"Sorry I can't help you," I said, with a feeling of true sympathy; "but
we have not much further to go."

Presently he growled again:

"I know I shall freeze, anyhow. Can I take your muffler?"

I spared my muffler. But, pretty soon, I heard from him again:

"The top of my head is very cold, and I shall have a fearful headache."

We soon reached the hotel and entered the office, where a warm fire
welcomed us. The little old man undid the muffler and handed it to me.
He then removed his hat, and I discovered _that it was of straw_, and,
also, that he was very bald.

My pity for the man was all gone in a moment. It could not be that he
had no other hat, for he was dressed well enough to own twenty hats. I
never found out what his reason was for wearing such a hat in the
winter.

I fell to moralizing presently; but I will not here write down my
reflections. Suffice it to say that every day in the year I meet
children, and grown people too, for that matter, who are "_wearing straw
hats in the winter_," and suffering various dreadful things in
consequence thereof. The very next time you get into trouble, before you
grumble and fret, see if it is not because you are _wearing a straw hat
in winter_.