I guess
he hadn't overstated his case.
CHAPTER XXV
THE FIRST FRUITS
By Friday of that week you would hardly have known any of them. The fat
ones were thinner and the thin ones fatter, and Miss Julia Summers could
put her whole hand inside her belt.
And they were pleasant. They'd sit down to a supper of ham and eggs and
apple sauce, and yell for more apple sauce, and every evening in the
billiard room they got up two weighing pools, one for the ones who
wanted to reduce, and one for the people who wanted to gain. Everybody
put in a dollar, and at gymnasium hour the next morning the ones who'd
gained or lost the most won the pool. Mr. Thoburn won the losing pool on
Thursday and Friday--he didn't want to lose weight, but he was compelled
to under the circumstances. And I think worry helped him to it.
They fussed some still about sleeping with the windows open, especially
the bald-headed men. However, the bishop, who had been bald for thirty
years, was getting a fine down all over the top of his head, and this
encouraged the rest. The bishop says it is nature's instinct to protect
itself from cold--all animals have fur, and heavier fur in winter--and
he believed that it was the ultimate cure for baldness. Men lose their
hair on top, he said, because they wear hats, and so don't need it.
But let the top of the head need protection, and lo, hair comes there.
Although, as Mr. Thoburn said, his nose was always cold in winter, and
nature never did anything for IT.
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