Joann Bayus, age 12, of Youngstown, Ohio, for her question:

What in the world is a flea market?

A market, of course, is where people buy and sell. The flea is one of the world's most undesirable characters and the idea of trading the wretched creature seems absurd. We do, however, have places that we call flea markets. Nobody seems certain how this name arose  ¬but we can make an educated guess. The first flea markets were second hand shops in Paris and other cities of the Old World. People went there to buy used. furniture, antiques and other handed down items. Many of the items were far from clean. Purchasers often came away with a few fleas that were not meant to be included in the bargains.

A street of second hand stores was a    place where visiting shoppers were likely to catch fleas. And so it became known as the flea market. To some people this seemed an amusing name. They used it to name stores that sell used clothing and (other items) , even though these stores had no fleas to include with their bargains. Nowadays, such a store may call itself a flea market, just to be cute. But there is nothing cute about a real live, irritating flea. He is a dangerous germ carrier who should be destroyed without mercy.