ir. "Oh,
gemini!" said he, "but that jacket is a rouser! I tell you what, mother,
you'll have to get out a search-warrant to find me in that jacket; now,
mind, I tell you!"

"Nonsense!" replied Mrs. Ellis, "it don't look a bit too large; put it on."

Charlie took up the coat, and in a twinkling had it on over his other. His
hands were almost completely lost in the excessively long sleeves, which
hung down so far that the tips of his fingers were barely visible. "Oh,
mother!" he exclaimed, "just look at these sleeves--if such a thing were to
happen that any one were to offer me a half dollar, they would change their
mind before I could get my hand out to take it; and it will almost go twice
round me, it is so large in the waist."

"Oh, you can turn the sleeves up; and as for the waist--you'll soon grow
to it; it will be tight enough for you before long, I'll warrant," said
Mrs. Ellis.

"But, mother," rejoined Charlie, "that is just what you said about the
other blue suit, and it was entirely worn out before you had let down the
tucks in the trowsers."

"Never mind the blue suit," persisted Mrs. Ellis, entirely unbiassed by
this statement of facts. "You'll grow faster this time--you're going into
the country, you must remember--boys always grow fast in the country; go
into the other room and try on the trowsers."

Charlie retired into another room with the trowsers in question. Here he
was joined by Kinch, who went into fits of laughter over Charlie's
pea-jacket, as he offensively called the new coat.

"Why, Charlie," said he, "it fits you like a shirt on a bean-pole, or
rather it's like a sentry's box--it don't touch you any where. But get into
these pants," said he, almost choking with the laughter that Charlie's
vexed look caused him to suppress--"get into the pants;" at the same time
tying a string round Charlie's neck.

"What are you doing that for?" exclaimed Charlie, in an irritated tone; "I
shouldn't have thought you would make fun of me!"

"Oh," said Kinch, assuming a solemn look, "don't they always tie a rope
round a man's body when they are going to lower him into a pit? and how on
earth do you ever expect we shall find you in the legs of them trowsers,
unless something is fastened to you?" Here Charlie was obliged to join in
the laugh that Kinch could no longer restrain.

"Stop that playing, boys," cried Mrs. Ellis, as their noisy mirth reached
her in the adjoining room; "you forget I am waiting for