“Oh we will! You don’t have to ask us a favor like that—we’d do it anyway!” replied one of the Health Inspectors.
“Am I late?” asked Uncle Ben, now coming over to the group gathered to hear the stories.
“Just in time,” replied Ruth, making a place for him.
“My first story will be about a mosquito that settled down at Happy Hills and founded the colony of pests that annoys us so at camp.
“Skinny was a malarial mosquito that happened to crawl from the reeds near the lake into a carpenter’s tool-chest while the man was eating his lunch late last fall. As his job was completed, the carpenter caught up the tool-box and hurried towards Miss Selina’s place to leave it in the tool-house.
“Skinny was very sleepy because of the cold air, and the tool-box being left in a snug, sunny spot on a shelf in the tool-house, she soon fell asleep for the long cold winter months.
“But in the spring the warm sun-rays roused her and she began to open her sleepy eyes and stretch her stiffened legs; her poor wings she could not use at once—they were so nerveless and stiff that it took some practice to whip them into general use again. She succeeded somewhat, just as the carpenter came in and took up the tool-chest.
“‘Where’re you goin’ to work, Pete?’ asked a man standing outside the shed.
“‘Down at Happy Hills Camp. I’m goin’ to build some Nests for the Blue Birds’ Little Citizens, you know.’
“‘Well, thar ain’t no mosquitoes around er no flies, either, so you won’t be pestered any, I guess,’ said the first man, as Pete walked away down Daffodil Lane.