"How funny that is! for I'm an
awful eater. Why, Uncle Dan'l used to say that I ate twice as much
as I ought to, an' it never made me any bigger. I wonder what's
the reason?"
"I declare I don't know," said the Fat Woman, thoughtfully, "an'
I've wondered at it time an' time again. Some folks is made that
way, an' some folks is made different. Now I don't eat enough to
keep a chicken alive, an' yet I grow fatter an' fatter every day
-- don't I, Samuel?"
"Indeed you do, my love," said the skeleton, with a world of pride
in his voice; "but you mustn't feel bad about it, for every pound
you gain makes you worth just so much more to the show."
"Oh, I wasn't worryin', I was only wonderin'. But we must go, Samuel,
for the poor child won't eat a bit while we are here. After you've
eaten what there is there, bring the plate in to me," she said to
Toby, as she took her lean husband by the arm and walked him off
toward their own tent.
Toby gazed after them a moment, and then he commenced a vigorous
attack upon the eatables which had been so kindly given him. Of
the food which he had taken from the dinner table he had eaten some
while he was in the tent, and after that he had entirely forgotten
that he had any in his pocket; therefore, at the time that Mrs. Treat
had brought him such a liberal supply he was really very hungry.
He succeeded in eating nearly all the food which had been brought
to him, and the very small quantity which remained he readily found
room for in his pockets.
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