III. SEEING AND READING

You can learn a great deal through your ears, but think how much more
you can learn through your eyes. Just count over all the things that
you have had to get your eyes to tell you to-day, and then shut your
eyes for a minute and think what it would mean never to be able to
see. Don't you think you ought to take very good care of your eyes?
You are going to keep them very busy all your life, and they deserve
the very best care you can give them.

[Illustration: THE LIGHT ON THE PAGE, NOT IN THE EYES]

Just as soon as lessons begin, you get out your books; and a good
share of the day in school you have a book before you, reading it or
studying it or copying from it. It makes a great difference to your
eyes how you hold the book and how the light falls. In reading, you
should always hold your book so that the light falls upon the page
from behind you, or from over one of your shoulders. In this way, the
brightest light that comes into your eyes is not from the window, but
from the page of your book.

If the light comes from a window in front of you, or if you sit in the
evening with your face toward the lamp when you read, the light coming
straight from the lamp or the window, as well as the light coming up
from the pages of the book, pours into your eyes; and this dazzles and
confuses your eyes, so that you can't see plainly and comfortably and
are very likely after a while to find that your head aches. At home,
of course, you can seat yourself with your back to the light when you
read; and usually at school your seats are so arranged that the light