“I hate to have it done,” said Mrs. Clyde, shuddering. “It seems so—so inviting of trouble.” “Superstition,” said Dr. Strong, smiling. “Aren’t you just as anxious to find out that they _haven’t_ got the infection as that they have? Come on, Bettykin; you’re first.” And, having prepared his material, he swabbed the throats of the whole company, after which he took the cultures with him to Dr. Merritt. It was late when he returned, but he went direct to Mr. Clyde’s room. “It’s worse than I thought, Clyde,” said he. “We’re in the first stage of a bad epidemic. The reports have been suppressed by Mullins, the Deputy Health Officer.” “What did he do that for?” “To cover his own inefficiency. He is City Bacteriologist, also, and the law requires him, in time of epidemic, to make bacteriological analyses. He doesn’t know how. So he simply pigeonholed the case reports as they came in.” “How did such a rascal ever get the job?” asked Clyde. “Political pull. The most destructive of all the causes of death which never get into the mortality records,” said Dr. Strong bitterly. “How many cases?” “Three or four hundred, at least. It’s got a good start. And more than that of measles. While he was in the business of suppressing, Mullins threw a lot of measles reports aside, too. I don’t like the prospect.” “The first thing to do,” decided Mr. Clyde, with customary energy, “is to get Dr. Mullins out. I’ll call an emergency meeting of the Public Health League to-morrow. By the way, Julia has some matters to report from school.” “Well, suppose we call an emergency meeting of our own of the Household Protective Association for to-morrow evening,” suggested Dr. Strong. “Since we’re facing an epidemic, we may as well fortify the youngsters as soundly as possible.” Directly after dinner on the following evening the Association was called to order by Mr. Clyde, presiding. It was a full meeting except for Maynard, who had not returned for dinner. First Dr. Strong reported that the cultures from the throats of the family had turned out “negative.” “So we don’t have to worry about that,” he remarked. Whereupon Mrs. Clyde and her mother drew long breaths of relief. “And now for the Committee on School Conditions,” said Mr. Clyde. “All I’ve heard of in our school is measles,” announced Julia. “There’s a lot of the boys and girls away.” “No diphtheria?” asked Mr. Clyde. “I asked Miss Brown that at recess, and she looked queer and said, ‘None that we know of.’ But I heard of some cases in the Academy; so I told Manny.” “Why Manny?” asked Mrs. Clyde. “He’s Chairman of the Committee on Milk, and the Bliss children from our dairy go to the Academy.” “That explains why Maynard isn’t here, then,” said the grandmother. “I suppose he’s gone out to the farm.” “Yes. He took the interurban trolley out, to make sure that they’d be careful about keeping the children away from the dairy.” “Good team-work, Junkum,” approved the presiding officer.