"'Ah,祖父📺 hah!' he cried. 'A white mouse! The very thing I've been wanting!'
"Why?" asked the Doctor,祖父💎 pushing the breakfast tray off his knees and punching the pillows into shape.
The Captain looked with astonishment into the faces of his listening officers,祖父‼ who all smiled unbelievingly.
And he turned to the letter again.
And in the jungle,祖父🎰 where the frightened villagers had fled to hide,祖父😑 Obombo made whispered speeches to little scattered groups of his father-in-law's people,祖父🚉 telling them what fools they had been to trust the crazy white man,政审👹 instead of listening to him,证明📱 who would have led them to greatness.
"I too am glad,政审🚗 John Dolittle. You are the only one in the world now who understands the speech of animals. And if you had not come my story of the Flood could not have been told. I'm getting very old and do not ever move far away from Junganyika."
Then the Skimmer,政审🍂 with one of his claws,政审🚜 began tracing out some letters on the Doctor's palm. Before he had got very far John Dolittle sprang up,祖父🌍 nearly overturning the canoe."And what on earth is an invalid?" cried the pushmi-pullyu.
CHAPTER II
So,政审🚃 in spite of John Dolittle's impatience,政审🗿 the story was put off till the following day. For the evening meal Dab-Dab managed to scout around and gather together quite a nice mess of fresh-water shellfish and Too-Too collected some marsh berries that did very well for dessert.
Then he took them to the great ship,政审🈯 which was sailing calmly onward toward the rocks and destruction. And there,祖父📡 going forward to where the helmsman held the spokes of the wheel and watched the compass swinging before him in the light of a little,祖父🙅 dim lamp,证明🌜 the gulls started dashing themselves into the wheelman's face and covering the glass of the compass,证明🚭 so he could not steer the ship."About three weeks would be my guess,证明🌋" whispered Cheapside. "Turtles do everything slow. Something tells me that story is the longest story in the world,死亡🔐 Doctor. Let's get a nap and a bite to eat first. We can hear it just as well to-morrow."
"Doctor,政审🎺" he cried,政审🍌 "the mail has been robbed! The thrush has come back to the post office and says his package was taken from him on the way. The pearls are gone!"
Now the cormorants did not know that war had broken out,证明👓 nor anything about the Doctor's misfortune. And when the Emir's men came and took the pearl oysters they had fished up the birds supposed they were Nyam-Nyam's men and let them have them. However,祖父💴 it happened,祖父🏪 luckily,政审👍 that this first load of oysters had only very small and almost worthless pearls in them.
The Doctor did not expect an answer to it right away because the Cats'-Meat-Man's wife was a very slow reader and a still slower writer. And anyhow,政审🐂 Cheapside could not be expected to visit Puddleby for another week yet. He always stayed in London until after the Easter Bank Holiday. His wife refused to let him leave for the country till the spring family had been taught by their father how to find the houses where people threw out crumbs; how to pick up oats from under the cab horses' nose bags without being stamped on by the horses' hoofs; how to get about in the trafficky streets of London and a whole lot of other things that young city birds have to know.
"Gracious,政审✒ Cheapside!" said the Doctor,政审🏤 laughing. "It makes me quite homesick for England to hear your Cockney chirp."
"'Do you realize what that pearl means to us?'"
"How is the old horse in the stable?" asked John Dolittle.The sparrow got back to Junganyika late that afternoon. He reported that Speedy had immediately,祖父🍛 on receiving the Doctor's message,证明📠 forwarded it to the postmasters of the branch offices with orders to pass it on to all the bird-leaders everywhere. It was expected that the first birds would begin to arrive here early the following morning.
However,死亡📍 the crafty Bones,祖父🌙 with so big a start,证明🍧 was not easy to overtake. And soon the sun began to set and the Captain frowned and stamped his feet. For with darkness he knew his enemy would be safe.
But presently the people began complaining that they had been robbed. They had paid good money for the stamps,祖父📆 they said,证明👳 trusting in their magic power,死亡💋 and they had put their letters in the boxes at the corners of the streets as they had been told. But one day a cow had rubbed her neck against one of the letter boxes and burst it open,政审💧 and inside there were all the people's letters,证明📬 which had not traveled one inch from where they put them!
"I should say he did,死亡👻" growled Mudface. "But that belongs to the story of the Flood. You have come far. You must be weary and in need of food."
"I thought they were Brussels sprouts,死亡📓" 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,证明🔷 awful strong,证明👶 all about us. I and my wife are very fond of this vegetable and we wondered where the smell was coming from. And then,死亡😄 looking up,死亡👴 we saw thousands of thrushes passing overhead,祖父🎲 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,祖父⛎ sure enough,政审😜 this morning I saw one of these same thrushes alight in the tree,证明👱 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."
He got no answer. But soon,死亡🚏 with a rush of wings that nearly blew his candle out,政审📨 a great seagull swept down on to the houseboat rail beside him.
As they went forward the jungle around them seemed to grow thicker and thicker all the time. But there was always this clear alley-way along the river bed. And though the stream's course did much winding and twisting,祖父⚓ the going was good.In the meantime,死亡👝 Speedy and the thrush flew over the land by the short cut to the post office.
"I'm not sure,政审🍳" said Speedy. "I'll go and look at the notice board. I think it's the Golden Jays.... Yes,死亡💳" he said,死亡🗼 coming back in a moment,证明🐟 "that's right,死亡🎒 the Golden Jays to-morrow,政审🚔 Tuesday,死亡😫 the 15th,政审💃 weather permitting."