Elmer: But does Taste ever want things which are not good for the body?
Mother: Yes, many, many times. He coaxes so hard that I have seen some boys and girls even cry for that which would make them ill. If given a good piece of bread, they wanted pie or cake or some other hurtful thing. One thing I must tell you about Taste: If he has nothing at all given him when he gets the sulks, after a while he is very well pleased to get even plain food, and as he rolls it over and over, he says by his actions, “It tastes much better than I thought it did.”
Amy: A lady once asked me if I had a sugar tooth, mother. What did she mean?
Mother: When one’s taste calls for a great many sweet things, people sometimes say of such a person that they have a “sugar tooth,” but it is Taste, and not the teeth, who wants to be pleased that way. Candies, lollies, and sweet foods are bad for the teeth as well as the stomach; but Taste often begs for them, even though they do harm in the body. He sometimes learns to like what he dislikes very much at first, so you see it is the master’s duty to give him only that which he knows is best.
He often does great harm by asking the master for things to taste when the kitchen is full and the cook does not wish to be disturbed in her work. Really I think you will agree with me that he is a very selfish fellow, and cares more for his own pleasure than for the comfort of others or the welfare of his master. If he has his own way, it makes the master cross, and everything seems to go wrong.
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness.
ECC. 10:17.
Helen: I shall try to teach my Taste to call for only those things that will make my body well.
Mother: If you do, you will sometimes have a quarrel with him, but all the other servants will be glad that you do not let him master you. That is one way the Bible means we should keep our bodies under. Sometimes we have to take Taste by the throat, as it were, and when we have him down, let him know that we are his master, and that we intend to rule our own house.
Percy: Isn’t that the way people do when they leave off drinking wine and beer, and stop using tobacco?