The Admiral's Caravan

iet water as if the harbor had been a great mirror lying upon its back in the sun. This made it a most attractive place to look at. Then there were crisp little dimit

t a most difficult place to stay away from. In fact, if any ships had chanced to come into the little harbor, I believe everybody on board of them, fr

ADMI

IGHLA

ight and then to the left, and lastly at the opposite side of the way, as if he had a faint hope that certain seafaring men were about to steal a march upon him from the land-side of the town. And Dorothy, who was a lonely little child, with no one in the world to care for but Uncle Porticle, had al

ched on the back of his head. On the other hand, he had sundry stray cracks in the calves of his legs, and was badly battered about the nose; but, after all, this only gave him a certain weather-beaten appearance as if he had been around the world any number of times i

w, and he had silver buckles on his shoes, and brass buttons on his coat, and he was varnished to such an extent that you could hardly look at him without winking. Then his hair and his whiskers were so red, and his legs were so pink and so fat and so lifelike, that it seemed as if you could almost hear him

LTER R

d take the trouble of carrying it home. This bold device was intended to call attention to the fact that Mrs. Peevy kept a tobacco-shop in the front parlor of her little cottage behind the hollyhock bushes, the announcement being backed up by the spectacle of three pipes arranged in a tr

n the shade of her big cotton umbrella with the Chinese mandarin for a handle. She wasn't much to look at, perhaps, but there was no way

n her; but nothing came of the acquaintance until a certain Christmas eve. Of course, nobody knew better than Dorothy what Christmas eve should be like. The snow should be falling softly, and just enough should come down to cover up the pavements and make the streets look beau

lightful wreaths of greens, and bunches of holly with plenty of scarlet berries on them, and the greengrocers should have little forest

f cooking floating about in the air, but this was not

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-lookingparcels they were carrying so carefully u

nto the house when the Admiral caught sight of her, and called out excitedly, "Cracks in my legs!"-and th

pump if it had spoken to her; so she swallowed down a great lump that had come up into her throat, and sa

TE ATTEMPT TO GET A VIEW OF HI

py-glass. "Why, they're no older than I am"; and, upon thinking it over, this seemed so very tru

the Admiral, with

I don't know any other reason; only it seems rather stra

before-lots of times. But I've never seen 'em behind. That is," h

ning to feel a little acquainted with the Admiral by this time, and the conversa

behind,'" said the Admiral. "That's

he ought to say something by way of helping along the conversation, so she began

" said the Adm

isn't it?" said Doro

odle--" here he paused for a moment and got extremely red in the face, and then finished up

AND GAZED ABOUT WITH

thy, drawing a long b

g that can happen to a person's legs-" but just here his remarks came abruptly to an end, for as he was str

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

y this time the Admiral had fired up, so to speak, as if he were bound on a long journey, and was blowing out such clouds of smoke that he presently quite shut himself out from view. The smoke smelt somewhat like burnt feathers, which, of course, was not very agreeable, but the worst of it was that when Dorothy turned to run home again she discovere