small matter, my dear; it never pays to make a mountain out of a mole hill! The poor devil couldn't have done much damage in one evening even if he isn't quite all he ought to be."

"Possibly, but it is not what he might do; it is the principle of the thing the precedent we are establishing in the community. I wouldn't worry," she added to Jack and Helen, "your frolic won't quite go to pieces, and he is entirely welcome to outshine us if it gives him pleasure. Besides, this will show who your real friends are."

For the first twenty-four hours after Brent's cards were issued, it would have been difficult to pick out the said friends, for there was much wavering between the rival

attractions. Mabel Rand to be sure went promptly over to the enemy with a curt little note of regrets to the Brintons, although she had previously accepted. But in most cases common sense and the courtesy due the invitation first received, or real affection for Jack and Helen, prevailed. In a few instances, parents interfered to prevent their children slighting their old friends for the fascinating stranger.

When the five o'clock lake train steamed out of the Rio Grande station on the appointed day, twentynine out of the forty invited, made. merry in Mr. Brinton's private car.

Brent was much chagrinned that he had not secured more of the Brinton guests; but, as there were almost no.regrets from the fifty others invited, he did not lack for numbers; and he had spared no expense to make the evening pass off brilliantly.

The two crowds saw but little of each other until dancing began in the pavalion about a quarter to nine.

Then feeling soon began to run high, for Brent had hatched a scheme with the boys of his faction to annoy the others. They were to persuade as many of the girls of the Brinton party as they could, to dance with them for the first four dances, at the same time pledging their own girls not to dance with the Brinton boys.

By the time the second dance was over the Brinton crowd understood the game and were vowing vengeance. There was an instantaneous stampede to fill up the girl's programs, but before they had time to organize a counterplot, revenge was taken out of their hands in so tragic a way that no one present will ever forget the scene.

Brent, flushed and triumphant, had just led Mabel Rand to her seat, when a detective stepped up to him and, laying a hand on his arm, told him in a low tone that he must Brent's

place him under arrest.

face grew ashen but he put on a bold front, protesting there must be some mistake. For answer the detective appealed to a gentleman who had followed him, the paying teller of one of the city banks :"Is this your man?"

It was the

The teller nodded. old sad story. Brent, extravagant and dissipated, had begun by forging his mother's name for small amounts. The mother had promptly acknowledged these checks in order to shield her son, and he had grown more and more reckless until the day he had forged the name of a prominent merchant to a check fro $500.

The majority of Charlton Brent's guests slipped quietly home by twos and threes on the next train; and the Brinton crowd, shocked by the calamity which had overtaken their schoolmate, soon followed.

Once inside their own threshhold, Mr. Brinton turned to his wife, saying soberly: "Poor boynot twenty yet! Thank God though our children are not mixed up in this! The newspapers all over the West will be full of it to-morrow." He stooped and kissed her, before he added rather shamefacedly: "I guess it is always safe to trust a mother's instinct where her children are concerned, and we can't be too

careful whom these kiddies associate with."

Jack and Helen said never a word, but the latter clung to her mother when she kissed her, and Jack's "Good-night, Mumsey," was unusually tender. And Mrs. Brinton, happy in the restored confidence of her children, prayed sorrowfully for that other mother whose boy must sleep that night in a prison cell.

"Oh, rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee thy heart's desires. Commit thy way unto Him, and trust in Him, and fret not thyself because of evil doers."

As the sweet voice of the singer rose and fell in the exquisite melody, surely many hearts must have been thrilled by the message of trust and hope. The great oratorio "Elijah" is replete with lofty and noble lines, but none are more beautiful than these taken from the thirty-seventh Psalm. They must indeed have been an inspiration to the great

"And He shall give thee thy heart's desires." Is it the impatient, rebellious waiting that ofttimes delays the blessing?

"Commit thy way unto Him and trust in Him and fret not thyself because of evil doers." The prophet was encompassed round about by his enemies; they were seeking his very life, and the thought that he had labored and suffered for Israel in vain was more than he could bear, and he plead with the Lord to relieve him of his heavy burdens.

It was then that the words of consolation came. And as Elijah was comforted, so must the troubled heart today find comfort. So shall we not fret ourselves because of the oppressor, or because of the faithlessness of those in whom we trust

ed, but learn to trust in Him in whom there is no "shadow of turning."

