IN WHAT MANNER MR.

JEREMIAH PREPARED HIMSELF FOR THE BALL.
As Mr.Jeremiah stood looking out of the window for the purpose of whiling away a tedious forenoon, it first struck his mind--upon the sight of a number of men dressed very differently from himself--that his wardrobe would scarcely match with the festal splendour of the _fete_ at which he was to be present in the evening.

Even if it had been possible to overlook the tarnished lustre of his coat, not much embellished by its late watery trials upon the golden sow, yet he could not possibly make his appearance in a surtout.

He sent therefore to one tailor after another: but all assured him that they had their hands much too full of business to undertake the conversion of his surtout into a dress coat against the evening; still less could they undertake to make a new one.

Just as vainly did he look about for shoes: many were on sale; but none of them with premises spacious enough to accommodate his very respectable feet.
All this put him into no little perplexity.