Perhaps we were
not aware that we should perspire profusely, and be dead tired getting
up and down the ladders?" "Very likely; but we didn't mind that,
either!"--"Surely we shouldn't like to strip and put on miners'
clothes?" "Yes, we should, of all things!" and pulling off coat and
waistcoat, on the spot, we stood half-undressed already, just as the big
miner was proposing another objection, which, under existing
circumstances, he good-naturedly changed into a speech of acquiescence.
"Very well, gentlemen," he said, taking up two suits of miners' clothes,
"I see you are determined to go down; and so you shall! You'll be wet
through with the heat and the work before you come up again; so just put
on these things, and keep your own clothes dry."

The clothing consisted of a flannel shirt, flannel drawers, canvas
trousers, and a canvas jacket--all stained of a tawny copper colour; but
all quite clean. A white night-cap and a round hat, composed of some
iron-hard substance, well calculated to protect the head from any loose
stones that might fall on it, completed the equipment; to which, three
tallow-candles were afterwards added, two to hang at the buttonhole, one
to carry in the hand.

My friend was dressed first. He had got a suit which fitted him
tolerably, and which, as far as appearances went, made a miner of him at
once. Far different was my case.

The same mysterious dispensation of fate, which always awards tall wives
to short men, decreed that a suit of the big miner's should be reserved
for me. He stood six feet two inches--I stand five feet six inches. I
put on his flannel shirt--it fell down to my toes, like a bedgown; his
drawers--and they flowed in Turkish luxuriance over my feet. At his
trousers I helplessly stopped short, lost in the voluminous recesses of
each leg. The big miner, like a good Samaritan as he was, came to my
assistance. He put the pocket button through the waist buttonhole, to
keep the trousers up in the first instance; then, he pulled steadily at
the braces until my waistband was under my armpits; and then he
pronounced that I and my trousers fitted each other in great perfection.
The cuffs of the jacket were next turned up to my elbows--the white
night-cap was dragged over my ears--the round hat was jammed down over
my eyes. When I add to all this, that I am so nearsighted as to be
obliged to wear spectacles, and that I finished my toilet by putting my
spectacles on (knowing that I sho