It was the most extraordinary-looking little gentleman he had ever seen in his life.  He had a very large nose, slightly brass-colored; his cheeks were very round and very red, and might have warranted a supposition that he had been blowing a refractory fire for the last eight-and-forty hours; his eyes twinkled merrily through long silky eyelashes, his mustaches curled twice round like a corkscrew on each side of his mouth, and his hair, of a curious mixed pepper-and-salt color, descended far over his shoulders.  He was about four feet six in height, and wore a conical-pointed cap of nearly the same altitude, decorated with a black feather some three feet long.  His doublet was prolonged behind into something resembling a violent exaggeration of what is now termed a “swallow-tail,” but was much obscured by the swelling folds of an enormous black, glossy-looking cloak, which must have been very much too long in calm weather, as the wind, whistling round the old house, carried it clear out from the wearer’s shoulders to about four times his own length.

[Illustration:  “Hello, I’m wet, let me in”]

Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of his visitor that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the old gentleman, having performed another and a more energetic concerto on the knocker, turned round to look after his fly-away cloak.  In so doing he caught sight of Gluck’s little yellow head jammed in the window, with his mouth and eyes very wide open indeed.

“Hello!” said the little gentleman, “that’s not the way to answer the door; I’m wet, let me in.”

To do the little gentleman justice, he was wet.  His feather hung down between his legs like a beaten puppy’s tail, dripping like an umbrella; and from the ends of his mustaches the water was running into his waist coat pockets, and out again like a mill-stream.

“I beg pardon, sir,” said Gluck; “I’m very sorry, but I really can’t.”

“Can’t what?” said the old gentleman,

“I can’t let you in, sir—­I can’t indeed; my brothers would beat me to death, sir, if I thought of such a thing.  What do you want, sir?”

“Want?” said the old gentleman petulantly; “I want fire and shelter; and there’s your great fire there blazing, crackling, and dancing on the walls, with nobody to feel it.  Let me in, I say; I only want to warm myself.”

Gluck had had his head, by this time, so long out of the window that he began to feel it was really unpleasantly cold, and when he turned, and saw the beautiful fire rustling and roaring, and throwing long bright tongues up the chimney, as if it were licking its chops at the savory smell of the leg of mutton, his heart melted within him that it should be burning away for nothing.  “He does look very wet,” said little Gluck; “I’ll just let him in for a quarter of an hour.”  Round he went to the door, and opened it; and as the little gentleman walked in, through the house came a gust of wind that made the old chimneys totter.