Then the animals packed up; and after they had turned off the water so
the pipes wouldn't freeze, and put up the shutters, they closed the
house and gave the key to the old horse who lived in the stable. And
when they had seen that there was plenty of hay in the loft to last the
horse through the Winter, they carried all their luggage down to the
seashore and got on to the boat.

The Cat's-meat-Man was there to see them off; and he brought a large
suet-pudding as a present for the Doctor because, he said he had been
told, you couldn't get suet-puddings in foreign parts.

As soon as they were on the ship, Gub-Gub, the pig, asked where the
beds were, for it was four o'clock in the afternoon and he wanted his
nap. So Polynesia took him downstairs into the inside of the ship and
showed him the beds, set all on top of one another like book-shelves
against a wall.

"Why, that isn't a bed!" cried Gub-Gub. "That's a shelf!"

"Beds are always like that on ships," said the parrot. "It isn't a
shelf. Climb up into it and go to sleep. That's what you call 'a
bunk.'"

"I don't think I'll go to bed yet," said Gub-Gub. "I'm too excited. I
want to go upstairs again and see them start."

"Well, this is your first trip," said Polynesia. "You will get used to
the life after a while." And she went back up the stairs of the ship,
humming this song to herself,

I've seen the Black Sea and the Red Sea;
I rounded the Isle of Wight;
I discovered the Yellow River,
And the Orange too by night.
Now Greenland drops behind again,
And I sail the ocean Blue.
I'm tired of all these colors, Jane,
So I'm coming back to you.

They were just going to start on their journey, when the Doctor said he
would have to go back and ask the sailor the way to Africa.

But the swallow said she had been to that country many times and would
show them how to get there.

So the Doctor told Chee-Chee to pull up the anchor and the voyage began.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER

THE GREAT JOURNEY

NOW for six whole weeks they went sailing on and on, over the rolling
sea, following the swallow who flew before the ship to show them the
way. At night she carried a tiny lantern, so they should not miss her
in the dark; and the people on the other ships that passed said that
the light must be a shooting star.

As they sailed further and further into the South, it got warmer and
warmer. Polynesia, Chee-Chee and the crocodil