"Gub-Gub dives for pearls"
And he handed the keeper a large cup of steaming coffee.
CHAPTER II
And soon the No-Man's-Land Weather Bureau began to get known abroad. The farmers in England,钢铁🐠 who had received such good weather reports by letter from the Doctor,资源🚹 went up to London and told the government that their own reports were no good,百度🔭 that a certain John Dolittle,钢铁🏣 M.D.,苍穹🙌 was writing them much better reports from some place in Africa.Cheapside was dreadfully afraid that Mudface would get up to make a speech in reply and that it would last into the following day. But to the sparrow's relief the Doctor,苍穹➕ immediately he had finished,1080p🍂 set about preparations for his departure.
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,钢铁☔ the famous animal doctor,苍穹📢 wished to see all the leaders of all kinds of birds,百度👽 great and small.
"Get me some more clean water from the kitchen,1080p◽" said the Doctor,1080p🐢 who was bathing a large lump on the side of the man's head.
"If you don't make the birds work for me I'll give orders that you get no food,1080p🐢" said the Emir. "You shall be starved to death."
"Oh,1080p🔪 surely,钢铁👄" said the Doctor. "He discovered America in 1492."John Dolittle had no idea of what he meant to do. Nor was the gull himself sure that he would be in time to succeed with the plan he had in mind. But presently,苍穹⛳ to his delight,苍穹🐫 the seabird heard his call being answered from the rocky shores shrouded in darkness. And soon he had hundreds of his brother gulls circling round him in the night.
"We married her off,钢铁📭" said the great creature,百度🆎 nibbling idly at a lily stalk. "We couldn't stand her here,百度🏰 any more than the King could. You never heard anybody talk so in all your life. Yes,1080p🌹 we carried her one dark night by sea far down the coast of Africa and left her at the palace door of a deaf king,钢铁📦 who ruled over a small country south of the Congo River. He married her. Of course,钢铁👟 being deaf,百度♎ he didn't mind her everlasting chatter in the least."
"Who's turn is it to give us a story now?" asked the Doctor,1080p🍃 when the supper things were cleared away the following evening.
The lighthouse keepers were sorry to have the Doctor go and they wouldn't let him leave till he promised to come and take dinner with them next Sunday.
On arriving back at the houseboat from his short and very busy holiday the Doctor was greeted joyfully by the pushmi-pullyu,苍穹🚚 Too-Too,资源🚊 Cheapside and Speedy the Skimmer. King Koko also came out to greet his friend when he saw the arrival of the Doctor's canoe through a pair of opera glasses (price ten shillings and sixpence) which he had recently got from London by parcel post. And the prominent Fantippans,资源❇ who had missed their afternoon tea and social gossip terribly during the Postmaster's absence,百度♋ got into their canoes and followed the King out to the Foreign Mails Office.
She was only just in time. For the Emir's six special men were about to land on the islands to get a second load of pearls. Dab-Dab and the cormorants swiftly threw back into the sea the oysters that had been fished up and when the Emir's men arrived they found nothing.So the Doctor's boat was now turned into a nesting ship for the swallows. Calmly she stood at anchor in the quiet waters of Fantippo harbor,资源🚄 while thousands and thousands of swallows built their nests in her rigging,苍穹💅 in her ventilators,资源🍄 in her portholes and in every crack and corner of her.
One morning in the first week of the return voyage when John Dolittle and his animals were all sitting at breakfast round the big table in the cabin,钢铁🔷 one of the swallows came down and said that he wanted to speak to the Doctor.
"But this lady was in distress,苍穹🍐" said the Doctor. "I was in such a hurry I forgot all about lighting the ship. In fact,钢铁🅾 it wasn't dark yet when I left."
"Now,百度💨 when we children grew up big enough to go off for ourselves our parents gave us all sorts of careful instructions about escaping cats and ferrets and weasels and dogs. But over poor me they shook their heads. They really felt that there was not much hope of my leading a peaceful life with white fur that could be seen a mile off.And he sent letters to various fellow naturalists whom he knew in different countries and gave them a whole lot of information about the yearly flights or migration of birds. Because,百度🏥 of course,1080p🎓 in the bird mail business he learned a great deal on that subject that had never been known to naturalists before.
This made the kingdom of Fantippo much richer and more important than it had been before,资源📙 of course. And a large grant of money was given by the King to the Foreign Mails post office,百度🔎 which was used by the Doctor in making the houseboat better and bigger.
"All right,1080p💸" said the King. "Here's a letter to a friend of mine who runs a shoe-shine parlor in Alabama. Let me see how quickly you can get me an answer to it."
"So,1080p🎳 after that,资源💋 of course,1080p🚆 I saw that if I wanted to save my good but foolish friends from destruction,钢铁🍃 I had better do something on my own account.
"If this is an army of women,1080p😧 Doctor,百度🐘 I think I know of a way to deal with them. Women are terribly afraid of mice,钢铁㊙ you know. I'll just go off and collect a few in the village and see what we can do."Then the Emir himself began to get panicky. And he gave orders that the Doctor should be released right away.
It was about five o'clock in the evening when they came to the end of the little islands and mud banks. And as the canoe's nose glided easily forward into entirely open water they suddenly found themselves looking across a great inland sea.