And it isn't really necessary, you know--Where DID I put
those sausages?"

The Doctor was feeling about inside the bag. First he brought out a loaf
of new bread. Next came a glass jar with a curious metal top to it. He
held this up to the light very carefully before he set it down upon the
table; and I could see that there was some strange little water-creature
swimming about inside. At last the Doctor brought out a pound of
sausages.

"Now," he said, "all we want is a frying-pan."

We went into the scullery and there we found some pots and pans hanging
against the wall. The Doctor took down the frying-pan. It was quite
rusty on the inside.

"Dear me, just look at that!" said he. "That's the worst of being away
so long. The animals are very good and keep the house wonderfully clean
as far as they can. Dab-Dab is a perfect marvel as a housekeeper. But
some things of course they can't manage. Never mind, we'll soon clean it
up. You'll find some silver-sand down there, under the sink, Stubbins.
Just hand it up to me, will you?"

In a few moments we had the pan all shiny and bright and the sausages
were put over the kitchen-fire and a beautiful frying smell went all
through the house.

While the Doctor was busy at the cooking I went and took another look at
the funny little creature swimming about in the glass jar.

"What is this animal?" I asked.

"Oh that," said the Doctor, turning round--"that's a Wiff-Waff. Its
full name is hippocampus Pippitopitus. But the natives just call it a
Wiff-Waff--on account of the way it waves its tail, swimming, I imagine.
That's what I went on this last voyage for, to get that. You see I'm
very busy just now trying to learn the language of the shellfish. They
HAVE languages, of that I feel sure. I can talk a little shark language
and porpoise dialect myself. But what I particularly want to learn now
is shellfish."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, you see, some of the shellfish are the oldest kind of animals in
the world that we know of. We find their shells in the rocks--turned to
stone--thousands of years old. So I feel quite sure that if I could only
get to talk their language, I should be able to learn a whole lot about
what the world was like ages and ages and ages ago. You see?"

"But couldn't some of the other animals tell you as well?"

"I don't think so," said the Doctor, prodding the sausages with a
fork. "To be sure, the monkeys I knew in Africa some time ago were
very he