bear-cat that ain't scared of anything on earth. What's this germ thing
like, anyway?'
'It's a......I've never seen one, but Mamie says they get at you and hurt
you. I think it's a kind of big sort of ugly man that creeps in when
you're asleep.'
'So that's why you thought I was one?'
The White Hope nodded.
'Forget it!' said Steve. 'Mamie is a queen, all right, believe me, but
she's got the wrong dope on this microbe proposition. You don't need to
be scared of them any more. Why, some of me best pals are germs.'
'What's pals?'
'Why, friends. You and me are pals. Me and your pop are pals.'
'Where's pop?'
'He's gone away.'
'I remember.'
'He thought he needed a change of air. Don't you ever need a change of
air?'
'I don't know.'
'Well, you do. Take it from me. This is about the punkest joint I ever
was in. You don't want to stay in a dairy-kitchen like this.'
'What's dairy-kitchen?'
'This is. All these white tiles and fixings. It makes me feel like a
pint of milk to look at 'em.'
'It's because of the germs.'
'Ain't I telling you the germs don't want to hurt you?'
'Aunt Lora told Mamie they do.'
'Say, cull, you tell your Aunt Lora to make a noise like an ice-cream
in the sun and melt away. She's a prune, and what she says don't go. Do
you want to know what a germ or a microbe, it's the same thing, really
is? It's a fellow that has the best time you can think of. They've been
fooling you, kid. They saw you were easy, so they handed it to you on a
plate. I'm the guy that can put you wise about microbes.'
'Tell me.'
'Sure. Well, a microbe is a kid that just runs wild out in the country.
He don't have to hang around in a white-tiled nursery and eat
sterilized junk and go to bed when they tell him to. He has a swell
time out in the woods, fishing and playing around in the dirt and going
after birds' eggs and picking berries, and, oh, shucks, anything else
you can think of. Wouldn't you like to do that?'
William Bannister nodded.
'Well, say, as it happens, there's a fine chance for you to be a germ
right away. I know a little place down in the Connecticut woods which
would just hit you right. You could put on overalls......'
'What's overalls?'
'Sort of clothes. Not like the fussed-up scenery you have to wear now,
but the real sort of clothes which you can muss up and nobody cares a
darn. You can put 'em on and go out and tear up Jack like a regular kid
all you want. Say, don't you remember the fool stunts you and me used
to pull off in the studio?'
