A MOST UNUSUAL POST OFFICE
"'What's that for?' I asked.
A MYSTERIOUS LETTER
THE ANIMALS' MAGAZINE
Then the Skimmer,加时🎱 with one of his claws,多久📔 began tracing out some letters on the Doctor's palm. Before he had got very far John Dolittle sprang up,加时📱 nearly overturning the canoe.
When it was possible to see,中场🌉 however,中场💎 the Doctor found that most of Chief Nyam-Nyam's people had fled off into the jungle; and the Amazons,足球😀 in thousands,多久🎅 were just going through the village,休息© taking anything they fancied. The Doctor tried to argue with them,多久🍞 but they merely laughed at him.
"On the outskirts of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh there lives a farmer who swears to this day that his cat can understand every word he says. It isn't true,休息🔉 but both the farmer and his wife think it is. And I am now going to tell you how they came to get that idea.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.
"Yes."
The Doctor threw a tomato skin out of the canoe and the gull caught it neatly in the air before it touched the water.
Fastening up his own canoe,多久📷 he went into the post office. And inside there was quite a crowd. He made his way through it with Dab-Dab and in the registered mail booth he found all the animals gathered around a small black squirrel. The little creature's legs were tied with post office red tape and he seemed very frightened and miserable. Speedy and Cheapside were mounting guard over him,多久🚎 one on each side.
The birds,中场🚚 who at first followed the Doctor in droves around the main island wherever he went,多久🉐 presently returned to their ordinary doings when the newness of his arrival had worn off. And after Dab-Dab had come back from her hunt and told him the spoonbill lived on one of the smaller islands,足球🚒 he got back into his canoe and paddled over to the rock she pointed out.One day Speedy was sitting on top of the weighing scales while the Doctor was sorting a large pile of outgoing letters. Suddenly the Skimmer cried out:
Then when the excitement had died down and the villagers had gone peacefully to their homes,休息🍌 the Doctor told the old Chief of the wealth that lay waiting for him in the oysters of the Harmattan Rocks. And the cormorant agreed to oblige John Dolittle by getting a number of his relatives to do pearl fishing for these people,足球🎐 who were so badly in need of money and food.
Then the Captain,休息😃 who a moment before was all for punishing the man who had fired without orders,中场🚎 wanted to know who it was that aimed that marvelous shot which brought the slaver to a standstill. And the Doctor was going to tell him it was Speedy. But the Skimmer whispered in his ear:
Suddenly an officer shouted "Fire!" And with a crash that shook the ship from stem to stern eight big cannon balls went whistling out across the water.
"More food!" murmured Too-Too. "What did I tell you?"
"'What's that for?' I asked.
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 don't know what I'll say to him. I'll see when I get there,足球✂" said John Dolittle. "But we must be very careful how we approach,足球🎐 so that he doesn't see us coming. If he should pull up his anchor and sail away we would never be able to overtake him by canoe."
"How very interesting!" said the Doctor. "Naturalists have thought your kind of animals are no longer living,休息🚟 you know. You are Quiffenodochi,多久ℹ are you not?"
"The Doctor lit the candle"
"How does the garden look,中场💋 Cheapside?" asked the Doctor.CHAPTER I
"Ah,中场🌟" said the gull,休息🔏 "for land weather I wouldn't be much help to you. But when it comes to the oceans,多久🚱 I know a bird who can tell you more about sea weather than any bureau ever knew."