When the Poor Brother came in, they picked him up at once, and put him
over one of the hottest fires, and began to turn him round and round like
the rest; and of course the Chief Man came up to him and said, "Eh, how do
you feel now? How do you feel now?" But the Poor Brother did not say, "Let
me out! Let me out!" He said, "Pretty well, thank you."
The Chief Man grunted and said to the other men, "Make the fire hotter."
But the next time he asked the Poor Brother how he felt, the Poor Brother
smiled and said, "Much better now, thank you." The Chief Man did not like
this at all, because, of course, the whole object in life of the people
Below was to make their victims uncomfortable. So he piled on more fuel
and made the fire hotter still. But every time he asked the Poor Brother
how he felt, the Poor Brother would say, "Very much better"; and at last
he said, "Perfectly comfortable, thank you; couldn't be better."
You see when the Poor Brother was on earth he had never once had money
enough to buy coal enough to keep him warm; so he liked the heat.
At last the Chief Man could stand it no longer.
"Oh, look here," he said, "you can go home."
"Oh no, thank you," said the Poor Brother, "I like it here."
"You _must_ go home," said the Chief Man.
"But I won't go home," said the Poor Brother.
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