mewhere along its bank. Then he thought, "If the river flows into
the ocean, I ought to be able to find it quite easily if I just walk
along the beach far enough." So my father walked until the sun rose
and he was quite far from the Ocean Rocks. It was dangerous to stay
near them because they might be guarded in the daytime. He found a
clump of tall grass and sat down. Then he took off his rubber boots
and ate three more tangerines. He could have eaten twelve but he
hadn't seen any tangerines on this island and he could not risk
running out of something to eat.

My father slept all that day and only woke up late in the afternoon
when he heard a funny little voice saying, "Queer, queer, what a dear
little dock! I mean, dear, dear, what a queer little rock!" My father
saw a tiny paw rubbing itself on his knapsack. He lay very still and
the mouse, for it _was_ a mouse, hurried away muttering to itself, "I
must smell tumduddy. I mean, I must tell somebody."

[Illustration]

My father waited a few minutes and then started down the beach because
it was almost dark now, and he was afraid the mouse really would tell
somebody. He walked all night and two scary things happened. First, he
just had to sneeze, so he did, and somebody close by said, "Is that
you, Monkey?" My father said, "Yes." Then the voice said, "You must
have something on your back, Monkey," and my father said "Yes,"
because he did. He had his knapsack on his back. "What do you have on
your back, Monkey?" asked the voice.

My father didn't know what to say because what would a monkey have on
its back, and how would it sound telling someone about it if it did
have something? Just then another voice said, "I bet you're taking
your sick grandmother to the doctor's." My father said "Yes" and
hurried on. Quite by accident he found out later that he had been
talking to a pair of tortoises.

[Illustration]

The second thing that happened was that he nearly walked right between
two wild boars who were talking in low solemn whispers. When he
first saw the dark shapes he thought they were boulders. Just in time
he heard one of them say, "There are three signs of a recent invasion.
First, fresh tangerine peels were found under the wahoo bush near the
Ocean Rocks. Second, a mouse reported an extraordinary rock some
distance from the Ocean Rocks which upon further investigation simply
wasn't there. However, more fresh tangerine peels were found in the
same spot, which