It wouldn't have been so bad with just Uncle Jerry, for he's wearin' an
old black whipcord that would pass in the dark, and, outside the rubber
collar and the plated watch chain looped across his vest, he didn't have
the crossroads tag on him very plain; but Jake might as well have had
cowbells tied to him. Maybe I wa'n't some relieved too when we got back
to the hotel and found this outfit that the girls had scraped together
and sent down.
"Now we'll fix you up for the theater and high society, Jake," says I.
"By rights you ought to have some of that neck hemp sheared off; but I
don't dare let a barber loose at you, for fear Mildred wouldn't know you
after he got through. She raved a lot about that hair of yours, Jake."
"You go on now, Smarty!" says Jaky boy, grinnin' expansive. "Think I'm
goin' to wear duds like them?"
"You do if you appear out again with me," says I. "So peel the butternut
regalia and lemme see if I can harness you up in these."
"Hee-haw!" remarks Uncle Jerry. "Let him fix you up real harnsome,
Jake."
Maybe that's what I did; but I wouldn't want to swear to it. Anyway, I
got him into the dress shirt by main strength. That was the first
struggle. Then, while Uncle Jerry held him gaspin' and groanin' on the
floor, I buttoned the high collar on and fastened the white tie. Next we
ended him up on his feet and pulled on the display vest and the long
tailed coat.
"Ug-g-gh! It chokes somethin' awful!" says Jake, gettin' purple faced
and panicky.
"Ah, close that pie gangway of yours and breathe natural for a minute!"
says I. "There, you're feelin' better already. Come, pull them knobby
wrists back up into your sleeves. This ain't no swimmin' lesson, you
know. Say, you wear a dress suit like it was so much tin armor. What's
the matter with you, anyway!"
"I--I don't know," says Jake, tryin' to stretch his head up like a
turkey. "I don't like this."
"You look it," says I. "But think who's goin' to see you in it later!
First off, though, you're goin' to a show with me. Come on, now; maybe
you'll get used to bein' dressed up by eleven o'clock."
"'Leven o'clock!" says Uncle Jerry. "Look here, Son, I ain't in the
habit of stayin' up all night, remember. I'll be droppin' off to sleep
for sartin'."
He don't, though. All through the play, which has been a two years'
scream for Broadway, he sat as solemn as if he was on a coroner's jury
in the presence of the remains. Play actin' was new to Uncle Jerry; but
he wa'n't going to give himself away, and he was just as wide awake as
anybody in the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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