“Seat taken?” said a man wearing a gigantic fur hat.

The hat was so enormous and so furry that at first glance, Baby mistook the man for a bear.

“It is not taken,” said Baby.

“Thank you very much,” said the man. He sat down next to Baby. “Head allergies,” he said. He pointed at his fur hat with an index finger. “I beg your pardon, but the hat must remain.”

“Certainly,” said Baby.

The man in the fur hat got out a newspaper. He skipped over the news and the sports and the opinions and went directly to the comics.

Eugenia said that the comics were a spectacular waste of time. Each morning, she removed them from the paper as a protest against their pointlessness.

The man in the fur hat followed each word of the comics with one enormous finger. He laughed softly as he read.

“Good for the head allergies,” the man said to Baby when he saw her staring at him.

“I beg your pardon?” said Baby.

“Laughing,” said the man. “Clears the sinuses and the soul in a very satisfying way.”

“I see,” said Baby. “Thank you.”

The man rustled the pages of the paper. He laughed some more. And then he folded the paper carefully and took out a handkerchief and blew his nose for what seemed like a very long time.

He turned to Baby. “Did you bring something to read?”

“I brought my library book,” said Baby. “It is a mystery entitled The Inimitable Spigot.”

“Is it funny?” said the man.

“It is not,” said Baby. “My sister, Eugenia, recommended it to me.”

“Would you care for a page of the comics?” said the man.

“Eugenia says that the comics are a spectacular waste of time.”

The man in the fur hat laughed very loudly. “Why, of course they are.” He slapped his knee. He laughed some more. “A spectacular waste of time! Absolutely! Yes. That is exactly what they are, bless them.” He sneezed. He took out his handkerchief and blew his nose. He chuckled.

And then he turned to Baby with a very serious look on his face. “You must read the comics,” he said. “I insist.” The man unfolded the paper and handed Baby a page of the comics.

To be polite, Baby took the page. She held it out in front of her and placed a finger under each word in the first comic, just as she had seen the man in the fur hat do.

She glanced over at him.

“That’s right,” he said. “Keep going.”

Baby looked at the pictures and read the words. In the first strip, there was a little man who had antennae on his head and who spoke in a strange language that resembled English just enough that Baby could make some sense of it. “Fozwhat mortak, I greet you!” said the man with the antennae. The picture showed him bending over, smiling at a bug on the sidewalk.

Baby read this and laughed. “Fozwhat mortak!” she said out loud.

“Yes!” said the man in the fur hat.

Baby went on to the next comic, which featured a squirrel that was able to fly and that was engaged in fighting evil. This strip was not quite as funny, but it was deeply satisfying in some ridiculous way. A squirrel! Fighting evil! Baby smiled to herself as she read it.

“You see?” said the man in the fur hat.

“I do!” said Baby.

Baby read the comics. She laughed. The man in the fur hat sat beside her, blowing his nose, nodding and smiling. Outside the train window, the world rushed by in a blur of green and gold and brown.

And Baby was suddenly tremendously happy, just as she had been in her dream.

“Lower Loring!” shouted the conductor. “Lower Loring.”

“This is my stop,” said the man in the fur hat. He stood. He lifted the hat off his head and bowed to Baby. “It has been a pleasure, a delight, a revelation. It has been everything except a spectacular waste of time. Fozwhat mortak! I bid you safe travels. Tell your sister, Eugenia, that I send her greetings. Tell her to laugh.”

Baby doubted that she would deliver this message to Eugenia, but she did think that she might start reading the comics on a regular basis.

“Good-bye,” said Baby. “And thank you.”

The man put the fur hat back on his head and lumbered down the aisle.

He really did look very much like a bear.

Baby heard him sneeze before he exited the train.