GERMS
"You don't seem to pay any attention to these germs."
"I don't talk about 'em any more than is necessary," answered Doc Braney. "I take all possible precautions and then try to ignore 'em. The meanest thing about a germ is that if he can't attack you anywhere else, he tries to get on your mind."
Daddy was confined to the house with Spanish influenza, and mother was busy sterilizing the dishes which had come from the sick-room.
"Why do you do that?" asked four-year-old Donald.
"Because, dear, poor daddy has germs, and the germs get on the dishes, so then I boil them, and that kills all the horrid germs."
Donald turned this over in his little mind for several minutes. Then:
"Mother, why don't you boil daddy?"
"She is simply mad on the subject of germs, and sterilizes or filters everything in the house."
"How does she get along with her family?"
"Oh, even her relations are strained."
Mrs. Robinson was an extremely careful mother and had repeatedly cautioned her six-year-old daughter against handling any object that might contain germs. One day the little girl came in and said:
"Mother, I am never going to play with my puppy any more, because he has germs on him."
"Oh, no!" replied her mother. "There are no germs on your puppy."
"Yes, there are," insisted the child. "I saw one hop."—Life.