“You’ll allow me a couple more presently,” responded Malcolm. “Say, I should think there would be a big waste in making them this way; with holes in the middle, I mean.”
“Waste? Why?” asked Rob.
“Well, what becomes of the piece that’s cut out?”
The others laughed and Malcolm looked surprised.
“What’s the joke?”
“Why, they take the dough that’s cut out and make more crullers, you idiot,” said Rob. Malcolm considered a moment.
“Oh,” he said. “I never thought of that. I had an idea they threw that away.”
“Wasn’t there a story,” asked Evan, “about a man who got it into his head that if he could make the holes in doughnuts larger he’d make more money on them?”
“There was—and is,” answered Rob gravely. “There is also a conundrum about the reason why a miller wears a white hat. But if you had any respect for age you’d let them both alone.”