“Hullo!” cried John. “What are you about?”
“Why,” said the man, “what need is there to ask? Don’t you see I want to get the trousers on?” so saying he took two or three more runs and jumps, but always jumped either to this side or that of the trousers.
“Why don’t you take the trousers and draw them on?” asked John.
“Good,” said the man. “Why, I never thought of it! Many thanks. I only wish you had come before, for I have lost a great deal of time in trying to jump into them.”
“That,” said John, “is fool number three.”
So, as his boots were not yet quite worn out, he returned to his home and went again to ask Jane of her father and mother. At last they gave her to him, and they lived very happily together, for John had a rail put round the well and the child did not fall into it.
SOME MERRY TALES OF THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.
[From a chap-book printed at Hull in the beginning of the present century.]