The Jeffersonian

A Lesson For Dad.—An old gentleman farmer, who had two or three very pretty daughters, who was very anxious of his charge that he would not permit them to keep the company of young men. However, they adopted the following expedient to enjoy the society of their lovers. After the old man had retired to rest, the girls would hang a sheet out of the window, which was quite a distance from the ground, and the beau would seize hold of it, and with the assistance of his lady-love who tugged lustily at the end above, would thus gain entrance. But it so happened that one evening the girls hung out the sheet rather early; for the old gentleman by some ill wind, was blown around the corner, and spying the bed covering, could not conjecture the meaning of its being there. He took hold and endeavored to pull it down. The girls, supposing it to be one of their beaux, began to hoist, and did not discover their mistake until the head of the old man was level with the window-sill when one of them exclaimed, "O! Lord, it's dad!" and letting go their hold, souse came the old man on the hard stones and ground below, dislocating one of his shoulders, which convinced him that his efforts to make old maids of his daughters was not a matter so easily accomplished, and withdrawing all opposition to their keeping company, he was soon a father-in-law.