"Old!" exclaimed the Admiral, making a desperate attempt to get a view of his legs through his spy-glass. "Why, they're no older than _I_ am"; and, upon thinking it over, this seemed so very true that Dorothy felt quite ashamed of her remark and stood looking at him in a rather foolish way. "Try again," said the Admiral, with a patronizing air. "No," said Dorothy, gravely shaking her head, "I'm sure I don't know any other reason; only it seems rather strange, you know, that you've never even seen them before." "If you mean my legs," said the Admiral, "of course I've seen them before--lots of times. But I've never seen 'em behind. That is," he added by way of explanation. "I've never seen 'em behind before." "But I mean the cracks," said Dorothy, with a faint smile. You see she was beginning to feel a little acquainted with the Admiral by this time, and the conversation didn't seem to be quite so solemn as it had been when he first began talking. "Then you should say 'seen 'em before _behind_,'" said the Admiral. "That's where they've always been, you know." Dorothy didn't know exactly what reply to make to this remark; but she thought she ought to say something by way of helping along the conversation, so she began, "I suppose it's kind of----" and here she stopped to think of the word she wanted. "Kind of what?" said the Admiral severely. "Kind of--cripplesome, isn't it?" said Dorothy rather confusedly. "Cripplesome?" exclaimed the Admiral. "Why, that's no word for it. It's positively decrepitoodle----" here he paused for a moment and got extremely red in the face, and then finished up with "----loodelarious," and stared hard at her again, as if inquiring what she thought of _that_. "Goodness!" said Dorothy, drawing a long breath, "what a word!" "Well, it _is_ rather a word," said the Admiral with a very satisfied air. "You see, it means about everything that can happen to a person's legs--" but just here his remarks came abruptly to an end, for as he was strutting about on his pedestal, he suddenly slipped off the edge of it and came to the ground flat on his back. [Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL SAT UP AND GAZED ABOUT WITH A COMPLACENT SMILE."] Dorothy gave a little scream of dismay; but the Admiral, who didn't appear to be in the least disturbed by this accident, sat up and gazed about with a complacent smile. Then, getting on his feet, he took a pipe out of his pocket, and lit it with infinite relish; and having turned up his coat-collar by way of keeping the rest of his clothes dry, he started off down the street without another word. The people going by had all disappeared in the most unaccountable manner, and Dorothy could see him quite plainly as he walked along, tacking from one side of the street to the other with a strange rattling noise, and blowing little puffs of smoke into the air like a shabby little steam-tug going to sea in a storm.