PUFFTUFFIN
This is a truly kindly animal. He is all soft except for his head, his legs and his shirtfront, and people like to fall about on him when he is near because he is so soft and comfortable to land on. In the winter he earns his living as a sort of stove, people come and warm their hands on him when it is cold and they have lost their gloves. He only charges half-price to children.
He was unfortunately born without any legs and for many years he tried to get about by rolling. But when it was wet his nice soft fuzz stuck to the pavement and got dirty, besides making it difficult for him to get along. So quite late in life he decided to grow some legs. He took some Ambulatory Pills after meals every day for three weeks and presently the legs began to appear. But when they had grown a few inches he thought he noticed something queer about them. As he was not accustomed to legs, he went around with them to a friend (it was to Skutch because he had taken some pills to grow arms and had succeeded very well). The friend looked at them and said,
“When did you take those pills?”
Pufftuffin said, “After meals every day.”
“Oh dear, what have you done?” said the friend, “They ought to have been taken before meals. Now you will always be knock-kneed because they will grow out the wrong way.”
And that is what happened. Pufftuffin tried taking all sorts of other pills, eating them frantically before meals, but it was too late. All he could do was to make his feet turn out the right way, and as they are the bottom of his legs, I hardly think it was an improvement. However, they are perfectly good for walking with even on wet days.