24. XXIV.
DARK DOINGS.
Four promising young men of this city
attended a ball in the rural districts not long
since. At a late hour they retired, leaving
word with the clerk of the hotel to call
them early in the morning, as they wanted
to take the first train home. The clerk was
an old friend of the “fellers,” and he thought
he would have a slight joke at their expense.
So he burnt some cork and, with a sponge,
blacked the faces of his city friends after
they had got soundly asleep. In the morning
he called them about ten minutes before
the train came along. Feller No. 1
awoke and laughed boisterously at the
sight which met his gaze. But he saw
through it—the clerk had played his
good joke on his three comrades, and of
course he would keep mum. But it was a
devilish good joke. Feller No. 2 awoke,
saw the three black men in the room, comprehended
the joke, and laughed vociferously.
But he would keep mum. Fellers
No. 3 and 4 awoke, and experienced the
same pleasant feeling; and there was the
beautiful spectacle of four nice young men
laughing heartily one at another, each one
supposing the “urbane clerk” had spared
him in his cork-daubing operations. They
had only time to dress before the train
arrived. They all got aboard, each thinking
what a glorious joke it was to have
his three companions go back to town with
black faces. The idea was so rich that they
all commenced laughing violently as soon
as they got aboard the cars. The other
passengers took to laughing also, and fun
raged fast and furious, until the benevolent
baggage-man, seeing how matters
stood, brought a small pocket-glass and
handed it around to the young men. They
suddenly stopped laughing, rushed wildly
for the baggage-car, washed their faces, and
amused and instructed each other during
the remainder of the trip with some eloquent
flashes of silence.
