I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:

     "Mumps."

     "Mumps your granny! They don't set up with people that's got the mumps."

     "They don't, don't they? You better bet they do with THESE mumps. These mumps is different. It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said."

     "How's it a new kind?"

     "Because it's mixed up with other things."

     "What other things?"

     "Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all."

     "My land! And they call it the MUMPS?"

     "That's what Miss Mary Jane said."

     "Well, what in the nation do they call it the MUMPS for?"

     "Why, because it IS the mumps. That's what it starts with."