# Wait for the MySQL server to become responsive.
      my $tries = 0;
      while ( !$dbh->ping && $tries++ < $opts{w} ) {
         sleep(1);
         eval {

##</code><code>##

      # Start a new child process.
      while ( @work_to_do && $opts{m} > keys %kids ) {
         my $todo = shift @work_to_do;