poisoned.

Some people hurt their noses by smoking tobacco. The inside skin of
the nose is very delicate, and the smoke going back and forth through
the nose and the throat keeps them from doing their work properly. It
is very bad for little children even to smell tobacco smoke. It seems
in some way to keep them from growing as they would in clear fresh
air. What a silly habit smoking is! It does no one any good. It hurts
not only the people who make the smoke, but the people who have to
smell it. Most of the people who smoke tobacco have to learn to like
it. It almost always makes them very sick when they first begin.

Sir Walter Raleigh, or the men he sent to America, first taught our
great-great-great-grandfathers to smoke. His men bought tobacco of the
Indians here and took it back to England; and Sir Walter himself
learned to smoke and made smoking fashionable. The first time that Sir
Walter's servant saw him smoking, he thought his master was on fire;
so what did he do but bring a big bucket of water and throw it all
over him! I wish that that bucket of water had settled the matter, so
that Sir Walter had stopped smoking and had never taught anyone else
to smoke. If it had, think how much money might have been put to
better use, for smoking is a very costly habit. And it is not only
wasteful of money, but, worse still, of health; for it is the cause of
a great deal of poor health and disease.

Remember that you want the air you breathe perfectly fresh and clean
and not spoiled and poisoned by tobacco smoke.


VII. TALKING AND RECITING