are cramped up, they cannot possibly do. Be careful, too, that the
toe-part of the sock, or stocking, be not pointed; let it be made
square in order to give room to the toes. "At this helpless period of
life, the delicately feeble, outspreading toes are wedged into a
narrow-toed stocking, often so short as to double in the toes,
diminishing the length of the rapidly growing foot! It is next,
perhaps, tightly laced into a boot of less interior dimensions than
itself; when the poor little creature is left to sprawl about with a
limping, stumping gait, thus learning to walk as it best can, under
circumstances the most cruel and torturing imaginable." [Footnote:
_The Foot and its Covering_, second edition. By James Dowie. London:
1872. I beg to call a mother's especial attention to this valuable
little book: it is written by an earnest intelligent man, by one who
has studied the subject in all its bearings, and by one who is himself
a shoemaker.]

It is impossible for either a stocking, or a shoe, to fit nicely
unless the toe-nails be kept in proper order. Now, in cutting the
toe-nails, there is, as in everything else, a right and a wrong
way. The _right_ way of cutting a toe-nail is to cut it straight--in a
straight line. The _wrong_ way is to cut the corners of the nail--to
round the nail as it is called. This cutting the corners of the nails
often makes work for the surgeon, as I myself can testify; it
frequently produces "growing-in" of the nail, which sometimes
necessitates the removal of either the nail, or a portion of it.

133. _At what time of the year should a child leave off his winter
clothing_?

A mother ought not to leave off her children's winter clothing until