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My mind has dredged up another half-remembered thing from long ago. This time, a short story I read (I think) in high school as part of English class (in the mid 80's so the story had to be written well before that).
In it, a man, I think elderly, rescues a young boy, I think from a life raft or something. He takes the boy into his seaside cabin to care for him. At one point, the very ill boy coughs up some yellow phlegm on the old man's hand and he wipes it off in a hurry. I think the boy had diphtheria.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? That's really the only scene I remember, so I don't think I can provide more information.