and this morning they've eat them all up."

"Goodness!" exclaimed Mrs. Gratz without emotion. "With the fedders
and the bones, too?"

"Sure," said the thin Santa Claus. "Why, them toober-chlosis bugs is
perfectly ravenous. Once they git started they eat feathers and bones
and feet and all--a chicken hasn't no chance at all. That's why the
Mayor sent me up here. He heard all your chickens was gone, and gone
quick, and he says to me, 'Toober-chlosis bugs!' That's what he says,
and he says, 'You ain't doing your duty. You ain't inspected Mrs.
Gratz's chicken coop. You go and do it, or you're fired, see?' He says
that, and he says, 'You inspect Mrs. Gratz's coop, and you kill off
them bugs before they git into her house and eat her all up--bones and
all.'"

"And fedders?" asked Mrs. Gratz calmly.

"No, he didn't say feathers. This ain't nothing to fool about. It's
serious. So I'll go right out and have a look--"

"I guess such bugs ain't been in _my_ coop last night," said Mrs.
Gratz carelessly. "I aint afraid of such bugs in winter time."

"Well, that's where you make your mistake," said the thin Santa Claus.
"Winter is just the bad time for them bugs. The more a toober-chlosis
bug freezes up the more dangerous it is. In summer they ain't so
bad--they're soft like and squash up when a chicken gits them, but in
winter they freeze up hard and git brittle. Then a chicken comes along
and grabs one, and it busts into a thousand pieces, and each piece