Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/28

14 Soldiers as well as other people, very often suffer lameness and great pain from the nail of their big toe growing down into the toe at one side.

This is often caused by letting the nail grow too long until by the pressure of the shoe, it is driven to grow sideways into the toe. So you should be careful to cut your toe-nails frequently every week or ten days, and they should be cut square across the top, not rounded, and with sharp scissors.

Finger nails should also be cut about once a week to keep them in good order. They can be rounded to the shape of the finger to prevent the corners catching and getting torn.

Biting the nails is very bad for them.

There is no part of you that poisonous germs attack more readily than your teeth. They get in between them and burrow inside them, and bring about that awful pain known as toothache, and the teeth decay and have to be pulled out; and consequently your food after that does not get properly chewed.

But you can prevent this for yourself if you take the trouble to clean your teeth properly, and to brush and wash away these germs out of your mouth.

The first thing is to have a toothbrush. This you can buy for a few cents at any drugstore. If you cannot afford to buy one you can at any rate make one for