摩尔庄园之海妖的宝藏中的各种海妖
2023-03-24 02:09:20 作者：
"His only interest in life is food,摩尔🆑 anyway,庄园🔬" said Too-Too. "Let someone else tell a story."
"A retriever came up with a gold watch and chain"
On the coast of West Africa,摩尔😑 about twenty miles to the northward of Fantippo,摩尔🔣 there was a cape running out into the sea which had a lighthouse on it called the Cape Stephen Light. This light was kept carefully burning by the government who controlled that part of Africa,宝藏🍊 in order that ships should see it from the sea and know where they were. It was a dangerous part of the coast,宝藏💚 this. There were many rocks and shallows near the end of Cape Stephen. And if the light were ever allowed to go out at night,庄园🚋 of course,庄园🍪 ships traveling that part of the sea would be in great danger of running into the long cape and wrecking themselves.
"We married her off,摩尔🚑" said the great creature,摩尔🚬 nibbling idly at a lily stalk. "We couldn't stand her here,庄园📼 any more than the King could. You never heard anybody talk so in all your life. Yes,庄园📌 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,宝藏👂 who ruled over a small country south of the Congo River. He married her. Of course,庄园㊙ being deaf,各种📙 he didn't mind her everlasting chatter in the least."
"It's from a spoonbill,摩尔💼" said Dab-Dab. "I know their writing. They are a sort of a cross between a curlew and a snipe. They like messing around lonely seacoast places,摩尔🌜 hunting for shellfish and sea worms and stuff like that."
"'That's for you to climb out by,摩尔🔐 after you've taken a bath. For you to go abroad in Summer with a coat like yours would mean certain death. So I'm going to dye you black.'
"A speaking tube!" the white mouse interrupted. "How was it used? I don't understand."
"Now,宝藏🏩 it happened that the queen had noticed the baby pig within the castle grounds and,摩尔⚡ being a princess of Irish blood,宝藏💒 she took a great fancy to him and had a piece of green ribbon tied about his neck and made a regular pet of him,庄园🏠 much to the disgust of her husband,摩尔🔨 the king.
"We know,摩尔😈 before we reach one,各种🐅 where it is. And we go around it. No experienced sea bird ever runs his head into a bad storm."
But just at that moment the order came from the Captain,庄园🌰 "Cease firing!" And the men left their places.
"'Where have you been?'"
"Gosh,庄园📌 how lovely!" murmured Gub-Gub.
Somewhat puzzled,各种🌲 the Doctor first read the letter,各种📊 while Dab-Dab,各种🏭 who was still badgering him about taking a holiday,摩尔😔 looked over his shoulder. The letter said:
Toward evening the Doctor arrived at a small settlement of straw huts,摩尔🐆 the village of Chief Nyam-Nyam. Calling on the Chief with an introduction from King Koko,宝藏👴 the Doctor was well received. He found,各种🚈 however,摩尔👸 that the country over which this chief ruled was indeed in a very poor state. For years powerful neighbors on either side had made war on the old Chief and robbed him of his best farming lands,庄园🐰 till now his people were crowded onto a narrow strip of rocky shore where very little food could be grown. The Doctor was particularly distressed by the thinness of the few chickens pecking about in the streets. They reminded him of old broken-down cab-horses,摩尔🌝 he said.
After he had told this story the old man turned away and busied himself with his canoe,摩尔🛄 as though he were afraid that the Doctor might again ask him to paddle him to the island.
The Doctor told his pet he could be very proud of himself. For he was surely the only mouse in the world that ever won a war.
"The old rat laughed a cracked and quavering laugh,各种🔔 with no joy in it at all.
The great water snake began by taking the Doctor's party down the coast south for some forty or fifty miles. There they left the sea,摩尔🐁 entered the mouth of a river and started to journey inland. The canoe (with the snake swimming alongside it) was quite the best thing for this kind of travel so long as the river had water in it. But presently,庄园🔞 as they went up it,摩尔🌇 the stream grew narrower and narrower. Till at last,庄园🐈 like many rivers in tropical countries,摩尔🍁 it was nothing more than the dry bed of a brook,宝藏🚜 or a chain of small pools with long sand bars between.
"And we've got the pearls,庄园😻 too,各种💏" cried Too-Too. "They're in the stamp drawer and Jip is guarding them."
One day when King Koko's pet white peacock came to the Doctor and complained that the Cockney sparrow had made faces at him over the palace wall the Doctor became quite angry and read the City Manager a long lecture.
"That's a sign we're near open water,宝藏🚕" said Dab-Dab.
CHAPTER II
"When Noah's family first came out of the Ark,摩尔😛" said the turtle,各种🍇 "they slept in little beds which they strung up between the stumps of the drowned trees."
"It changed my appearance completely. Moving through the long grass,宝藏❔ I looked like some ordinary kind of deer. So,宝藏🚤 disguised in this manner,庄园🌠 I sauntered out into an open meadow and grazed around till my precious Badamoshis should appear. Which they very shortly did.
She told him it was half an hour ago. Without her husband,摩尔🌌 she said,各种💰 life meant nothing to her,摩尔🌰 and when the ship had passed from view,宝藏🌆 going northward along the coast,宝藏🆖 she had burst into tears and just let the canoe drift,各种🌕 not even having the heart to paddle back to land.
Outside the post office he had a notice board set up on which were posted the Outgoing and Incoming Mails. The notices would read something like this:
"No,宝藏🌔 Speedy,摩尔🌱" said the Doctor. "See,宝藏🌼 you have an ounce weight on the pan as well as yourself. That makes you only three and a half ounces."
