The story is narrated in the first-person confessional point-of-view by a rural physician, who is making a farmhouse call to tend to a sick girl. Concerned she may have diphtheria, the doctor decides to check her throat to confirm his suspicion. However, the girl adamantly refuses to cooperate, and the doctor eventually engages in a virtual assault on the child to restrain her and examine her throat using a spoon. The doctor finds that the girl, who was alerted at school that diphtheria might be fatal, had concealed the symptoms of the infection, and has in fact contracted the deadly pathogen.[5]
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