But a queer thing had happened. You remember that after the incident of the postage stamps Fiam had always been covered with little gummed pieces of paper showing parts of the Emperor’s face in different colors. The rain had softened the gum, and when he was put in the cotton to dry it had stuck to him, and with all my attempts to get him free I was unable to succeed, so that now my companion was completely covered with thick down, a kind of white fur coat, which made him look like a miniature automobilist.
I proposed to shave him with my razor, but he opposed this energetically.
“Don’t do it!” he said. “In the first place your razor frightens me. I see that you can’t even shave yourself without cutting your chin, and one of those slips would cut me in two. Then I like this fur; it is becoming. It makes me look bigger, you know how thin I am, and it protects me from bad weather. Let it be.”
Fiam’s Silver Armour
CHAPTER XVI FIAM’S SILVER ARMOUR
After this to protect Fiam whenever we went out in bad or threatening weather, I covered him with a magnificent waterproof made from the tin-foil I had taken off of some chocolate. I wrapped him up well, and I can’t tell you how proud he was to see himself clad in silver like an ancient prince in armour. I put a cap made of the same material on his head, which was exactly like a microscopic medieval helmet.
