CHAPTER III
"It was marked 'Urgent,宜昌🍑' in red ink,信息🚡 Doctor,信息👶" said the swallow,信息🚸 "so Speedy thought he had better send it to you by special delivery."
And then there was a solemn silence in the lighthouse while the Doctor above and Dab-Dab below thought gloomily of that big ship sailing onward to her wreck because they had no matches.
"Well,招聘👛" said the Doctor,信息👳 "I'll tell it,湖北🚘 and then you can decide for yourself. Stop fidgeting,宜昌👡 now,招聘😨 and let me begin. It's getting late.""Tell me,湖北🈷" asked the Doctor,宜昌🚬 watching him thoughtfully as he hovered and swung and curved around the tiny boat,信息🚤 "what made you come and bring me the news about the light? Gulls don't,宜昌📠 as a rule,宜昌💝 bother much about people or what happens to ships,信息🏀 do they?"
"Why?" asked the Doctor,信息📊 pushing the breakfast tray off his knees and punching the pillows into shape.
"The father pig hurried away with his child because he did not like magic. But that night the baby pig,信息😶 when his mother and father were fast asleep,信息👨 crept out of his sty and went off into the woods. He wanted to find out the mystery of those voices coming from under the ground.
After supper had been served and eaten and the Doctor had been made to tell the story of the pearl fisheries all over again for the benefit of his own family circle,招聘🐜 he at last turned to the enormous pile of letters which were waiting for him. They came,湖北🚍 as usual,招聘🈺 from all parts of the world,湖北🚁 from every conceivable kind of animal and bird. For hours he waded patiently through them,信息🚨 answering them as they came. Speedy acted as his secretary and took down in bird and animal scribble the answers that the Doctor reeled off by the dozen. Often John Dolittle dictated so fast that the poor Skimmer had to get Too-Too (who had a wonderful memory) to come and help listen,招聘🚛 so nothing should be missed through not writing it down quick enough."I think the white mouse ought to tell us one,招聘🍶" said Jip.
Standing on the top of the hill with Jip and the piffilosaurus at his side,宜昌🔒 the Doctor gazed down over the wide bowl full of contented animal life and heaved a sigh.
OBOMBO'S REBELLION
"But we never thought where the dogs might be getting all these things they brought us. The truth is,宜昌🔫 we didn't bother very much,宜昌🌆 I'm afraid. Anyway at the end of our first week of brisk trade we noticed a great many people going through the streets as though they were looking for something. And presently these people,宜昌🚛 seeing our shop in the empty lot,宜昌🎴 gathered around us,信息🍊 talking to one another. And while they were talking a retriever came up to me with a gold watch and chain in his mouth,宜昌✌ which he wanted to exchange for a ham bone.
"So,宜昌🍑 after that,湖北🚓 of course,招聘🔵 I saw that if I wanted to save my good but foolish friends from destruction,宜昌🍡 I had better do something on my own account.
"Well,湖北🔳 all's well that ends well,宜昌🐓" said the Doctor. "Take this; you must be nearly starved."
"Keep right on,宜昌⚓ Doctor,招聘🍂" said the gull. "I'm going off to get some friends of mine."
"All right,湖北🍀" said the Doctor. "I'll mention that."
So the Doctor's letter was written and addressed to Matthew Mugg,宜昌🍈 Esquire,宜昌👭 Cats' Meat Merchant,信息😪 Puddleby-on-the-Marsh,信息📹 Slopshire,宜昌🎬 England. And it was sent off by Quip-the-Carrier.
Out in the open great banks of gray mist rolled and joined and separated as the wailing wind pushed them fretfully hither and thither over the face of the waters.The two keepers thought that the Doctor was surely crazy when he started a conversation of chirps with Cheapside. But from the answers they got to their questions they could see there was no fake about the news of the city which the sparrow gave.
"'Where have you been?'"
"No,招聘📐 now wait a minute,信息🍁" cried the Doctor. "Don't all be jumping on him this way. We were all young once. Let him tell his story. He may win the prize. Who knows? Come along,宜昌➖ Gub-Gub. Tell us your story. What's the name of it?"
So they went down to the water's edge and asked several of the canoesmen to take them over to No-Man's-Land. But every one they asked got dreadfully frightened and refused to talk when the Doctor told them where he wanted to go. They wouldn't even let him borrow their canoes to go there by himself.