On a balmy forenoon a jovial-appearing old gentleman went jogging out
of the mill city of Marion and along a country road in his two-wheeled
chaise. He sat erect and he was tall above the average of men, and he
was very neat in his attire.

"I wish," he mused, "that the men who could really appreciate a
good outfit of clothing and could use the same properly were not so
infernally touchy. As it is, cranky human nature drives me out on an
expedition like this--and I'm afraid I am just as cranky as the rest of
'em, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this!"

The old gentleman hummed a song under his breath and slapped his reins
against the flanks of the plodding horse to keep time. He came into a
piece of woodland. He seemed to take cheery and fresh interest in this
place. He poked his rubicund face out from the shadow of the chaise's
canopy and peered to right and to left. There was a smile in his puckery
eyes. When there were trees ahead of him, trees behind him, and trees
all about he pulled his old horse to a standstill.

He listened, squinted quizzically through the glass of his chaise's rear
curtain, and then climbed down. From a box at the rear of the vehicle he
secured various articles of clothing and draped them over his arm.
There was a frock-coat, not too badly worn, trousers in good repair,
waistcoat, and a shirt. He also took out of the box a pair of shoes and
a hat. With this load he went to the roadside and began to rig out a
fence-post. When the garments were hung on it and the broad-brimmed,
black, slouch-hat had been jauntily set on top of the post, anybody
could see that the old gentleman was thus disposing of some of his own
extra clothing. He was wearing a similar hat and a frock-coat, himself,