the letter was official.

First of all, then, the Doctor hied him to Boatbuilder Jago's: and it
was lucky he did so, for the child had developed measles--a
notifiable complaint. "Any other cases about?" he asked. Mrs Jago
did not know of another child sick or sorry in the whole of Polpier.
"Which," she went on to argue in an aggrieved tone, "it therefore
passes my understandin' why our Josey should be took, poor mite!
'Tisn't as if he was a naughty child, either."

"Everything must have a beginning, Mrs Jago," said the doctor in his
cheerful matter-of-fact way.

"You reckon as it will spread, then?"

"I don't know. I hope not. . . . It's a mercy that the schools are
closed for the holidays. When did they close, by the way?"

"Just a week ago."

"H'm. . . . I must step up and ask the Schoolmaster a few questions."

"I called you in to cure my Josey, not to talk about other folk's
children." (Mrs Jago was a resentful woman.)

"And I am doing my best for him. . . . Tut! in a week or so he'll be
running about as well as ever. But I'm the Medical Officer of
Health, ma'am."

"Well I know it; seein' that, four months back, as you happened to be
passin', I called you in an' asked you to look at the poor dear's
eyes an' give me a certificate that he was sufferin' from something
chronic. An' you flatly declined."

"If my memory serves me, I said he had a small stye in his eye, and I
was willing to certify that for what it was worth, if you didn't mind
paying me half-a-crown."

"If edication's free, as they call it, I don't see why a body should
pay half-a-crown to get off what can be had for nothing. That's how
I reasoned then, and always shall. In consikence o' which that
la-di-da of an Attendance Officer, that thinks all the maids be after
him an' looks sideways into every shop window he passes for a sight
of his own image--and if it rids us of a fella like that, I'm all
for Conscription--got me summonsed before the Tregarrick bench an'
fined another half-crown, with five shillin' costs. An' now, when
the mischief's done an' the tender dear one rash from head to foot"--
Mrs Jago mopped her eyes with the edge of her apron--"what better
can 'ee say than thank God the schools be closed! For my part, I
wish He'd close an' roll the great stone o' Daniel agenst 'em for
ever and ever!"

Doctor Mant sought up the valley to the Schoolmaster, Mr Rounsell,
whose quarters formed a part of the school buildings, an