"Bless your dear little heart, and you shall have something to
eat," said the Fat Woman, as she seized Toby, squeezed him close
up to her, and kissed his freckled face as kindly as if it had been
as fair and white as possible. "You shall eat all you want to; an'
if you get the stomachache, as Samuel does sometimes when he's been
eatin' too much, I'll give you some catnip tea out of the same
dipper that I give him his. He's a great eater, Samuel is," she
added, in a burst of confidence, "an' it's a wonder to me what he
does with it all sometimes."

"Is he?" exclaimed Toby, quickly. "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