Mudface was tremendously pleased with it; climbing laboriously1 to the central plateau—from where you could see great distances over the flat country around—he said he was sure his health would quickly improve in this drier air.
Dab-Dab prepared a meal—the best she could in the circumstances—to celebrate what she called the turtle's house-warming. And everyone sat down to it; and there was much gayety and the Doctor was asked to make a speech in honor of the occasion.
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, immediately he had finished, set about preparations for his departure.
He made up the six bottles of gout mixture and presented them to Mudface with instructions in how it should be taken. He told him that although he was closing up the post office for regular service it would always be possible to get word to Puddleby. He would ask several birds of passage to stop here occasionally; and if the gout got any worse he wanted Mudface to let him know by letter.
The old turtle thanked him over and over again and the parting was a very affecting one. When at last the goodbyes were all said, they got into the canoe and set out on the return journey.
Reaching the mouth of the river at the southern end of the lake they paused a moment before entering the mangrove2 swamps and looked back. And there in the distance they could just see the shape of the old turtle standing3 on his new island, watching them. They waved to him and pushed on.
"He looks just the same as we saw him the night we arrived," said Dab-Dab—"you remember? Like a statue on a pedestal against the sky."
"Poor old fellow!" murmured the Doctor. "I do hope he will be all right now.... What a Wonderful life!—What a wonderful history!"
"Didn't I tell you, Doctor," said Cheapside, "that it was going to be the longest story in the world?—Took a day and half a night to tell."
"Ah, but it's a story that nobody else could tell," said John Dolittle.
"Good thing too," muttered the Sparrow. "It would never do if there was many of 'is kind spread around this busy world.—Of course, meself, I don't believe a word of the yarn4. I think he made it all up. 'E 'ad nothin' else to do—sittin' there in the mud, century after century, cogitatin'."
The journey down through the jungle was completed without anything special happening. But when they reached the sea and turned the bow of the canoe westward5 they came upon a very remarkable6 thing. It was an enormous hole in the beach—or rather a place where the beach had been taken away bodily. Speedy told the Doctor that it was here that the birds had picked up the stones and sand on their way to Junganyika. They had literally7 carried acres of the seashore nearly a thousand miles inland. Of course in a few months the action of the surf filled in the hole, so that the place looked like the rest of the beach.
But that is why, when many years later some learned geologists8 visited Lake Junganyika, they said that the seashore gravel9 on an island there was a clear proof that the sea had once flowed through that neighborhood. Which was true—in the days of the Flood. But the Doctor was the only scientist who knew that Mudface's island, and the stones that made it, had quite a different history.
On his arrival at the post office the Doctor was given his usual warm reception by the king and dignitaries of Fantippo who paddled out from the town to welcome him back.
Tea was served at once; and His Majesty10 seemed so delighted at renewing this pleasant custom that John Dolittle was loath11 to break the news to him that he must shortly resign from the Foreign Mail Service and sail for England. However, while they were chatting on the veranda13 of the houseboat a fleet of quite large sailing vessels14 entered the harbor. These were some of the new merchant craft of Fantippo which plied15 regularly up and down the coast, trading with other African countries. The Doctor pointed16 out to the king that mails intended for foreign lands could now be quite easily taken by these boats to the bigger ports on the coast where vessels from Europe called every week.
From that the Doctor went on to explain to the King, that much as he loved Fantippo and its people, he had many things to attend to in England and must now be thinking of going home. And of course as none of the natives could talk bird-language, the Swallow Mail would have to be replaced by the ordinary kind of post office.
The Doctor found that His Majesty was much more distressed17 at the prospect18 of losing his good white friend and his afternoon tea on the houseboat than at anything else which the change would bring. But he saw that the Doctor really felt he had to go; and at length, with tears falling into his tea-cup, he gave permission for the Postmaster General of Fantippo to resign.
Great was the rejoicing among the Doctor's pets and the patient swallows when the news got about that John Dolittle was really going home at last. Gub-Gub and Jip could hardly wait while the last duties and ceremonies of closing the houseboat to the public and transferring the Foreign Mails Service to the office in the town were performed. Dab-Dab bustled19 cheerfully from morning to night while Cheapside never ceased to chatter20 of the glories of London, the comforts of a city life and all the things he was going to do as soon as he got back to his beloved native haunts.
There was no end to the complimentary21 ceremonies which the good King Koko and his courtiers performed to honor the departing Doctor. For days and days previous to his sailing, canoes came and went between the town and the houseboat bearing presents to show the good will of the Fantippans. During all this, having to keep smiling the whole time, the Doctor got sadder and sadder at leaving his good friends. And he was heartily22 glad when the hour came to pull up the anchor and put to sea.
People who have written the history of the Kingdom of Fantippo all devote several chapters to a mysterious white man who in a very short space of time made enormous improvements in the mail, the communications, the shipping23, the commerce, the education and the general prosperity of the country. Indeed it was through John Dolittle's quiet influence that King Koko's reign12 came to be looked upon as the Golden Age in Fantippan history. A wooden statue still stands in the market-place to his memory.
The excellent postal24 service continued after he left. The stamps with Koko's face on them were as various and as beautiful as ever. On the occasion of the first annual review of the Fantippo Merchant Fleet a very fine two-shilling stamp was struck in commemoration, showing His Majesty inspecting his new ships through a lollipop25 quizzing-glass. The King himself became a stamp-collector and his album was as good as a family photo-album, containing as it did so many pictures of himself. The only awkward incident that happened in the record of the post office which the Doctor had done so much to improve was when some ardent26 stamp-collectors, wishing to make the modern stamps rare, plotted to have the King assassinated27 in order that the current issues should go out of date. But the plot was happily discovered before any harm was done.
Years afterwards, the birds visiting Puddleby told the Doctor that the King still had the flowers in the window-boxes of his old houseboat carefully tended and watered in his memory. His Majesty, they said, never gave up the fond hope that some day his good white friend would come back to Fantippo with his kindly28 smile, his instructive conversation and his jolly tea-parties on the post office veranda.
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1
laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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2
mangrove
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| n.(植物)红树，红树林 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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6
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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7
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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8
geologists
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| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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11
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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13
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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15
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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19
bustled
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| 闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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21
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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22
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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23
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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24
postal
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| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
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lollipop
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| n.棒棒糖 | |
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26
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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27
assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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28
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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