him, but goodness knows what made them love him. They did,
though--feared, respected, and loved the man.

Only he could not teach them to be sanitary. He knew their names,
their silly Russian names and their silly Polish names; he knew
their Slavic and their Bohemian names, but their language he did
not know, and all the hygiene they could learn was to call for
him when sickness and trouble came to them.

"Keep clean," he would say. "Drain your cellars; air out and keep
clean; do try to keep clean!"

But how could they do that? Four big families in one small house
do not help much to keep one small house both clean and sanitary.
Dr. Redfield knew that, and he swore at Duck Town for a vile and
filthy hole. So did the people swear at Duck Town, and many of
them suddenly stopped living there. For, despite the strength and
courage of their champion; despite the potency of drugs; despite
the sleepless nights and days spent in fighting disease, the
deadly contagion grew and spread.

Dr. Redfield had gone through epidemics before, but never one
like this, and now his energy was gone. For the first time in his
life the impulse had come upon him to own defeat and surrender.
Other men, younger doctors than he, should take up the fight. As
for him, he could not battle against such odds. He would give it
up; he would go away. He would take this little boy with him and
begin to live.

"I'll do it," he said, pressing David's face against his hollow