noon
It always seemed to me that my clothes fitted me when I was buying them , but it never struck anybody else that way afterward . I paid the same prices as Jim , but I would have done just as badly at three times as much , and might just as well have saved money buying second-hand through a want `` ad . '' Nature designed me to spoil tailoring . If I had lived in Eden the fig leaves on my belt would have browned and cracked before noon the first day , and if a few figs were then worn on the side as fringe ornaments , I would have carelessly picked them inside out , making the suit look seedier still . On a foggy morning the dewdrops of Paradise would have spotted me , and on a windy day the flying burrs and feather-tailed seeds would have taken me for good ground ; the pussy willows and all such forest fuzz and excelsior -- for a good thing . If I had been a Roman no one would have seen me down street , for I would be in the baths waiting for my wrapper to be scoured , washed and mended . This is a way Fate has of keeping a few scholars and investigators in the world .