CHAPTER V 



HOUSE-FLIES OR TYPHOID-FLIES 



HE page shown in Fig. 37 was copied from 

 one of our old second readers and shows 

 something of the spirit in which we used 

 to regard the house-fly. A few of them 

 were nice things to have around to make things 

 seem " homelike." Of course they sometimes be- 

 came too friendly during the early morning hours 

 when we were trying to take just one more little nap 

 or they were sometimes too insistent for their por- 

 tion of the dinner after it had been placed on the 

 table, but a screen over the bed would help us out 

 a little in the morning and a long fly-brush cut 

 from a tree in the yard or made of strips of paper 

 tacked to a stick or, still more fancy, made of long 

 peacock plumes, would help to drive them from 

 the table. Those that were knocked into the coffee 

 or the cream could be fished out ; those that went 

 into the soup or the hash were never missed ! 



Not only were the flies regarded as splendid 

 things with which to amuse the baby, but they 



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