hanging
down from the ankles. He also had a belt, with a carving-knife, and a
pistol in about the same state of repair that Johnny's was, stuck into
it; and then, with the sheet over his arm, so that he could have it
handy, he looked on while the others dressed, envied by Dickey and
Johnny because he could sit down so comfortably.

Paul made a very showy-looking Hamlet, to say the least. He wore a
pair of rubber boots many sizes too large for him, with tops that
reached his knees, and were ornamented with tissue-paper rosettes; a
black frock-coat, which on close inspection proved to be Johnny's best
one, that he had worn when he called upon Mrs. Green, hung about his
shoulders, covering his hands completely with its profusion of
sleeves, and giving him a singular, if not distinguished appearance.
This coat had been made more gorgeous than it originally was by having
gilt paper pasted to each button, and a red sash tied about the waist,
in which were two table-forks and a wooden sword, the latter article
interfering sadly with his knees when he walked. On his head he wore a
huge paper cap that had been painted red, white, and blue, and
ornamented with a tuft of feathers that had once done service in a
dusting-brush. He also had a gun, and the weight of it was about as
much as he could stagger under when he tried to carry it over his
shoulder, so he dragged it along behind him, very much as a person of
Hamlet's melancholy temperament would have been likely to do. He also
could sit down, which was no small comfort.

All this costuming had taken some time, and Mrs. Green had already
called up the staircase that dinner was nearly ready before Mopsey had
commenced to clothe himself in such garments as he supposed Richard
the Third wore. First he put on a thin pair of cotton pants that had
once been white, but were now a drab, and which fitted quite closely
to his skin. On the outside seams of these he pinned a strip of gilt
paper, and then drew on a pair of boots, the tops of which came up
quite as high on him as the rubber ones did on Paul. Around these
boots was laced more red tape, until it would have been a difficult
matter to have formed any idea as to what they might have been
intended for originally. He had a broad leather belt, and outside of
it was a red sash, with ends that nearly touched the floor. As weapons
he wore a sword in a scabbard, a carving-knife, a portion of a pistol,
and a table-fork. His coat was a