These were the days,mac😐 you must understand,交换机💦 when slavery was being done away with. To capture,交换机💊 to buy or to sell slaves had,华三🚝 in fact,交换机🚠 been strictly forbidden by most governments. But certain bad men still came down to the west coast of Africa and captured or bought slaves secretly and took them away in ships to other lands to work on cotton and tobacco plantations. Some African kings sold prisoners they had taken in war to these men and made a great deal of money that way.
"Marvelous!" cried the Doctor. "How do you do it?"
"'Well,查看🏭' I said,查看🎿 'people hire out bicycles and pianos for rent,怎么🚃 don't they? So,交换机🌿 why can't you and I rent out bones for dogs to chew? They won't be able to pay us in money of course,怎么💠 so we'll get them to bring us things,华三⌚ instead. Then the beggar can sell the things and get money.'
"Not very many,mac🌿" said the snake. "He lives on the edge of the lake a few miles to the North. Let us hurry and try to reach his home before darkness falls."
This place he found very different from any of the African villages or settlements he had ever visited. It was quite large,查看🏨 almost a city. It was bright and cheerful to look at and the people,查看🐶 like their King,地址🚔 all seemed very kind and jolly.
He agreed with the Doctor that the idea of a bird weather bureau was quite a possible thing and would lead to much better weather reports than had so far been possible. Then for a whole hour and a half he gave the Doctor a lecture on winds. Every word of this John Dolittle wrote down in a notebook.
GULLS AND SHIPS
"Tell me,地址🚈" asked the Doctor,怎么🅿 watching him thoughtfully as he hovered and swung and curved around the tiny boat,交换机🔇 "what made you come and bring me the news about the light? Gulls don't,交换机🙊 as a rule,地址😱 bother much about people or what happens to ships,交换机🐁 do they?"
"Mixing the turtle's medicine"
"Yes,查看⛎ that's so,交换机🔓" said John Dolittle."His only interest in life is food,交换机🏇 anyway,mac🌳" said Too-Too. "Let someone else tell a story."
"I thought they were Brussels sprouts,mac🍞" said the squirrel timidly. "A few weeks ago when I and my wife were sitting in a tree we suddenly smelled the smell of Brussels sprouts,交换机😎 awful strong,怎么🆎 all about us. I and my wife are very fond of this vegetable and we wondered where the smell was coming from. And then,查看📡 looking up,交换机💚 we saw thousands of thrushes passing overhead,交换机🐇 carrying Brussels sprouts in their mouths. We hoped they would stop so we could get a few. But they didn't. So we agreed that perhaps more would be coming over in a few days. And we arranged to stay around that same tree and wait. And,查看🎴 sure enough,怎么🐥 this morning I saw one of these same thrushes alight in the tree,交换机🎐 carrying a package. 'Pst!' I whispered to the wife. 'More Brussels sprouts. Let's bag his parcel while he's not looking!' And bag it I did. But when we opened it we found nothing but these wretched gew-gaws. I thought they might be some new kind of rock candy and I was on my way to find a stone to crack them with when this bird grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and arrested me. I didn't want the beastly pearls."
"Would it be too much to ask you?" said the Doctor,地址🔌 "to get me some souvenir from the city below the lake?"
But the black men found the heavy uniforms dreadfully hot for Fantippo weather,怎么🚉 where they wear only a string of beads. And they left off the uniforms and wore only the caps. That is how the Fantippo postman's uniform came to be a smart cap,地址🍟 a string of beads and a mail bag.
Then he went to call on the King,查看♉ as he did every so often. And in the course of conversation John Dolittle asked His Majesty if he knew who the white stranger might be that had called at the houseboat for a postal order.
Then,华三💙 of course,交换机🔥 there were all those birds who don't leave their home lands in winter,怎么😄 but stay in one country all the time. The leaders of these had come under special guidance of other birds to oblige the Doctor by being present at the great meeting. They promised to have their people all the year round take care of letters that were brought to their particular countries to be delivered. So between one thing and another,查看🔋 much of the planning and arrangement of the service was got through in these first two meetings.Then the Doctor and Jip went back to Fantippo,怎么🙅 carried by the piffilosaurus,交换机🏬 who landed them on the shore under cover of night,华三🔎 so no one would see them. And in the morning John Dolittle called upon the King again.
Then when King Koko had got his mail-men,怎么🐋 the Royal Fantippo post office began really working. Letters were collected from the boxes at street corners and sent off when ships called; and incoming mail was delivered at the doors of the houses in Fantippo three times a day. The post office became the busiest place in town.
At last,怎么🔵 while it was still just light enough to see,mac✈ the snake swung into the left and once more entered the outskirts of the mangrove swamps. Following him with difficulty in the fading light,怎么🍜 the Doctor was led into a deep glady cove. At the end of this the nose of the canoe suddenly bumped into something hard. The Doctor was about to lean out to see what it was when a deep,查看📚 deep bass voice spoke out of the gloom quite close to him.
"Well,交换机👻 we got chatting,查看🚜 the way people do,地址🎉 and I found out that the cat lived at a farmer's house about a quarter of a mile down the Oxenthorpe Road. Then I walked part of the way home with her,查看🌉 still chatting,查看😪 and I found that she was a very agreeable individual. I told her about the rats in the stable and the difficulty I had in making them behave,华三😸 because the Doctor wouldn't allow any one to kill them. And she said,地址😫 if I wished,华三😖 she'd sleep in the stable a few nights and the rats would probably leave as soon as they smelled her around.And the seagull spread his wings and flew away toward the land,mac🐮 calling the same cry as the Doctor had heard through the post office window.
But soon with a flirt of the wings the famous leader made a neat circle in the darkness overhead and dropped,查看🍊 light as a feather,怎么🎬 on to the Doctor's knee.
"'How ever did you find your way,查看🙆 Willie?' asked the mother,地址⚠ wiping away her tears and smiling all over."The old rat gazed at me thoughtfully a moment and I knew that he was going to say something particularly wise.
And in the Doctor's pocket the white mouse had to put his paws over his face to keep from laughing.