy.



4. Did you ever notice the twig of a tree just

after the leaves had fallen? What did you find on

the stem where the old leaf had grown? That is

right, a tiny new leaf was pushing its way out.

And that is just what happens to the teeth. When a

boy or girl gets to be about eight or ten years

old, a set of new teeth begins to grow down in the

gums under the baby teeth. As these new teeth grow

longer they push up the baby teeth, and cause them

to get loose and fall out. When the new teeth

appear they are strong and hard, that they may

last a long time, if taken care of as Uncle Ned

did his.



5. How many things do we know that we may do to

make our teeth last a long time?



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