Mr Fly And Mrs Mosquito
: Keep-well Stories For Little FolksOne day in the summer, Mr. Fly and Mrs. Mosquito stopped to rest on the
window pane of a house in the country.
Mr. Fly, after sitting for some time rubbing his nose with his front
feet, looked up and said, "Good morning."
"Mr. Fly," replied Mrs. Mosquito, "I do not believe that we have met
before."
"No," said Mr. Fly, "but I am glad to meet you to-day. I ha
wanted to do so. May I ask where you live?"
"Ah me, Mr. Fly," replied Mrs. Mosquito, "I have been having a rather
hard time lately. You have heard of my family, and know that with a
number of brothers and sisters, I was hatched in a small pond near the
meadow. Life went well with us for a while. But one afternoon I heard
footsteps coming nearer and nearer. I could not understand what
terrible beast was coming down to the pond to drink. I shivered with
fear and darted as fast as I could to the bottom of the pond. However, I
soon had to come to the top again to get a good breath, as I thought I
was going to suffocate. Dearie me, why cannot we get air at the bottom
of the pond as well as at the top.
"My heart was beating with fear as I still heard the footsteps, and
presently I could hear voices. A voice said, 'Where are all the members
of this brigade?' What could it mean? What is a brigade? Someone cried
out, 'Here we come to give him the oil.' Looking up I saw a number of
girls and boys, 'The Mosquito Brigade,' they called themselves. They
laughed and talked as if they were a gay crowd. One said, 'Here they
are,' and then said, 'This will get them.'
"I wondered what in the world they could mean. I soon learned what they
were about.
"I smelled a terrible odor, and peeping out from the mud (at the bottom
of the pond in which I was hiding), I saw something thick and terrible
coming down like rain in the pond.
"I ran through the mud to the far end of the pond and hid. Oh, how that
stuff did smell! I thought it would surely smother me.
"I stayed in the mud until the next day. I did not dare peep out. When I
did look out nothing could I see on the bottom of the pond but my dead
brothers and sisters. They had not been as quick as I and had been
smothered by that dreadful stuff. Ah me! I had scarcely strength enough
to live. Life seemed very hard.
"The next thing I remember I was sailing down the pond in a canoe Mother
Nature built for me. It was just large enough to be perfectly
comfortable. I slept the greater part of the time I was in the little
canoe. I stayed in there several days and many times old Father Wind
sent a breeze that nearly upset my little craft. I grew some wings
finally and flew away from that awful pond. I hope that I can always
escape that 'Mosquito Brigade' and that deadly oil. I shall be very busy
for a while and may yet have my revenge, if I can poison some member of
it with malaria germs.
"I have finished my story. Pray, tell me of yourself, Mr. Fly, you look
very happy." "Well," said the fly, "I was hatched in the corner of a
stable where it was damp and warm. I stayed in an egg one day. Then I
was a white crawling thing for nine days. I ate all this time. At the
end of that time I slept a while and then I was grown. I can't tell you
how big I felt the day I first stretched my wings for flight.
"Just listen to what I have done since that happy day. I have crawled
over a person who had small-pox and got some germs which I carried to a
girl across the street. I went into a house and sat on a bed in which a
little girl was lying. The doctor came in and after staying there a
while he said, 'Typhoid fever.' I was sorry for the little child with
her red swollen face. I left her and walked on the bed. I knew that my
feet were loaded with germs when I flew out. Off I went to the country.
"The first home I passed, a little tot of a boy, sitting on the step,
was eating milk and mush out of a bowl. When he took the spoon from his
mouth I got into it and sucked all the milk I could get. I left him the
germs that I had been carrying. This was a pretty good day's work, don't
you think? The next morning I flew away to the next house, but dear me,
I found that a fly would have to carry his own rations there.
"This was a new thing to me. I met one of my friends who told me that it
would be just as well for me to travel on. The folks who lived in this
house had been going to the lectures of the Health Doctor. The doctor
had told them to clean up the stable, to screen the house, and to cover
the well. I tell you, Mrs. Mosquito, that man is trying to put me out of
business. I fear that I shall have a hard time in the future if he stays
in this neighborhood. I am not as happy as I once was, so I will say
good-bye."
"Good-bye, friend Fly," said Mrs. Mosquito, "I am glad we met near our
old home."
QUESTIONS
1. Where did the mosquito meet the fly?
2. What did the mosquito carry?
3. What did the fly do to the man who had
small-pox?
4. Why could not the fly get in the house in the
country?
5. What was the Health Doctor teaching the people
in the country?
More
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