floor for beds, and mud deep in the dooryards where the campers
emptied water. Over it all hung a sick smell of garbage and a
cloud of flies.

It was no wonder that scores of children and some older people
were sick. The public health nurses, when they came to visit the
sick ones, warned the women to cover food and garbage, but most
of the women laughed at the advice.

"Those doctor always tell us things," the Beechams' Italian
neighbor, Mrs. Serafini, said lightly. She was dandling a sad
baby while the sad baby sucked a disk of salami, heavy with
spices. "And those nurse also are crazy. Back in asparagus I
send-it my kids to the Center, and what you think? They take off
Pepe's clothes! They say it is not healthy that she wear the
swaddlings. I tell Angelina to say to them that my _madre_ before
me was dressed so; but again they strip the poor angel."

"And what did you do then?" Rose-Ellen inquired.

"No more did I send-it my kids to the Center!" Mrs. Serafini
cried dramatically.

"I'd think myself," Grandma observed dryly, "your baby might feel
better in such hot weather if she was dressed more like Sally."

Mrs. Serafini eyed Sally's short crepe dress, worn over a single
flour-sack undergarment. "We have-it our ways, you have-it
yours," was all she would say.