"So,📷 after that,🔵 of course,💠 I saw that if I wanted to save my good but foolish friends from destruction,🌙 I had better do something on my own account.

Paddling very,🗽 very softly,🚰 he managed to get the canoe right under the bow of the ship. Then,🔢 tying his own craft so it couldn't float away,🍐 he swarmed up the schooner's anchor chain and crept on to the boat on hands and knees.

"That's a little idea of my own,🐔" said the Sparrow. "We'll 'ave one box for the bills and one for sure-enough letters. You see,🎌 people are so disappointed when they 'ear the postman's knock and come to the door,🔷 expecting to find a nice letter from a friend or news that money's been left them and all they get is a bill from the tailor. But if we have two boxes on each door,😆 one marked 'Bills,💾' and the other 'Letters,🐽' the postman can put all the bills in one box and the honest letters in the other. As I said,🚲 it's a little idea of my own. We might as well be real up-to-date. What do you think of it?"Then the Doctor drew back for a run and threw his whole weight against the door. But the hinges and lock had been made to stand the beating of the sea and they budged no more than if he had been a fly.

"I thought they were Brussels sprouts,🚽" 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,🍒 awful strong,📴 all about us. I and my wife are very fond of this vegetable and we wondered where the smell was coming from. And then,🐝 looking up,🎥 we saw thousands of thrushes passing overhead,🍍 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,⛽ sure enough,💋 this morning I saw one of these same thrushes alight in the tree,🌐 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."

"No,🏃 this isn't puddly climate,🍇" said the Doctor. "You're not in England,🔹 you know. But I'll bring you my shaving mug and you can take a bath in that."

"All right,😜" said Dab-Dab. "But it may take me a little time. There are several islands and quite a number of spoonbills. I shall have to make inquiries and find out which one sent you the pearls."

"The new leader immediately got scared and gave the order for the Jays to swing in further toward the land,🍓 so they wouldn't be seen by the men who crowded these large boats. He was a superstitious leader and anything he didn't understand he kept away from. But my ancestor did not go with the flock,🔪 but made straight for the ships.

So off they went. And when they had come to the best place on the shore the Doctor took off his clothes and,⛔ tying them up in a bundle,⚽ he fastened them on his head,❣ with the precious high hat on the top of all. Then he waded into the surf and,❇ with Jip beside him,🚺 started swimming for the island.

OBOMBO'S REBELLION

Nearly all of the history of Doctor Dolittle's post office took place when he was returning from a voyage to West Africa. Therefore I will begin (as soon as I have told you a little about how he came to take the journey) from where he turned his ship towards home again and set sail for Puddleby-on-the-Marsh.

"When the fight was over and the dining hall cleared the Cook Goblins were very grateful to the baby pig for his valuable assistance. They called him a conquering hero and,🚿 crowning him with a wreath of parsley,☎ they invited him to the seat of honor at the dining table and went on with the meal.

Now,💵 the Doctor really had not got everything ready yet to work the foreign mails properly and he was about to explain to the King. But Speedy hopped up on the desk and whispered:

"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,☠ rejoicing in my liberty. Going around to the back of the house,🎪 I passed from the miller's yard into the dyer's yard,🚧 next door. In the yard was a dyeing shed and I noticed two owls sitting on the top of it in the moonlight.

"'George Morland,🚈' said the spaniel.

OBOMBO'S REBELLION

"Then Morland,💮 all busy and excited,♋ like a schoolboy,🔌 took the beggar's chalk pictures from against the wall and,◼ rubbing them out,👊 did them over the way they should be done. He got so occupied with this that he didn't notice that a whole crowd of people was gathering around,🚼 watching. His work was so fine that the people were spellbound with the beauty of the cats and dogs and cows and horses that he drew. And they began asking one another in whispers who the stranger could be who was doing the pavement artist's pictures for him.

"I sent them to myself,🔖" said Gub-Gub,😷 "from Fantippo yesterday. I don't see why you fellows should get all the mail. Nobody writes to me,🛂 so I write to myself."

"It changed my appearance completely. Moving through the long grass,⚓ I looked like some ordinary kind of deer. So,🎅 disguised in this manner,🏭 I sauntered out into an open meadow and grazed around till my precious Badamoshis should appear. Which they very shortly did."How very interesting!" said the Doctor. "Naturalists have thought your kind of animals are no longer living,🔡 you know. You are Quiffenodochi,🅾 are you not?"

Here the spoonbill was waiting for him at the water's edge. She apologized for not coming in person to welcome him,📍 but said she was afraid to leave her babies when there were sea eagles around. The little ones were with her,🐙 two scrubby,🐎 greasy youngsters,👷 who could walk but not fly. The Doctor opened the package and gave them back their precious toys; and with squawks of delight they began playing marbles on the flat rocks with the enormous pink pearls.

With shrieks and howls the fat women soldiers dropped the things they had been stealing and ran helter-skelter for home. And that was one time the famous Amazons of Dahomey didn't have it all their own way.

The Doctor,🌜 on hearing this,🐌 felt glad that he had already got the pink pearls safely off to their owner by registered mail. Then he told the King that he hoped shortly to take a holiday because he was overworked and needed a rest. The King asked where he was going,👅 and the Doctor said he thought of taking a week's canoe trip up the coast toward the Harmattan Rocks.The sun was just rising over the distant coast of Africa and it was as beautiful a morning as you could wish to see.

"Doctor,🐁" panted the gull,😜 "the Cape Stephen Light is out. I don't know what's the matter. It has never gone out before. We use it as a land-mark,🌿 you know,🚞 when we are flying after dark. The night's as black as ink. I'm afraid some ship will surely run into the cape. I thought I'd come and tell you."