"What! My boy!! When was he taken? Is it diphtheria? What has the doctor said? Why wasn't I called? Where is he? Here, Davy, here's papa. Here's papa! Old boy! Old fel'! Oh, God, I'm so scared!"
All this as Lockwin goes up the stairs.
It is a wheezing little voice that replies; "S-u-h-p-e-s-o-J! What's that, papa?"
"Does that hurt, Davy? There? or there?"
"That's 'Josephus,' papa, on your big book, that I'll have some day--it I live. If I live I'll have all your books!"
CHAPTER V
DR. FLODDIN'S PATIENT
If there be one thing of which great Chicago stands in fear, it is that King Herod of the latter day, diphtheria.
This terror of the people is absolute, ignorant, and therefore supine. The cattle have a scourge, but the loss of money makes men active. When the rinderpest appears, governors issue proclamations. When horses show the glanders, quarantine is established. But when a father's flock is cut off, it is done before he can move, and other fathers will not or cannot interpose for their own protection.
All the other fathers do is to discount the worst--to dread the unseen sword which is suspended over all heads.