By the following morning everything was in readiness to put to sea. The anchor was drawn up and with all sail set the Doctor's ship moved northward before a favorable wind. And it is from this point that my story begins.

At the head of the kitchen steps he met the seagull coming into the lighthouse with two companions.

"Soon after,◼ the enemy's army closed about the castle and tried to storm it. Then for many weeks they remained there,🍕 knowing that sooner or later the king and the people in the castle would run short of food and have to give in.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.

"Thousands of swallows built their nests in her rigging"

The white mouse paused a moment in his story,💰 as though overcome with emotion. Presently he went on:There was terrible confusion. And until the moon had risen people were hitting and falling over one another everywhere in the darkness,👳 not knowing friend from enemy.

"'Fine!' says the old rat. 'Now run around the shed a few times,👞 so you won't take a chill. And then go to bed and cover up. In the morning when it's light you'll find yourself very different.'

CHAPTER IV"Very good,🍎 Doctor,🅿" said the swallow,🔋 turning to go. "I'll tell the Skimmer what you say."

For some time after the turtle finished no one spoke. Even the irreverent Cheapside was silent. Little bits of stars,🐖 dimmed by the light of a half-full moon,📔 twinkled like tiny eyes in the dim blue dome that arched across the lake. Away off somewhere among the tangled mangroves an owl hooted from the swamp and Too-Too turned his head quickly to listen. Dab-Dab,😻 the economical housekeeper,🍵 seeing the Doctor close his notebook and put away his pencil,✒ blew out the candle.

THE DOCTOR'S RELEASE

THE GREAT MAIL ROBBERY

"Mudface."

And this was how the first letter was sent off by the Swallow Mail: King Koko himself came one morning and,😍 putting his large face in at the information window,🔫 asked:The black men were at once freed from their chains and brought on to the man-o'-war. Then the slave ship was taken in tow by the Violet. And that was the end of Mr. Bones's slave trading.

"This beautiful land could also have been called the 'Animals' Paradise,👷'" he murmured. "Long may they enjoy it to themselves! May this,🐌 indeed,🚋 be No-Man's-Land forever!"

But wherever money is made in large quantities and business is good,💰 there strangers will always come,📩 seeking their fortune. And before long the little village that used to be so poor and insignificant was full of traders from the neighboring kingdoms,〽 buying and selling in the crowded,📯 busy markets. And,☕ of course,🐇 questions were soon asked as to how this country had suddenly got so rich. And,😅 although the Chief had carried out the Doctor's orders and had only intrusted the secret of the fisheries to a few picked men,📅 folks began to notice that canoes frequently came and went between the Harmattan Rocks and the village of Chief Nyam-Nyam.

The Doctor did not expect an answer to it right away because the Cats'-Meat-Man's wife was a very slow reader and a still slower writer. And anyhow,👺 Cheapside could not be expected to visit Puddleby for another week yet. He always stayed in London until after the Easter Bank Holiday. His wife refused to let him leave for the country till the spring family had been taught by their father how to find the houses where people threw out crumbs; how to pick up oats from under the cab horses' nose bags without being stamped on by the horses' hoofs; how to get about in the trafficky streets of London and a whole lot of other things that young city birds have to know.

"John Dolittle."

Then the Doctor asked Speedy to send off messages through the birds to every corner of the earth. And to ask all the leaders of seagulls,🔨 tomtits,🍭 magpies,😝 thrushes,🔌 stormy petrels,🍅 finches,♋ penguins,🌸 vultures,🎌 snow buntings,🐂 wild geese and the rest to come to No-Man's-Land,📊 because John Dolittle wanted to speak to them.

"Oh,😓 hulloa,💨 Speedy,🍳" said the Doctor. "Glad to see you. Did you want me for something?"