"The light's too bad,内容♊" grumbled the gunners. "Who could hit anything two miles away in this rotten light?"
"Putty is poisonous,章节📫" said the Doctor. "They appreciate the beauty of the pearls. Let them have them. But,概括🍈" he added to the mother spoonbill,儒林外史☠ "if you know where any more are to be found I should be glad to know."
"Come along,内容🎻" said Dab-Dab,章节🏰 picking the wretched culprit up in her big webbed feet. "I'll take you back to the mainland. And you can thank your lucky stars that it's the Doctor who is in charge of this post office. It's to jail you really ought to go."
And the farmers in England that year said the coming winter would be a hard one because the swallows had done their nesting abroad before they arrived and only spent a few weeks of the autumn in the North."He found his mother and father still asleep when he got back. So after carefully hiding his Magic Cucumber under the floor of the cow barn,概括🌀 he crept into the sty and went fast asleep.
Then the trader told him that it was not through magic in the stamps or boxes that letters traveled by mail. But proper post offices had mail-men,章节🔐 or postmen,章节🚛 who collected the letters out of these boxes. And he went on to explain to the King all the other duties of a post office and the things that made letters go.
"Well,概括📄 now,章节💰 as I told you,概括💰 I had an idea in all this. I hoped that if I did something for George Morland perhaps I could get him to do something for me. But,内容🐑 of course,概括📛 with him not knowing dog talk it was a bit difficult to make him understand. However,儒林外史😧 while he was packing up his painting things I disappeared for a while,内容🚵 just as though I was going away. Then I came rushing back to him in a great state of excitement,章节🏤 barking,概括📻 trying to show him something was wrong and that I wanted him to follow me."I suppose they get rather tired of it,内容♦ poor fellows!" murmured the Doctor.
"That's true,概括🚷" said the Doctor. "I suppose I must be getting on to England soon. But the Fantippans were honestly pleased to see us,内容🙊 weren't they? And,章节🚜 after all,章节🙍 Africa is a nice country,章节🚄 now,概括😵 isn't it?"
"Oh,内容🔫 yes,章节➗" said John Dolittle. "All in good time,概括💻 Dab-Dab."
"No,概括🎬 now wait a minute,内容📺" 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,概括🌼 Gub-Gub. Tell us your story. What's the name of it?""Dab-Dab,儒林外史🔶 the economical housekeeper,内容🍯 blew out the candle"
And soon money began to pour into the country from the pearl fishing business which the Doctor had established and the people were prosperous and had all the food they wanted.
Then spies from those neighboring countries who had always been robbing and warring upon this land began to sneak around the rocks in canoes. And,内容🚅 of course,概括✒ very soon the secret was out.
"Couldn't you use the houses of Fantippo?" asked the Doctor."The houseboat post office of No-Man's-Land"
So they went across to the other side of the little island and started opening oysters. But not another pearl did they find.
But presently the Doctor noticed that after they had licked the gum off the stamps,内容🎢 the customers would bring them back and want to exchange them for money again. Now,章节🌉 it is a rule that all post offices have to exchange their own stamps,内容🏣 when asked,儒林外史🐅 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.
"'Look here,内容💜' he said to the beggar. 'Would you like me to re-draw all your pictures for you? Of course,章节🍖 those done on the pavement you couldn't sell,章节👞 but we can rub them out. And I've got some spare canvases in my satchel here. Maybe you could sell a few. I can sell pictures in London any day in the week. But I've never been a pavement artist before. It would be rather a lark to see what happens.'At length reaching the great glass lamp chamber at the top,内容🌔 he set down his candle and,内容🙅 striking two matches at once he held one in each hand and lit the big wick in two places.
So while the Doctor put his clothes on and Gub-Gub washed the mud out of his ears,儒林外史❣ Dab-Dab went off on a tour of inquiry around the islands.
John Dolittle tore open the envelope.
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER VII