East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-12-28
THE ART
OF RES TING
BY MRS. McCUNE.

how many women find opportunity
= to follow the doctors orders and
rest for a while each day Beyond
doubt every woman needs to relax for
a time in the middle of the day, but it
is a question as to how many obtain
what is really a rest even though they
fondly imagine that they are following
instructions.
A well-lmown physician who makes
specially Of little children and incident
ally looks after their mothers during his
visits, smiled sardonically the other day
when somebody questioned him on the
subject of proper rest.
"Rest," he said. "seems to mean large
ly what the individual thinks it is,
went to see the mother of an active
three-year-old boy the other day.
"She was run down. largely through
over-fatigue and ordered her to bed
The next day dropped in to see her.
She was indeed in bed, but her small son
was straddling over her jumping UP and
down to make the springs shake.
"'Oh, Doctor she called, I am having
such nice rest. haven't stayed in bed
al day for months, and it's so comforta-
bic and the boy has been so good taking
care of Mummy when she's sick
Nov perhaps it was not exactly what
had meant when | told her to take
rest, but suppose it was the best she
could do under the circumstances, and
to the average mother it is a rest when
the baby is not fretful."
II is said that the French soldiers find
a good cure from fatigue by lying on
the ground with something to raise
their heads little, and propping their
feet up against wall to place their legs
at right angles to their bodies. In this
position their toes, ankles and knees are
worked and the blood that flows into the
raised limbs revives the exhausted lis
sues
Who has not when young. found de-
light in lying on the floor with the feet
up against chair, or in some other way
lifted above the head, in manner that
makes an older person shudder1 Many
a good novel and many the apple has
the writer enjoyed in this apparently I'm
comfortable position, when the blood
was young enough and strong enough to
flow uphill as long as the head was a
little bit raised. The cool linen cover
ing on the parlor floor is ideal for an
afternoon siests, both for the children
and their mother, and many hot hour
can be comfortably spent there on hot
day en- negligee, when there is no like
lihood of visitors.
The youngsters can collect their books
and games there and the mother can
stretch herself out beside them and
hard pillow under her head, and perhaps
get a little nap if the youngsters are
quietly employed. If not she can at
least relax in a dmono and loaf for a
while before it is time to get ready for
dinner The children will be good for
the very fact that mother is down
among them. and listening to their small
conversation is heavenly to the offspring
of a mother, who 10 usually too busy to
play.
Sometimes book can be introduced
and the children both amused and in
structed, as they will enjoy reading
aloud a book, which they might find
prosy il forced to read to themselves.
The writer knows a mother who, in the
days when the big old-fashioned parlors
were the coolest place in the heat Of
the. day, used to teach her small daughter
French conversation by way of diver
sion, and while il usually resulted in a
nap for both parties, yet the instruction
sifted in and the little daughter took her
place in an advanced class when she
entered the language class at school
later on.
The main point was, however. that
the mother was enabled to rest her back
and uninterruptedly for an
hour every afternoon. when otherwise,
she would have been trying to pacify
lonely little daughter,
whom she would have left to her own
device had she retired for seclusion to
her own room. OF course, a mother
needs to have time to herself. but if it
seems impossible to obtain until the chill
drcn so to bed