A GREEN FIREMAN’S FIRST TRIP OF “INSPECTION.”

A GREEN FIREMAN'S FIRST TRIP OF "INSPECTION."

He hadn't been a Fireman long. He had dreamed of the heroic life before him, and it was with feelings of the most exalted character that he buttoned up his snugly-fitting uniform coat, set his uniform hat jauntily on the side of his head, and took himself in generally. To be sure, the "sides" he was struggling to raise looked somewhat uneven, and his mouth had a slightly carpet-bag appearance, but what of that? It was his day to "inspect." That is, he was to look after some lately-completed heating apparatus to make sure that all contact with surrounding combustible matter was impossible. He sallied torth upon the crowded streets and felt unconscious that every eye was centered on him. He walk in an exceedingly dignified manner in the direction of tbe laundry where tbe " inspection " was to be done, the sunlight flashing brightly from the immaculate shine upon his brogans.

His entry at the laundry caused a flutter among tbe pretty Irish girls, and his heart beat faster, his eyes grew brighter as he realized his position. He stammer ingly informed the proprietor of the object of his visit, and was placed under the guidance of a merry-eyed daughter of the Emerald Isle who told him to follow her He did so, and she stepped off into a side room with the remaik, loud enough to be heard by the girls in the other room : “ It’s to the drying-room we’re going; but as you’re a Foreman, ye won't feel the heat." "Oh! no, not a bit," was the reply in equally loud tones. This was a lie. The perspiration was already running down his legs in'o his boo's; his uniform was flannel-lined and was getting insufferably warm. He bad only attended two fires, but then he wouldn't appear like anything but a veteran for the world. Suddenly his guide opened a door and through the apa-ture there came a blast of heat that fairly cooked bis nostrils. He gulped down the hot air and pressed into the room. Blue-eyed Rosy, in a thin wrapper, was an iceberg compared to the Fireman. He took a hasty glance about the apartment and mentally resolved that the place might burn up a dozen times before he would itay another minute. Rosy had "tumbled ” to him, however, and said: "Just look here. You didn't see this.”