ause he became a father to the foundling!

It is a cooling and a comforting thought. Yesterday, while Lockwin sat
in his study hurriedly preparing his statement to the party, on the
needs of the nation and a reformed civil service, the golden head was
as deep at a little desk beside. Pencil in hand, the child had
addressed the voters of the First District, explaining to them the
reasons why his papa should be elected. "Josephus," wrote curly-head;
"Groceries," he added; "Ice," he concluded; A, B, C, D and so on, with
a tail the wrong way on J.

It is a memory that robs politics of its bitterness. Lockwin opens the
door and kisses his wife affectionately. After all, he is a most
fortunate man. If there were a decent way he would let Harpwood go to
Congress and be rid of him.

"Davy is very sick," she says, with a white face.

"What! My boy!! When was he taken? Is it diphtheria? What has the
doctor said? Why wasn't I called? Where is he? Here, Davy, here's
papa. Here's papa! Old boy! Old fel'! Oh, God, I'm so scared!"

All this as Lockwin goes up the stairs.

It is a wheezing little voice that replies; "S-u-h-p-e-s-o-J! What's
that, papa?"

"Does that hurt, Davy? There? or there?"

"That's 'Josephus,' papa, on your big book, that I'll have some day--it
I live. If I live I'll have all your books!"

CHAPTER V

DR. FLODDIN'S PATIENT

If there be one thing of which great Chicago stands in fear, it is that
King Herod of the latter day, diphtheria.

This terror of the people is absolute, ignorant, and therefore supine.
The cattle have a scourge, but the loss of money makes men active.
When the rinderpest appears, governors issue proclamations. When
horses show the glanders, quarantine is established. But when a
father's flock is cut off, it is done before he can move, and other
fathers will not or cannot interpose for their own protection.

All the other fathers do is to discount the worst--to dread the unseen
sword which is suspended over all heads.

When David Lockwin heard that one of his tenants had a child dead with
the contagion, the popular idol strove to recall his movements. Had he
been in the sick-room? Had Davy been in that region? The thought
which had finally alarmed Lockwin was the recollection that he had
stopped with Davy in the grocery beneath the apartments of the dying
child.

That was nine days before. Why is Dr. Tarpion absent? What a good
fortune, howeve