Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-03-11

=
running each way. Nehemiah snaked them
out in a twinkling. lie liked them-they
were long and yellow, just the thing, and he
proceeded at once TO put them on. The new
clothing store had corner curtained off for
the purpose, and Nehemiah was speedily clo-
sed therein.
The pants had straps, and the straps were
buttoned. Now Nehemiah had seen straps be-
fore, but the art of managing them was a nlys-
terry. On consideration, he decided that the
boots must go on first. He then mounted
chair, elevated his pants at a proper angle,
and endeavored to coax his legs into them.
He had a time of it. His boots were none
of the smallest, and the pants were none of
the widest the chair, too, was rickety, and
bothered him; but bending his energy to the
task, he succeeded in inducing one leg into
the 'pesky things He was strsddled like the
Colossus of Rhodes and just in the act of raj
sing the other foot, when whispering and gig
Cling in his immediate vicinity, made him a
live to the appalling fact, that nothing but a
chintz curtain separated him from twenty or
thirty of the prettiest and wickcdest girls that
were ever Gagged in one shop.
Nehemiah was bashful youth, and would
have made a circumbendibus of mile any
day, rather than meet those girls, even if he
had been in full dress as it was his mouth was
much ajar at the bare possibility of making
his appearance among them in his present dis
habille. What if there was a hole in the cur
tain What if he should fali3
1t wouldn't bear thinking Of, and plunging
the foot into the vacant leg with a sort of fran
| tic looseness, he brought on the very catastro-
phe he anxious to avoid. The chair
collapsed with a sudden scrouch, pitching
| Nehemiah heels over head through the curtain,
and he made grand entrance among the stitch
ing divinities, on all fours like fattened rhi-
noceros.
Perhaps Collier himself never exhibited
more striking fableGn rirant than was now dis
| played. Nehemiah was ssmodel,' - every inch
of him, and though not exactly revolving on a
pedestal, he was going through that movement
quite well on his back--kicKing and plung-
ing, in short personifying in thirty seconds all
the attitudes ever chiseled! As for the gals,
they screamed of course, jumping up on chairs
and cutting boards, threw their hands over
their faces, peeped through their fingers per-
| fectly natural screamed again, and declar-
ed they should die-they knew they should
go, Lord blubbered the distressed young
man; don't, gals don't! didn't go tew, l
swan to man L didn'-it's all owing to these
cussed trowsers-ev'ry mite ont, ask your
boss he'll tell you how it was. o, Lord =
won't nobody kiver me up with old clothes, or
turn the wood box over met o, Moses in the
| bulrushes, what will Nancy say 7''
He managed to raise himself on his feet,
and made bold plunge towards the door; but
the entangling alliances tripped him up again,
and he fell kerslap upon the goose of the press
man. This was the unkndest cut of all. The
goose had been heated expressly for thick
cloth seams, and the way it siZzed in the seat
| of the new pants affecting to the wearer.
| Nehemiah riz in an instant, and seizing the
source of all his trouble by the slack, he tore
| himself from all save the straps and some frag
ments that hung about his ancles, as he DASH
ed through the emporium at 2,4o rate,
| and ssmade tracks, for hum.