"Dear me, papa, how can anybody live there?" exclaimed Grace.
"Froude speaks of seeking safety in tobacco-smoke," replied her father, with a quizzical smile. "You might do that; or try the only other means of safety mentioned by him—hiding behind the lace curtains with which every bed is provided."
"But we can't stay in bed all the time, papa," exclaimed Elsie.
"No, but most of the time when you are out of bed you keep off the mosquitoes with a fan."
"And if we find them quite unendurable we can sail away from Trinidad," said Violet.
"Perhaps we are coming to the island at a better time of the year than Froude did, as regards the mosquito plague," remarked Grandma Elsie.
"Ah, mother, I am afraid they are bad and troublesome all the year round in these warm regions," said Harold.
"But we can take refuge behind nets a great deal of the time while we are in the mosquito country, and hurry home when we tire of that," remarked Violet.
"Ah, that is a comfortable thought," said Mr. Lilburn. "And we are fortunate people in having such homes as ours to return to."