Two Cantabs, brothers, named Whiter, one the learned author of
_Etymologicum Magnum_, the other an amiable divine; both were
remarkable, the one for being six, the other about five feet in
height. The taller was eccentric and often absent in his habits, the
other a wag. Both were invited to the same party, and the taller being
first ready, slipped on the coat of the shorter, and wended his way
into a crowded room of fashionables, to whom his eccentricities being
familiar, they were not much surprised at seeing him encased in a
coat, the tail of which scarcely reached his hips, whilst the sleeves
ran short of his elbows; in fact, it was a perfect _strait jacket_,
and he had not been long seated before he began to complain to every
body that he was suffering from a dreadful fit of _rheumatism_. One or
two suggested the _tightness_ of his coat as the cause of his pain;
but he remained rheumatic in spite of them, till his brother's
approach threw the whole party into a fit of convulsive laughter, as
he came sailing into the room, his coat-tails sweeping the room, _en
traine_, and his arms performing the like service on either side, as
he exclaimed, to his astonished brother, "Why, Bob, you have got my
coat on!" Bob then discovered that his friends' hints bordered on the
truth, and the two exchanged garments forthwith, to the amusement of
all present.
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