While Wifey Is Away

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Dodd, elated over his freedom when his wife leaves for a few days' visit with her parents, plans a party for the first evening, and invites his neighbors, Jones and Smith, to a quiet game of poker. They send their respective wives word that they are detained from returning home through the serious illness of their friend, Dodd, and that they are now watching beside him. Both Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith grow lonely during the evening and visit. Comparing notes, each finds that her husband is watching at the Dodd bedside. Fearing that the neighbor is very ill, they amble over together to see if they can be of any assistance. Their presence causes much consternation in the card party. Smith and Jones rush poor Dodd upstairs, forcing him into pajamas, whiten his face with powder and then hang over his bed, weeping crocodile tears when the ladies are ushered in. They are at once thrown into wild alarm and call up the doctor. The doctor arrives, and is astonished to find the reported dying man perfectly normal. Later Mrs. Dodd beaks into the house and the doctor declares the case is smallpox, quarantine is necessary, and deputizes Jones and Smith to remove Dodd to the pesthouse. The doctor is a good old sport, however, and the four, having rid themselves of embarrassing attendants, play poker until morning.