By this time all the animals had heard Cheapside arriving and they came rushing in to see the traveler and to hear the news of Puddleby and England.
"Why?" asked the Doctor,摩尔🐃 pushing the breakfast tray off his knees and punching the pillows into shape.
"I had many adventures with cats. It was winter time and the snow lay thick upon the ground. I started off to explore the world,电影👩 rejoicing in my liberty. Going around to the back of the house,摩尔🐦 I passed from the miller's yard into the dyer's yard,在线🐑 next door. In the yard was a dyeing shed and I noticed two owls sitting on the top of it in the moonlight.
So the Captain gave him five pounds of the best China tea and thanked him again in the name of the Queen and the government.
"And me,宝藏🚩 too,在线🏤" sighed Jip. "Were there many rats in the woodshed,摩尔🚒 Cheapside?"
"'We are The Cook Goblins. We live under the ground and we spend half our time inventing new things to eat and the other half in eating them. The noise you heard coming out of the hole was us singing our food hymns. We always sing food hymns whenever we are preparing particularly fine dishes.'
This they were glad to do. And the Doctor made the tea himself and it was very excellent. Over the tea Zuzana and her husband (whose name was Begwe) were conversing about the Kingdom of Fantippo.Outside the post office he had a notice board set up on which were posted the Outgoing and Incoming Mails. The notices would read something like this:
While he was doing this,庄园🍖 however,庄园🐄 Dab-Dab sneaked in under the table,庄园👣 unseen by anyone. And suddenly she bit the pearl fisherman in the leg with her powerful beak.
"The rout of the Amazons"
Then the engine boy,宝藏🍋 also anxious that his ship should have the honor of capturing Bones,摩尔🌝 tied down the safety valve on the steam engine,在线⭐ to make her go faster,在线🚗 and then went up on deck to see the show. And soon,电影👝 of course,在线🎐 one of the Violet's brand new boilers burst with a terrific bang and made an awful mess of the engine room.
"'I've tried,摩尔🅾' I said. 'But they're so scared they won't follow me. They don't like my voice or something. They take me for a wicked ogre,在线🍑 and all that sort of rot.'"Try in your waistcoat pockets,电影🐴" said Too-Too. "They were always the most interesting. You haven't turned them out since you left Puddleby. There must be lots in them."
"Oh,摩尔🔬" said the Skimmer,电影🌸 "is that the trouble? I was never good at arithmetic. What a relief! Thank goodness,摩尔💞 I haven't gained!"
"Jip,宝藏👈 it's a Quiffenodochus,宝藏👎 as sure as I'm alive!"
"'Well,宝藏📹 it was some cat,摩尔🌃' says the boy. 'He must be right around here somewhere,庄园🚉 because he led us almost up to the door.'"Very well,摩尔👀" said the Doctor. "I'll attend to that,宝藏🏣 too. Shall I have the letter boxes in the middle of the door,电影🍢 or would you like them on one side?"
The bird chosen to take the package happened to be one of the thrushes that had brought the Brussels sprouts from England. These birds were still staying in the neighborhood. And though a thrush was a somewhat small bird to carry parcel post,宝藏✔ the package was a very little one and the Doctor had nobody else to send. So after explaining to the thrush that registered mail should be guarded very carefully by postmen,在线🐃 the Doctor sent the pearls off.
From that the Doctor went on to explain to the King,宝藏🌖 that much as he loved Fantippo and its people,摩尔💐 he had many things to attend to in England and must now be thinking of going home. And of course as none of the natives could talk bird-language,庄园🔇 the Swallow Mail would have to be replaced by the ordinary kind of post office.
"What monkey business have you done to my pearl fisheries,庄园🐾 you white-faced villain?"