THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER THE OCEAN GOSSIPS

 R

IGHT away an axe¹ was found. And the Doctor soon chopped a hole in the door big enough to clamber through.

 

At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So he struck a match.

 

The room was quite small; no window; the ceiling, low. For furniture there was only one little stool². All round the room big barrels stood against the walls, fastened at the bottom so they wouldn’t tumble³ with the rolling of the ship; and above the barrels, pewter jugs⁴ of all sizes hung from wooden pegs⁵. There was a strong, winey smell. And in the middle of the floor sat a little boy, about eight years old, crying bitterly.

 

“I declare, it is the pirates⁶’ rum-room!” said Jip in a whisper.

 

[142]

 

“Yes. Very rum!” said Gub-Gub. “The smell makes me giddy.”

 

The little boy seemed rather frightened to find a man standing⁸ there before him and all those animals staring in through the hole in the broken door. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle’s face by the light of the match, he stopped crying and got up.

 

“You aren’t one of the pirates, are you?” he asked.

 

And when the Doctor threw back his head and laughed long and loud, the little boy smiled too and came and took his hand.

 

“You laugh like a friend,” he said—“not like a pirate⁷. Could you tell me where my uncle is?”

 

“I am afraid I can’t,” said the Doctor. “When did you see him last?”

 

“It was the day before yesterday,” said the boy. “I and my uncle were out fishing in our little boat, when the pirates came and caught us. They sunk our fishing-boat and brought us both on to this ship. They told my uncle that they wanted him to be a pirate like them—for[143] he was clever at sailing a ship in all weathers. But he said he didn’t want to be a pirate, because killing⁹ people and stealing was no work for a good fisherman to do. Then the leader, Ben Ali, got very angry and gnashed his teeth, and said they would throw my uncle into the sea if he didn’t do as they said. They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of a fight going on above. And when they let me come up again next day, my uncle was nowhere to be seen. I asked the pirates where he was; but they wouldn’t tell me. I am very much afraid they threw him into the sea and drowned him.”

 

And the little boy began to cry again.

 

“Well now—wait a minute,” said the Doctor. “Don’t cry. Let’s go and have tea in the dining-room, and we’ll talk it over. Maybe your uncle is quite safe all the time. You don’t know that he was drowned, do you? And that’s something. Perhaps we can find him for you. First we’ll go and have tea—with strawberry-jam; and then we will see what can be done.”

 

All the animals had been standing around listening with great curiosity. And when they[144] had gone into the ship’s dining-room and were having tea, Dab-Dab came up behind the Doctor’s chair and whispered.

 

“Ask the porpoises¹⁰ if the boy’s uncle was drowned—they’ll know.”

 

“All right,” said the Doctor, taking a second piece of bread-and-jam.

 

“What are those funny, clicking noises you are making with your tongue?” asked the boy.

 

“Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck-language,” the Doctor answered. “This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets.”

 

“I didn’t even know that ducks had a language,” said the boy. “Are all these other animals your pets, too? What is that strange-looking thing with two heads?”

 

“Sh!” the Doctor whispered. “That is the pushmi-pullyu. Don’t let him see we’re talking about him—he gets so dreadfully embarrassed.... Tell me, how did you come to be locked up in that little room?”

 

“The pirates shut me in there when they were going off to steal things from another ship. When I heard some one chopping on the door,[145] I didn’t know who it could be. I was very glad to find it was you. Do you think you will be able to find my uncle for me?”

 

“Well, we are going to try very hard,” said the Doctor. “Now what was your uncle like to look at?”

 

“He had red hair,” the boy answered—“very red hair, and the picture of an anchor tattooed¹¹ on his arm. He was a strong man, a kind uncle and the best sailor in the South Atlantic. His fishing-boat was called The Saucy¹² Sally—a cutter-rigged sloop¹³.”

 

“What’s ‘cutterigsloop’?” whispered Gub-Gub, turning to Jip.

