Читать книгу The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body онлайн

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Amy: I read this verse about our hands not long ago:—

“Hands were made to be useful,

If you teach them the way;

Therefore for yourself or neighbor

Make them useful every day.”

Percy: You haven’t told us about the lower limbs yet, mother.

Mother: No; and any boy or girl who enjoys running and jumping would think theirs a hard lot if they had no legs.

Elmer: I saw a boy with only one not long ago.

Mother: It is a great loss when a person loses an arm or a leg. Such people are called cripples. How many parts has each leg?

Amy: Each one has two parts.

Mother: And how many joints has the leg?

Helen: Three joints.

Mother: That is right. The one at the hip, as I have said, is a ball-and-socket joint; the one at the knee is a hinge joint, and the ankle is quite like the wrist. Then we have the foot, with a number of small joints, like the hand.

Percy: But we have toes on our feet instead of fingers; still there is the same number.

Mother: Yes, and some people can use their toes to draw pictures, write, and do many other things. Now we have found what our body-house is like on the outside, and we see how well each part is made for the work given it to do.