heart that if he handed them over thus and said, “Well, raise ’em,” even Mori, despite his contrariness, would be stumped.
Then, before he had time to utter a word, Mori spoke up and said,
“You’ve got ’em, haven’t you? Then I’ll take ’em.”
His fellows were all taken aback.
“Then put ’em in here,” said Mori calmly, opening the neck of his garment.
“Don’t go makin’ yourself put up with it now and afterwards gettin’ into trouble for it,” said the others, but he would not listen.
Then one at a time, they turned their teacups upside down, like ricemen measuring rice in half-gallon measures, and poured the lice down Mori’s neck, whereupon he, maintaining his composure and carefully picking up those that had spilled outside, said, as if to himself,
“Thanks. With these I can sleep warm from this night on.”
“When you have lice, is it warm?” said the dumbfounded officers to nobody in particular, all looking into each other’s faces.
Then Mori, adjusting with particularity the neck of his dress which had received the lice, gave one triumphant look around at each of their faces and proceeded to express himself to this effect:
“Each and every one of you caught cold in this recent snap, but what of this Gonnoshin? He doesn’t sneeze. He doesn’t run at the nose. More, not once has he felt feverish or cold in the hands or feet. Whose good work do you s’pose this is? It’s all the good work of the lice.”
According to Mori’s explanation, it seems that when there are lice on the body, they are bound to bite and make it itch. When they bite, one is