I don't know what they were now.
In those days men and boys wore rather long cloaks in the winter-time.
They were black, and were lined with very bright and showy Scotch plaids.

One winter's night when I was starting to church to square a crime of some kind committed during the week, I hid my cloak near the gate and went off and played with the other boys until church was over.
Then I returned home.

But in the dark I put the cloak on wrong side out, entered the room, threw the cloak aside, and then stood the usual examination.

I got along very well until the temperature of the church was mentioned.

My mother said, "It must have been impossible to keep warm there on such a night." I didn't see the art of that remark, and was foolish enough to explain that I wore my cloak all the time that I was in church.