uld come
down to cover up the pavements and make the streets look beautifully
white and clean, and to edge the trees and the lamp-posts and the
railings as if they were trimmed with soft lace; and just enough to
tempt children to come out, and not so much as to keep grown people at
home--in fact, just enough for Christmas eve, and not a bit more.

Then the streets should be full of people hurrying along and all
carrying plenty of parcels; and the windows should be very gay with
delightful wreaths of greens, and bunches of holly with plenty of
scarlet berries on them, and the greengrocers should have little forests
of assorted hemlock-trees on the sidewalks in front of their shops, and
everything should be as cheerful and as bustling as possible.

And, if you liked, there might be just a faint smell of cooking floating
about in the air, but this was not important by any means, as it might
happen at any time.

Well, all these good old-fashioned things came to pass on this
particular Christmas eve except the snow; and in place of that there
came a soft, warm rain which was all very well in its way, except that,
as Dorothy said, "It didn't belong on Christmas eve." And just at
nightfall she went out into the porch to smell the rain, and to see how
Christmas matters generally were getting on in the wet; and she was
watching the people hurrying by, and trying to fancy what was in the
mysterious-looking parcels they were carrying so carefully under their
umbrellas, when she suddenly noticed that the toes of the Admiral's
shoes were turned sideways on his pedestal, and looking up at him she
saw that he had tucked his spy-glass under his arm, and was gazing down
backward at his legs with an air of great concern.

This was so startling that Dorothy almost jumped out of her shoes, and
she was just turning to run back into the house when the Admiral caught
sight of her, and called out excitedly, "Cracks in my legs!"--and then
stared hard at her as if demanding some sort of an explanation of this
extraordinary state of affairs.

Dorothy was dreadfully frightened, but she was a very polite little
girl, and would have answered the town pump if it had spoken to her; so
she swallowed down a great lump that had come up into her throat, and
said, as respectfully as she could, "I'm very sorry, sir. I suppose it
must be because they are so very old."

[Illustration: "THE ADMIRAL, MAKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW OF
HIS LEGS T