杏林春意暖
2023-03-21 08:32:08 作者：
"Go on,春意📫 Gub-Gub,春意🌀" said the Doctor. "Don't take any notice of them. I'm listening."
Speedy had agreed with the Doctor upon a sort of overhead telegraph system to be carried on by the swallows. And as soon as the millions of little birds had spread themselves out in a line along the coast,春意🔐 so that the sky was speckled with them as far as the eye could reach,杏林🚝 they began passing messages,春意📔 by whistling to one another,春意🍐 all the way from the scouts in front back to the Doctor on the warship,杏林🏄 to give news of how the hunt was progressing.
On his arrival at the post office the Doctor was given his usual warm reception by the king and dignitaries of Fantippo who paddled out from the town to welcome him back.
GUB-GUB'S STORY
But when the sparrow went all his London friends went with him and the post office was left with no city birds to attend to the city deliveries. The swallows and other birds tried their hardest to get letters around to the houses properly. But they couldn't. And before long complaints began to come in from the townspeople.
Too-Too yawned and blinked up sleepily at the lantern hanging above his head.
John Dolittle saw him one day,春意🅾 snooping around the post office,春意🚯 looking at the notice boards and trying to find out things. But he found out nothing. And when he got back to England he said to the government:
Well,春意💪 when breakfast had been disposed of the Doctor sharpened his pencil,杏林🔍 got out a notebook and,杏林🍀 telling Too-Too to listen carefully,春意🌸 in case he should miss anything,杏林🎁 he asked the turtle to begin the story of the Flood.
"All right,杏林🍖" said the Doctor,春意🚑 hurrying into his coat. "Wait just a moment till I wake Dab-Dab."
Soon hisses and groans broke out among the crowd and,春意🐇 picking up pebbles and mud,春意♨ they began pelting Obombo so he could not go on with his speech. Finally he had to run for the jungle himself to escape the fury of the people.
CHAPTER II
"You sound bitter,春意🏃" said the Doctor. "Did King Mashtu do you any harm?"
"Why,杏林🚦 this is extraordinary!" said the Doctor,杏林👛 examining the bone with great care. "I did not know that this class of animals were still to be found in Africa. Where did you get this bone,杏林🍼 Jip?"
But the parent birds,杏林😭 as soon as the young ones were able to fly,春意🆙 set their children to work clearing up the mess. And all that mud was taken off and dropped into the harbor,杏林🚩 piece by piece. And the Doctor's ship was left in a cleaner state than it had ever been before in its whole life.
But presently the Doctor noticed that after they had licked the gum off the stamps,杏林📻 the customers would bring them back and want to exchange them for money again. Now,春意📡 it is a rule that all post offices have to exchange their own stamps,杏林🔞 when asked,春意🍎 for the price paid for them. So long as they are not torn or marked it doesn't matter whether the gum has been licked off or not. So the Doctor saw that he would have to change his kind of gum if he wanted to keep stamps that would stick.
The snake,杏林🌸 hearing Cheapside's chatter,杏林🚱 thought something must be wrong. He turned his head-end around and came back to see what the matter was. Then a short halt was made in the journey while the Doctor and Jip cleaned themselves up,春意🌵 and the precious notebooks,春意🔫 which had also been jerked out into the mud,杏林🚫 were rescued and stowed in a safe place.
"Thousands of swallows built their nests in her rigging"
"In popped the head of an enormous snake"
And he turned to the letter again.
"Well,春意💈 wouldn't you like to keep them,杏林👹 then?" asked the spoonbill. "I could get the children something else to play with,杏林🌜 no doubt."
"Very good,春意🐒 Doctor,春意🍑" said the swallow,春意😵 turning to go. "I'll tell the Skimmer what you say."
"I will not leave here,春意🏫" said John Dolittle,杏林♥ standing squarely in the door,春意🐑 "till you have windows put in this prison. It's a disgrace to lock up anyone in a place without windows."
And then the Fantippans,杏林💻 who so far had been very timid about going far out to sea on account of storms,春意🌍 now that they had a good weather bureau and knew what weather to expect,杏林🔸 began building larger sailboats,春意🏈 instead of their little frail canoes. And they became what is called a mercantile nation,杏林🐊 traded up and down the shores of West Africa,春意📈 and even went as far south as the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean to traffic in goods with people of foreign lands.
"Fire!" said Speedy. And the Doctor fired.
The first hard work of getting the post office in full swing was now over. And that night John Dolittle felt when he heard the doors being shut that at last he could afford to keep more regular hours and not be working all the time. And when Jip came inside the Registered Mail booth he found the Doctor leaning back in a chair with his feet on the desk,春意🎂 gazing around him with great satisfaction.
