When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay To keep me happy all the day.

-A Child's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson

It is easier to keep a child in bed if all of the Things are with him.

1. A mesh bag in which potatoes come from the grocery store can be pinned to the mattress; his toys are then within easy reach.

2. A shoe bag can be hung from the bed or on the wall next to the bed-one compartment for his slippers, the others for his treasures.

Sick people like to be pampered. Children are like people.

1. Surround him with pillows from your bed. A little girl will feel cozy in your bed jacket

2. If the illness does not last long enough for friends and relatives to send "get-well-quick" cards, Daddy could mail a picture postcard of his office building or of the hotel where he eats lunch.

3. Daddy might call during the lunch hour to see how "the patient" is doing.

4. Decorate his bed tray with flowers.

Cut his toast into squares, circles, triangles, or strips.

Cut his orange into fourth's or eighth's, or separate it like the petals of a flower.

Float a peapod boat on his tomato soup (very simply made by forcing open the pod with a length of toothpick).

Tuck a small new toy, like a harmonica, under his napkin, or under his plate turned upside down.

Bed patients like straws and toothpicks.

Have a surprise tray. Wrap the food in separate paper bags and have the patient guess what's for lunch by feeling and smelling the bags.

If his appetite is lagging, put food on skewers. Good skewer foods are green beans, pineapple chunks, or bit sizes of meat, alternating with vegetables. If you don't have skewers, toothpicks will hold a lot of green peas.

When a child must stay in bed, he will want new things to look at, such as:

1. A kaleidoscope, magnifying glass, or periscope.

2. A goldfish or turtle in a bowl.

3. A narcissus growing.

4. A clock.

5. Balloons and mobiles.

6. Oriental flowers that open in water.

7. A mirror.

8. Different pictures on the bulletin board, screen, or walls.

He will want new things to hold, such as:

1. A flashlight

2. A long key chain with assorted trinkets or charms.

3. A bean bag.

4. A hand puppet (draw or paint a face on a man's solid-colored sock or on a mitten).

He will want new things to do, such as:

1. Stringing paper clips.

2. Stringing buttons or spools with a long thread and a big needle.

3. Drawing on carbon paper. (It's easier if you staple the three sheets together.)

4. Painting on a desk blotter with ink or poster paint

5. Blowing soap bubbles (liquid detergent diluted with a little water, plus a straw and a paper cup).

6. Making collages (see Things To Do).

7. Playing with modeling clay or wallpaper cleaner.

8. Sticking toothpicks in a scouring pad.

9. Punching holes with a paper punch, or stapling paper together with a staple.

10. Sharpening pencils or crayons with a pencil sharpener or a crayon sharpener.

11. Making a puzzle by coloring or drawing on a shirt cardboard, then cutting it into five or six pieces.

12. Coloring on a new drawing pad.

13. Playing with a spring-type metal tape measure.

14. Starting a lending library with friends (assuming his illness is not infectious or contagious).

He will like his old things too, such as:

1. Books.

2. Records.

3. Crayons, paste, scissors, and colored chalk.

4. Favorite toys.

-- and --

He will want YOU.

When he wants you, he can ring a bell, blow a whistle, or call through a megaphone. And he will be tired of being alone, and he will want you to be tired of being without him, and he will want you to stay.

1. You can set up the board in his room and iron.

2. While you iron, you can talk, or tell stories, or play games.

a. Game one: "I see something in this room and it's blue." b. Game two: "I hear something . . . what do I hear?" c. Game three: "What is a word that sounds like Billy?"

(Milly, spilly, chilly, dilly, and silly.)

3. You can prepare dinner, or part of it, with his help: shelling peas, snipping off ends of beans (with blunt scissors), or cracking and shelling walnuts (you crack and he shells).

4. You can paste the photos in the family album and bring it up to date.

5. You can sew buttons on his shirts, glue his plastic soldiers, and tape all the torn books.

6. You can wash all the windows in his room and clean the woodwork.

7. He can dictate a letter to his grandmother or special friend. He is certain to mention somewhere in the letter that he is sick, and can be almost sure of a reply.

Dear Grandmother,

How are you ? I am sick. Love,

Billy.