Reassuring

Teacher (to schoolchildren): “Because smallpox is rampant and it is contagious, you must tell me immediately if someone in your home gets sick.”
Lina (the next day): “Mr. Teacher, last night my mother got really sick, she got a little baby; it’s already fine to be around her, because she says that it is not contagious!”
(Fliegende Blätter, Munich, 1874)