 

“Sh!—That’s the kind of a ship the man had,” said Jip. “Keep still, can’t you?”

 

“Oh,” said the pig, “is that all? I thought it was something to drink.”

 

So the Doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining-room, and went upstairs to look for passing porpoises.

 

And soon a whole school came dancing and jumping through the water, on their way to Brazil.

 

[146]

 

When they saw the Doctor leaning on the rail of his ship, they came over to see how he was getting on.

 

And the Doctor asked them if they had seen anything of a man with red hair and an anchor tattooed on his arm.

 

“Do you mean the master of The Saucy Sally?” asked the porpoises.

 

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “That’s the man. Has he been drowned?”

 

“His fishing-sloop was sunk,” said the porpoises—“for we saw it lying on the bottom of the sea. But there was nobody inside it, because we went and looked.”

 

“His little nephew is on the ship with me here,” said the Doctor. “And he is terribly afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea. Would you be so good as to find out for me, for sure, whether he has been drowned or not?”

 

“Oh, he isn’t drowned,” said the porpoises. “If he were, we would be sure to have heard of it from the deep-sea Decapods. We hear all the salt-water news. The shell-fish call us ‘The[147] Ocean Gossips¹⁴.’ No—tell the little boy we are sorry we do not know where his uncle is; but we are quite certain he hasn’t been drowned in the sea.”

 

So the Doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew, who clapped his hands with happiness. And the pushmi-pullyu took the little boy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining-room table; while all the other animals followed behind, beating the dish-covers with spoons, pretending it was a parade.

1 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

2 stool   

n.凳子；粪便；根株；v.长出新枝，排便

参考例句：

• The stool is steady enough.这个凳子很稳。
• The boy was straining at stool.那个男孩在用力大便。

3 tumble   

vi.跌倒，摔下，翻滚，暴跌；n.跌(摔)倒

参考例句：

• Children tumble over each other in play.孩子们玩耍时相互连身翻滚。
• He took a tumble down the stairs.他摔下了楼梯。

4 jugs   

（有柄及小口的）水壶( jug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two china jugs held steaming gravy. 两个瓷罐子装着热气腾腾的肉卤。
• Jugs-Big wall lingo for Jumars or any other type of ascenders. 大岩壁术语，祝玛式上升器或其它种类的上升器。

5 pegs   

n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平

参考例句：

• She hung up the shirt with two (clothes) pegs. 她用两只衣夹挂上衬衫。 来自辞典例句
• The vice-presidents were all square pegs in round holes. 各位副总裁也都安排得不得其所。 来自辞典例句

6 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》

7 pirate   

n.海盗，每盗船

参考例句：

• The pirate chief commanded that the prisoners should be shot.海盗头子下令枪毙俘虏。
• The shore batteries fired at the pirate boat.海岸炮兵向海盗船开火。

8 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。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 porpoises   

n.鼠海豚( porpoise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A shoal of porpoises are well on the feed. 一群海豚正在吞食。 来自辞典例句
• In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. 1928年有人把这些海豚象海狸那样把一床浸泡了水的褥垫推上岸时的情景拍摄了下来。 来自辞典例句

11 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 saucy   

adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的

参考例句：

• He was saucy and mischievous when he was working.他工作时总爱调皮捣蛋。
• It was saucy of you to contradict your father.你顶撞父亲，真是无礼。

13 sloop   

n.单桅帆船

参考例句：

• They heeled the sloop well over,skimming it along to windward.他们使单桅小船倾斜适当，让它顶着风向前滑去。
• While a sloop always has two sails,a cat-rigged boat generally has only one.一艘单桅帆船总是有两面帆，但一艘单桅艇通常只有一面帆。

14 gossips   

n.流言( gossip的名词复数 )；闲谈；爱拨弄是非的人；八卦

参考例句：

• She's with me at the house.Let the gossips do their worst. 她跟我待在这间房子里，让人们去说三道四吧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Their gossips abraded her into restlessness. 他们的流言蜚语使她心烦意乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》