So the good Speedy sent off messengers; and all around the world and back again word was passed from bird to bird that John Dolittle,原则🈷 the famous animal doctor,原则🔯 wished to see all the leaders of all kinds of birds,什么🐍 great and small.
And then because so many letters were written him about good manners and proper behavior,什么❄ he wrote a "Book of Etiquette for Animals." It is still a very famous work,什么🔸 though copies of it are rare now. But when he wrote it the Doctor printed a first edition of fifty thousand copies and sent them all out by mail in one week. It was at this time,什么🍓 too,网络🚾 that he wrote and circulated another very well-known book of his called "One-Act Plays for Penguins."
"'Fire!' said Speedy"
"The double letter boxes of Fantippo"
Then the king was very angry and,故障📠 calling for the white trader,故障😑 he said:"So,网络🌘 seeing they were threatened by a secret danger,网络🏨 I went off and told the leader of the herd about it. He was frightfully stupid and I had the hardest work getting it into his head.
And this was how the first letter was sent off by the Swallow Mail: King Koko himself came one morning and,排除⏰ putting his large face in at the information window,故障📟 asked:
"But what kind of work is invalids' work?" asked the white mouse.
"I'll bet it's Jack Wilkins,网络🐙 the cross-eyed pearl fisherman,原则📏" whispered Dab-Dab. "A man with a face like that would steal anything. And he was the only one,什么👃 besides us and Speedy,排除👇 who knew the pearls were going through the mails. It's Wilkins,故障🎽 sure as you're alive."And in the second while the pistol was lowered the Doctor sprang onto the man's back,原则🆗 gripped him around the neck,故障🏈 and with a crash the two of them went rolling on the floor of the cabin.
"No,排除🔵 now wait a minute,网络💦" 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,什么👓 Gub-Gub. Tell us your story. What's the name of it?"
Then,网络🐉 of course,排除✖ there were all those birds who don't leave their home lands in winter,原则🐴 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,网络🐧 much of the planning and arrangement of the service was got through in these first two meetings.
"I left them beside my pipe on the information desk,排除🚞" came the Doctor's voice from the top of the dark stairs. "But there must be matches in the lighthouse somewhere. We must find them."
The morning sun peeping in at the window of the lighthouse found the Doctor still working over the keeper where he lay at the foot of the tower stairs.
"Then a peculiar thing happened. Sir Timothy,原则💘 who had always so far seemed too weak to walk,故障🍈 got right out of his wheel chair and,排除📀 waving his ear trumpet wildly,网络🐘 ran around all over the sanitarium,原则🍑 making speeches to the other invalids,网络🐕 saying how shamefully he had been treated and calling on them to strike for their rights.
The Doctor said he never had the slightest idea of what he was eating,故障✏ but as the mealy mixture was highly digestible and nutritious he did not see why he should mind. To supply his master with water the mouse got nuts,排除😎 and after gnawing a tiny hole in one end he would chop the nut inside into pieces and shake it out through the hole. Then he would fill the empty shell with water and seal up the hole with gum arabic which he got from trees. The water-filled nuts were a little heavy for him to carry,排除📘 so Dab-Dab would bring them from the river as far as the outside end of the rat hole,什么📁 and the white mouse would roll them down the hole into the prison.
"He led me to a lonely old farm out on the hills. And there,故障🍳 concealing myself in some bushes,什么👊 I watched the great Morland painting one of his famous farm scenes.
"They say rolling,故障🐫 fertile country,网络📹 waving corn and sunny hilltops,原则🚎" the snake replied. "That is what I have heard. I was not there to see. Mudface,网络🎬 the turtle,什么➖ will tell you all about it."
"Why,什么🌞 certainly,什么💃" said the big serpent. "I live in the same lake as he does,原则♦ Lake Junganyika."
"No,什么🐬 the lighthouse on Cape Stephen,故障📠" said the Doctor. "A gull just came and told me. The shipping's in danger. Wrecks,故障🐰 you know,原则😓 and all that. Wake up and look sensible,排除🚁 for pity's sake!"
Full daylight had not yet come and the light from a lamp could be seen palely shining up the stairs which led to the cabin. The Doctor slid forward like a shadow,网络👽 tiptoed his way down the stairs and peered through the partly opened door.
"Dear me!" said the Doctor. "That's too bad. Well,故障✔ I dare say I'll find some way to pay the farmer back."
And while Quip had been waiting for this letter to be written he had filled in the time at Puddleby by gossiping with all the starlings and blackbirds in the Doctor's garden about the wonderful new Animals' post office on the island of No-Man's-Land. And pretty soon every creature in and around Puddleby had got to hear of it.