Well, at length my father gave in; and it was agreed that I was to live with the Doctor and work for him for two years in exchange for learning to read and write and for my board and lodging.

“Of course,” added the Doctor, “while I have money I will keep Tommy in clothes as well.  But money is a very irregular thing with me; sometimes I have some, and then sometimes I haven’t.”

“You are very good, Doctor,” said my mother, drying her tears.  “It seems to me that Tommy is a very fortunate boy.”

And then, thoughtless, selfish little imp that I was, I leaned over and whispered in the Doctor’s ear,

“Please don’t forget to say something about the voyages.”

“Oh, by the way,” said John Dolittle, “of course occasionally my work requires me to travel.  You will have no objection, I take it, to your son’s coming with me?”

My poor mother looked up sharply, more unhappy and anxious than ever at this new turn; while I stood behind the Doctor’s chair, my heart thumping with excitement, waiting for my father’s answer.

“No,” he said slowly after a while.  “If we agree to the other arrangement I don’t see that we’ve the right to make any objection to that.”

Well, there surely was never a happier boy in the world than I was at that moment.  My head was in the clouds.  I trod on air.  I could scarcely keep from dancing round the parlor.  At last the dream of my life was to come true!  At last I was to be given a chance to seek my fortune, to have adventures!  For I knew perfectly well that it was now almost time for the Doctor to start upon another voyage.  Polynesia had told me that he hardly ever stayed at home for more than six months at a stretch.  Therefore he would be surely going again within a fortnight.  And I—­I, Tommy Stubbins, would go with him!  Just to think of it!—­ to cross the Sea, to walk on foreign shores, to roam the World!

PART TWO

THE FIRST CHAPTER

The crew of “The Curlew”

From that time on of course my position in the town was very different.  I was no longer a poor cobbler’s son.  I carried my nose in the air as I went down the High Street with Jip in his gold collar at my side; and snobbish little boys who had despised me before because I was not rich enough to go to school now pointed me out to their friends and whispered, “You see him?  He’s a doctor’s assistant—­and only ten years old!”

But their eyes would have opened still wider with wonder if they had but known that I and the dog that was with me could talk to one another.

Two days after the Doctor had been to our house to dinner he told me very sadly that he was afraid that he would have to give up trying to learn the language of the shellfish—­ at all events for the present.

“I’m very discouraged, Stubbins, very.  I’ve tried the mussels and the clams, the oysters and the whelks, cockles and scallops; seven different kinds of crabs and all the lobster family.  I think I’ll leave it for the present and go at it again later on.”