THE CARETAKER
MY: Just see, mother! I have cut my finger. See how fast the blood runs out! Oh-h!
Mother: Suppose we let a drop fall on this glass and then try to find out what it is made of, what it does in the body, and about the different rooms it visits. You may ask questions and I will try to answer them; but first we will bind up the cut finger in this bit of soft cloth. We have already learned how blood is made, but we want to learn what it does for us.
Blood is made from the food you eat and the water you drink. If you eat good food it makes good blood. Bad food and drink make bad blood. It might be called the caretaker, or the housekeeper of the body. Without it your body-house would go to ruin; for the Bible says, “The life of all flesh is the blood.” After passing through the kitchen, serving room, and dining room, the blood enters a dark tunnel and comes to your heart.
Helen: But what makes it such a bright red color?
Mother: Because it has millions of little red bodies called cor´pus-cles. Really it is a pale yellow, but there are so many of these tiny folk floating around that they make it look red, just as a river would if it were packed full of tiny red fishes, or as water would if you should fill a bottle with very small red beads and then cover them with water.
Percy: But are all the cor´pus-cles red?
Mother: No; some are white, but there are many more red than white.