Title: Doctor Dolittle's Post Office
The Emir of Ellebubu went back to his palace feeling perfectly certain that after he had starved John Dolittle for a few days he would be able to make him do anything he wanted. He gave orders that no water should be served to the prisoner either,合并📇 so as to make doubly sure that he would be reduced to obedience.
And he had printed forms made,合并💂 called "Things a Young Rabbit Should Know,合并👅" "The Care of Feet in Frosty Weather,表格🙀" etc.,合并✈ etc. These he sent out by mail in thousands.
But when he came up,EXCEL💌 blowing like a seal,文件▫ he hadn't even got an oyster. All he had was a mouthful of seaweed.
"That's the main trouble with sailors,文件🚅 Doctor. They don't know winds the way they ought. They can tell a northeast wind from a west wind. And a strong one from a weak one. And that's about all. But when you've spent most of your life,文件🐼 the way we have,文件🏰 flying among the winds,合并♨ using them to climb on,合并🏪 to swoop on and to hover on,表格❤ you get to know that there's a lot more to a wind besides its direction and its strength. How often it puffs upward or downward,EXCEL🛅 how often it grows weak or grows strong,文件🗻 will tell you,EXCEL💶 if you know the science of winds,表格♣ a whole lot.""Its head is under water,怎么🐰" said the Doctor. "But there's its tail,合并🔌 look,文件🐀 behind us."
"'Tuffie brought us home,EXCEL⛅' says the little girl. 'She came out after us and led us here by going ahead of us and meowing.'
GOOD-BYE TO FANTIPPOThe 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,EXCEL⛵ gazing around him with great satisfaction.
Now his pets,合并❕ after the post office work got sort of settled and regular,文件🍶 often found it somewhat hard to amuse themselves in the evenings. One night they were all sitting around on the veranda of the houseboat wondering what game they could play when Jip suddenly said:
"Perhaps it slipped off the tree,表格🐒" said the Doctor,合并🌱 "and fell down into the underbrush."
Paddling very,EXCEL♣ very softly,怎么📻 he managed to get the canoe right under the bow of the ship. Then,表格📱 tying his own craft so it couldn't float away,EXCEL👑 he swarmed up the schooner's anchor chain and crept on to the boat on hands and knees.
Just at that moment Speedy-the-Skimmer came in and said:
"Well,合并✏ we got chatting,怎么📞 the way people do,文件🚂 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,表格🐣 still chatting,合并😧 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,文件⚓ because the Doctor wouldn't allow any one to kill them. And she said,表格😍 if I wished,文件🍜 she'd sleep in the stable a few nights and the rats would probably leave as soon as they smelled her around.
Now,怎么💓 Speedy-the-Skimmer,文件🏡 as soon as the race had begun,文件📍 had come on to the warship to take a rest. And he happened to be talking to the Doctor when the order to man the guns came down from the Captain. So the Doctor and Speedy went below to watch the guns being fired.
"'Bones for hire! Beef bones,表格🚊 ham bones,文件🔱 mutton bones,合并🚡 chicken bones! All juicy! Step up,怎么👂 gentlemen,表格🔩 and take your choice! BONES for hire!'
"No,EXCEL🚕 now wait a minute,合并😑" 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,怎么🔳 Gub-Gub. Tell us your story. What's the name of it?"
"What in thunder's this?" roared the Captain from the quarterdeck as the shot rang out. "Didn't I give the order to cease firing?"
At last,EXCEL🐙 while it was still just light enough to see,EXCEL😚 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,怎么😳 deep bass voice spoke out of the gloom quite close to him."Don't celebrate Christmas!" cried Cheapside in a shocked voice. "What a disgraceful scandal! Well,EXCEL🐌 look here,合并📱 Doctor. You just tell King Cocoa-butter that if 'e and 'is people don't celebrate the festive season by giving us post-birds Christmas-boxes there ain't going to be no mail delivered in Fantipsy from New Year's to Easter. And you can tell 'im I said so. It's 'igh time somebody hen-lightened 'is hignorance."
"A retriever came up with a gold watch and chain"
No one went near her and the swallows had her to themselves. And they agreed afterward that they found her the best place for nesting they had ever used.
The sun was just rising over the distant coast of Africa and it was as beautiful a morning as you could wish to see.
"A wooden statue still stands to his memory"
"His spaniel,表格🏄 Spot,怎么⚓ came up to him. And George,合并🚬 leaving his painting for a moment,文件🎨 placed the spaniel beside the watering trough and flattened him out and told him to keep still. I could see that George's idea was to have him look as though he were asleep in the sun. George simply loved to paint animals asleep in the sun.
And in this war the King of Fantippo had taken many prisoners,合并🐅 among whom was the woman's husband. Shortly after the war was over some white men in a ship had called at the Kingdom of Fantippo to see if they could buy slaves for tobacco plantations. And when the king heard how much money they were willing to give for black slaves he thought he would sell them the prisoners he had taken in the war.
People who have written the history of the Kingdom of Fantippo all devote several chapters to a mysterious white man who in a very short space of time made enormous improvements in the mail,文件💻 the communications,表格🌷 the shipping,表格😐 the commerce,EXCEL🚈 the education and the general prosperity of the country. Indeed it was through John Dolittle's quiet influence that King Koko's reign came to be looked upon as the Golden Age in Fantippan history. A wooden statue still stands in the market-place to his memory."Aye,怎么👄 aye,表格🔦 sir,合并📆" said the master-at-arms. And before the Doctor knew it he had handcuffs fastened firmly on his wrists.
"The baby spoonbills want them,合并📈" said John Dolittle. "Why should I take them away from them?"