THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER THE RATS’ WARNING

 D

RAGGING a ship through the sea is hard work. And after two or three hours the swallows began to get tired in the wings and short of breath. Then they sent a message down to the Doctor to say that they would have to take a rest soon; and that they would pull the boat over to an island not far off, and hide it in a deep bay till they had got breath enough to go on.

 

And presently the Doctor saw the island they had spoken of. It had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it.

 

When the ship had sailed safely into the bay where it could not be seen from the open sea, the Doctor said he would get off on to the island to look for water—because there was none left[118] to drink on his ship. And he told all the animals to get out too and romp¹ on the grass to stretch their legs.

 

Now as they were getting off, the Doctor noticed that a whole lot of rats were coming up from downstairs and leaving the ship as well. Jip started to run after them, because chasing rats had always been his favorite game. But the Doctor told him to stop.

 

And one big black rat, who seemed to want to say something to the Doctor, now crept forward timidly² along the rail, watching the dog out of the corner of his eye. And after he had coughed nervously³ two or three times, and cleaned his whiskers and wiped his mouth, he said,

 

“Ahem—er—you know of course that all ships have rats in them, Doctor, do you not?”

 

And the Doctor said, “Yes.”

 

“And you have heard that rats always leave a sinking ship?”

 

“Yes,” said the Doctor—“so I’ve been told.”

 

“People,” said the rat, “always speak of it with a sneer—as though it were something disgraceful.[119] But you can’t blame us, can you? After all, who would stay on a sinking ship, if he could get off it?”

 

rats talking to doctor

“‘And you have heard that rats always leave a sinking ship?’”

“It’s very natural,” said the Doctor—“very natural. I quite understand.... Was there—Was there anything else you wished to say?”

 

[120]

 

“Yes,” said the rat. “I’ve come to tell you that we are leaving this one. But we wanted to warn you before we go. This is a bad ship you have here. It isn’t safe. The sides aren’t strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Before to-morrow night it will sink to the bottom of the sea.”

 

“But how do you know?” asked the Doctor.

 

“We always know,” answered the rat. “The tips of our tails get that tingly feeling—like when your foot’s asleep. This morning, at six o’clock, while I was getting breakfast, my tail suddenly began to tingle⁴. At first I thought it was my rheumatism⁵ coming back. So I went and asked my aunt how she felt—you remember her?—the long, piebald rat, rather skinny, who came to see you in Puddleby last Spring with jaundice? Well—and she said her tail was tingling⁶ like everything! Then we knew, for sure, that this boat was going to sink in less than two days; and we all made up our minds to leave it as soon as we got near enough to any land. It’s a bad ship, Doctor. Don’t sail in it any more, or you’ll be surely drowned....[121] Good-by! We are now going to look for a good place to live on this island.”

 

“Good-by!” said the Doctor. “And thank you very much for coming to tell me. Very considerate of you—very! Give my regards to your aunt. I remember her perfectly⁷.... Leave that rat alone, Jip! Come here! Lie down!”

 

So then the Doctor and all his animals went off, carrying pails and saucepans, to look for water on the island, while the swallows took their rest.

 

“I wonder what is the name of this island,” said the Doctor, as he was climbing up the mountainside. “It seems a pleasant place. What a lot of birds there are!”

 

“Why, these are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”

 

The Doctor stopped and listened.

 

“Why, to be sure—of course!” he said. “How stupid of me! I wonder if they can tell us where to find water.”

 

And presently the canaries, who had heard all[122] about Doctor Dolittle from birds of passage, came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, clear water where the canaries used to take their bath; and they showed him lovely meadows⁸ where the bird-seed grew and all the other sights of their island.

 

And the pushmi-pullyu was glad they had come; because he liked the green grass so much better than the dried apples he had been eating on the ship. And Gub-Gub squeaked⁹ for joy when he found a whole valley full of wild sugar-cane.

 

A little later, when they had all had plenty to eat and drink, and were lying on their backs while the canaries sang for them, two of the swallows came hurrying up, very flustered¹⁰ and excited.

 

“Doctor!” they cried, “the pirates¹¹ have come into the bay; and they’ve all got on to your ship. They are downstairs looking for things to steal. They have left their own ship with nobody on it. If you hurry and come down to the shore, you can get on to their ship—which is very fast—and escape. But you’ll have to hurry.”

 

[123]

 

“That’s a good idea,” said the Doctor—“splendid!”

 

And he called his animals together at once, said Good-by to the canaries and ran down to the beach.

 

When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails, standing¹² in the water; and—just as the swallows had said—there was nobody on it; all the pirates were downstairs in the Doctor’s ship, looking for things to steal.

 

So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all crept on to the pirate-ship.

1 romp   

n.欢闹；v.嬉闹玩笑

参考例句：

• The child went for a romp in the forest.那个孩子去森林快活一把。
• Dogs and little children romped happily in the garden.狗和小孩子们在花园里嬉戏。

2 timidly   

adv.胆小地，羞怯地

参考例句：

• She knocked timidly on the study door and entered. 她小心翼翼地敲了敲书房门然后进去了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The child glanced at his angry father timidly. 孩子怯生生地瞟了一眼怒气冲冲的父亲。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

4 tingle   

vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动

参考例句：

• The music made my blood tingle.那音乐使我热血沸腾。
• The cold caused a tingle in my fingers.严寒使我的手指有刺痛感。

5 rheumatism   

n.风湿病

参考例句：

• The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism.潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。

6 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

8 meadows   

草地，牧场， （河边的）低洼地( meadow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The trail wends its way through leafy woodland and sunny meadows. 这条小径穿过葱郁的林区和洒满阳光的草地。
• They have railed the meadows off from the new railway cutting. 他们已用栏杆把草地和新铁道的路堑隔离开来。

9 squeaked   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The radio squeaked five. 收音机里嘟嘟地发出五点钟报时讯号。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Amy's shoes squeaked on the tiles as she walked down the corridor. 埃米走过走廊时，鞋子踩在地砖上嘎吱作响。 来自辞典例句

10 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

11 pirates   

n.海盗( pirate的名词复数 )；剽窃者；侵犯版权者；非法播音的人（或组织）

参考例句：

• Children dressed (themselves) up as pirates. 孩子们假扮成海盗。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The pirates treated their captives with barbarity. 海盗们残暴地对待他们的俘虏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。