170 



THE NEXT GENERATION 



A newsboy seized the cup as they dropped it, and was gone 



with a rush to sell his papers. " Fine boy," was my comment. 



Then came a sight that frightened me — a man with every 



mark of disease upon him. His walk betrayed him ; his eyes 



betrayed him ; and, worst of all, he had visible sores on his 



lips. He too drank 

 from that cup, and 

 my frightened query 

 was, ' ' What microbes 

 have you left there, 

 unfortunate man ? " 

 Next stepped up 

 a woman and a little 

 girl. The child may 

 have been five years 

 old, and she was evi- 

 dently thirsty. I saw 

 that her lips were 

 slightly parched and 

 cracked. My heart 

 stood still with fear. 

 Were the cracked 

 lips of the sweet child 

 to touch the cup the 

 man had used ? I could not reach her in time to warn her. 

 Then came relief. I saw what the woman did. She rinsed 

 the cup carefully, filled it to overflowing, held it to the 

 child's mouth, and told her to suck the water up from the 

 middle of the cup, not to touch her lips to its edge. 



This worked well. Some of the water was spilled, but they 

 both laughed and went their way. I saw that the lips of the 

 child had touched nothing but water. She was safe. 



Old-Fashioned Drinking Fountain 