"O, rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him."

refuse mixed with human excreta. The eggs are about one sixteenth of an nich in length, white in color, and, if undisturbed will hatch in from six to eight hours. The larvæ or young, are little, white, pointed maggots, which grow rapidly, cast their skin twice, reaching maturity in four or five days. The outer skin then swells, turns dark brown, and hardens, within which the pupa is formed. In about five days more the adult fly comes out through a round hole in the anterior end of the pupal covering. The total life cycle for a single generation in warm weather is therefore approximately ten days. This gives in our climate, sufficient time for the development of twelve or thirteen generations of flies in a single summer.

A house fly lays on an average one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty eggs at a time; and when one considers the abundance and unniversal occurrence of suitable larval food, the myriads of house flies that infest our habitations during the summer and fall, are accounted for. Dr. Leonard O. Howard, chief of the division of entomology in U. S. Department of Agriculture reports that in one fourth of a pound of horse manure, taken from the center of a pile one hundred and sixty larvæ, and one hundred forty six pupae of the fly were taken. This would make about twelve hundred flies in one pound of stable refuse. While this is not a fair average, it indicates possibilities.

cracks about our dwellings often coming from their hiding places on warm winter days.

As it has been demonstrated repeatedly that the house fly carries on its feet, head, and mouth parts, bacteria or disease germs, let us consider for a moment some of its habits. The fly is attracted by noisome odors; it hovers about and feeds upon human excreta, blood, pus, sputum and decaying matter of all kinds. It comes into our homes and swarms about the kitchen and pantry to such an extent that we are forced to put up screens and wire doors for protection. Its habits well adapt it for the smearing of its body and the filling of its digestive system with disease germs which it can easily deposit on whatever it comes in contact with. Virulent organisms have been found on its proboscis, its feet, and head, as well as in its excreta, the well known fly specks. The fly is best adapted for disseminating typhoid fever, dysenteria, Asiatic cholera. and tuberculosis. At a recent tuberculosis exhibition in New York City, flies that had previously waded through tuberculous sputum, were allowed to walk on plates of culture media (a form of gelatine in which disease germs can be grown). These plates were then kept in an incubator for twentyfour hours, when it was found that colonies of the tubercle bacilli were growing all along the tracks which the flies had made.

In discussing this phase of the subject the Journal of the American Medical Association says, editorially:

shelter themselves in corners, and

"In our Spanish war it was abundantly demonstrated that the most careful system of water supply is unsatis

and if flies are permitted to pollute the food and drink. One must observe

that all other conditions which produce typhoid-bad sanitation, diet, lowered vitality and the like-exist all the time; while the multiplication of typhoid cases coincides with fly time."

The great problem then that confronts us is how to restrict and suppress this noxious insect. The war on the mosquito in the yellow fever districts of the Southern States, Cu.ba, and the Panama Canal region, was successful. "But," writes Dr. Theobald Smith in The Emergency Service, "the war upon mosquitoes was made, not upon the winged insects, but upon the larval stages in the water. In the same way the war upon flies cannot be successfully waged with fly paper and fly traps alone, but it must by waged in the country of the enemy itself, against its breeding places."

Experiments conducted in Washington, D. C. by Dr. Howard show that by cleanly measures in stables, by the daily collection of manure placing it in a closed pit or under a screen or by treating once a week with chloride of lime, one pound of lime to eight pounds of manure, the house fly nuisance can be greatly abated and the disease danger from this source largely eliminated. Better methods of disposing of gar

bage together with the proper cleansing of the garbage receptacles will also aid much in doing away with the breeding places of these insects. The fact that horses, in our cities are decreasing in number and motor vehicles on the other hand are multiplying, lessens in some degree the possibility for the rapid increase in the number of house flys. But in the country districts and in agricultural communities the success in doing away with these breeding places depends more on the better knowledge on the part of farmers in general.

In New Jersey the bakers, butchers, and grocers are required to place screens on all windows and doors of rooms where their products are kept. Milk and all other food products are to be equally protected from flies and other sources of infection. At the last session of the Kansas State legislature a fly screen law was enacted, requiring the screening of all foods exposed for sale. New York, Illinois, and other states are adopting similar measures and at the same time the different boards of health are sending out circulars giving the people valuable information along these lines.