--The Scarabee's ear was caught by that queer word of Swift's, and he
asked very innocently what kind of bugs he was speaking of, whereupon
That Boy shouted out, Straddlebugs! to his own immense amusement and the
great bewilderment of the Scarabee, who only saw that there was one of
those unintelligible breaks in the conversation which made other people
laugh, and drew back his antennae as usual, perplexed, but not amused.
I do not believe the Master had said all he was going to say on this
subject, and of course all these statements of his are more or less
one-sided. But that some invalids do much better in cities than in the
country is indisputable, and that the frightful dysenteries and fevers
which have raged like pestilences in many of our country towns are almost
unknown in the better built sections of some of our large cities is
getting to be more generally understood since our well-to-do people have
annually emigrated in such numbers from the cemented surface of the city
to the steaming soil of some of the dangerous rural districts. If one
should contrast the healthiest country residences with the worst city
ones the result would be all the other way, of course, so that there are
two sides to the question, which we must let the doctors pound in their
great mortar, infuse and strain, hoping that they will present us with
the clear solution when they have got through these processes.
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