New-York tribune., 1897-08-15

she said at last Il shall hardly know how to
And Won must remember they only live by
killing the good germs in you-whch have every
bit much right to live as they. .
She looked startled. ard passed her hand over
her forehead.
"Q-quite so." she murmured.
And the good ones don't take peoples iives
and the bad ones do And we've no right sdlu
going back to grown-up tones, "since you take
your stand right. to let oar fc!lo"-cr'itu' -
be murdered by them"
She looked at me frightened
'rhey say can only see ore slde OF u 'l'''s a. a.,
a time" she said in a mOurnfu coniuSion' very
pathetic. "and / hadn't thought OF all that.
She looked 50 hopclessly b,wdored and dis
tressed and dropped her hands in such a ms
erahie, aban Toned way nat ! passed "o'up''S
As | said goodby she smiled sadly at mo TIL
the kssing-crust WAS mass OF worried crca"es'
and siid:
MY dear, | wish you hadn't maze that "us-
But when ran back two minutes later for
my sunshadr. she had got out the orange book
again and WAS reading happily in 1t her elo-
quent setting forth of the aims OF the society
for the Prevention OF Cruelty To Germs. ana hcr
face was slowly turning again to peaceiul ana
Irpovolcnt kissng-,rust. And her niece. Daisy,
who lived with her. looked at her ana tH~,
smiled at Inc. as though she and shared some
amusing secret about the little woman. ! stared
back coldly. and Daisy, reddening. looked away.
For a week or 50 | saw nothing or her. lheh
on DAY she came down to me and stood IN the
middle OF the room with her hands spread out
! and her bcady eyes GlitterinG with emotion
"Daisy's got diphthcria was all shc salu.
And waited
And Rudolf. the man she's engaged to. you
know says it's all my fault. He says if she
dies I shall have killed her. oh, he's been say
ing such awful things 10 me- She clapped her
poor little hands to her poor big head on;
he makes me 50 bewildered and confused ANA
he does nothing but ramp and stamp apout
the house told him he was mao, ana shouiu
I Il
il was no good saying any more ana said theie
was a great deal more to be said. But. however
il ended there. And ii isn't my fault. know
il isn't I've never brought a lCcsc germ into the
house Not a single one, | ASSURE YOU my dear.
And I'd rather"-she hesitatcd, and made b!2
sw"llCw. and then dashed braVely on
rather kill a million germs all myself than nave
Daisy die, But. Oh, I'm so torn in two. It's so
nice to think OF them having really Suou
meal you know-such a healthy girl; but then
to think of her suffering!"
How do yoL mean "A loose germ! asked.
She avoided my eye.
say" / said.
well had some sh It-up ones sent down to
me for the society thought; perhaps-we.,,
don't know what thought | could do with
therl. And ] kept them for days. ana looked
at them with microscope: and then at last II
seemed such shame To keep them smut up
They must have hated ii so. you know, my
dear So | let them loose in the garden She
said it so realistically that ! seemed to see a
litter OF puppies tunnhed all anyhow out or Il
basket. 81 thought. perhaps. my GEAR uo"h ~, II
the country they might change their habits ana
I've on vegetaLlss'
She smiled at me, a deprecatory, trembling
little smile.
You know you haven't found yet that vcSe-
tables have consciousness she added.
what kind OF germs were they?" | asked
sternly.
"Diphtheritic," she answered in a faint voice
and looked down.
| said nothing What could one say?
II don't know how they got at her." she said
despairingy But il proves one thng-that
humanity is their proper food, and that they
must have it, she added rcf.ectively.
81 suppose you have doctcr?" asked. hardly