At the end of the afternoon, Mr Potts got up to leave. When he put his hat on his head, however, it dropped down over his eyes.
这天下午快结束的时候，伯茨先生起身离开。然而，当他戴上帽子后，帽子滑落下来，挡住了眼睛。
After he left the office, everyone roared with laughter.
他离开办公室后，大家哄堂大笑。
The next day, to everyone's surprise, Mr Potts turned up with his hat in its normal position.
第二天，伯茨先生来的时候帽子戴得正合适，让大家感到很惊讶。
His colleagues were puzzled by this, and while Mr Potts was out they studied the hat carefully.
他的同事们对此感到很迷惑，于是当伯茨先生出去时，他们仔细研究了这顶帽子。
They found that Mr Potts had fixed some pieces of newspaper round the inside of the hat to reduce its diameter and make it smaller.
他们发现伯茨先生在帽子的里面固定了一圈报纸，使帽子的直径缩小了，从而把帽子变小了。
The next day they decided to take Mr Potts's old hat from the cupboard where they had concealed it.
第二天他们决定把伯茨先生以前的帽子从橱柜中取出来，他们一直把帽子藏在那里。
They made it smaller in the same way, and replaced the new hat with the old one.
他们用同样的方法把这顶帽子改小了，并用它取代了那顶新帽子。
At the end of the day, Mr Potts got up to leave as usual. When he put his hat on this time, however, it stuck right on top of his head.
那天下午，伯茨先生像往常一样起身离开，然而，帽子卡在了他的头顶。
Again, everyone roared with laughter when he left the office.
他离开办公室后大家又一次哄堂大笑起来。
Mr Potts's colleagues changed the hats every day. The result was that on alternate days he wore the big hat and then the small one.
伯茨先生的同事们每天都换帽子。结果就是，伯茨先生一天戴大帽子，一天戴小帽子。
In the end, the belief that an illness was making his head change size from day to day led Mr Potts to go to a doctor.
最后，伯茨先生以为自己得了一种使自己的头每天改变大小的病，所以他去看了医生。
'Nonsense,' said the doctor. 'There is no such disease.'
医生说：“胡说，根本没有这种病。”