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That fruits are naturally healthy in their season, if rightly taken, no one who believes that the Creator is a kind and beneficent Being can doubt. And yet the use of summer fruits appears often to cause most fatal diseases, especially in children. Why is this? Because we do not conform to the natural laws in using this kind of diet. These laws are very simple, and easy to understand. Let the fruit be ripe when you eat it; and eat when you require food. Fruits that have seeds are much more wholesome than the stone fruits. But all fruits are better, for very young children, if baked or cooked in some manner, and eaten with bread. The French always eat bread with raw fruit. Apples and winter pears are very excellent food for children,--indeed, for almost any person in health,--but best when eaten for breakfast or dinner. If taken late in the evening, fruit often proves injurious. The old saying, that apples are gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night, is pretty near the truth. Both apples and pears are often good and nutritious when baked or stewed, and when prepared in this way are especially suitable for those delicate constitutions that cannot bear raw fruit. Much of the fruit gathered when unripe might be rendered fit for food by preserving in sugar. 2086. Ripe Currants. Ripe Currants are excellent food for children. Mash the fruit, sprinkle with sugar, and let them eat freely, taking some good bread with the fruit.