HROUGH HIS SPY-GLASS."]

"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 po