Elmer: But isn’t night air bad to breathe, mother?
Mother: No; for when it is night we can get nothing but night air. It is true that if air is shut up in a room it soon becomes unfit to breathe, whether it is night or day.
Percy: On frosty mornings my breath looks like steam as it comes out. Is that the poison gas, mother?
Mother: No; we can not see the gas, but what you see is the water we breathe out. We take in about a pint of air at every breath, and it is said that every time we breathe out we spoil half a barrelful of air, making it unfit to breathe. I will let you find out how many barrelfuls of fresh air we would need in an hour.
Percy: Why, that would be over five hundred barrels! Who ever thought that we needed such a lot of fresh air in just one hour!
Mother: And who, then, would think of using only one roomful in a whole night! It is no wonder that many people have a headache when they wake in the morning.
Helen: But, mother, we can’t get clean air always, even when we are not in the house. This very day a man puffed tobacco smoke into my face as I was passing him.
Amy: But do you think it is right, mother, for any one to poison the pure, fresh air God has given us, with tobacco smoke, and make it unfit to use?
Mother: No; I do not; and a true gentleman will not do it. It is both rude and wrong. He not only wrongs others but harms himself. You know how it feels to get smoke into your eyes, and it is just as bad for the throat and lungs. Bad smells of any kind poison the air, making it unfit to breathe, so we should be careful to keep our rooms and everything about the house sweet and clean.
Percy: I met a man in the street, and I could smell the whisky he had drunk. Did that come from his lungs?