there swarmed out from the rooms on both sides of the hall a crowd of
the most unattractive children! They fairly mobbed Avrillia, all
talking at once and snatching at the bottles which they could see
sticking out of Avrillia's basket. They had the reddest faces Sara had
ever seen, and no manners at all; for without even asking permission
they began to drink out of the bottles, quarreling among themselves
into the bargain.

Sara drew as far away from them as she could; and while Avrillia was
talking kindly to the woman and the children (who didn't listen to her),
and also to an old man who sat hunched over a stove in the corner,
she whispered to Pirlaps, "Who are they?"

"Why, the Measles, of course," said Pirlaps. "I told you we were
coming to see them! They live with their mother, Mrs. Sneeze, and
their grandfather, Old Man Cough. Avrillia thinks she can help them,
but they're a shiftless lot. Haven't a particle of get-up-and-go!
Always waiting for somebody to take 'em!"

Avrillia was too much interested to notice what Sara and Pirlaps were
doing. "Now, children," she was saying kindly but severely, "I shall
expect to find you better the next time I come. No, you can't have
that bottle--that's for the Mumps."

Sara found, as they left the house, that the Mumps were an old couple
who lived only a few doors down the same street. Old Mr. Mump had once
made a fortune in the pickle-business; but he had had reverses, and
was now very old and poor.

They found the old couple sitting in front of their rickety grate,