"There you are, Doctor," said Dab-Dab. "The trick's done. Now you can get all the pearls you want."
"But these oyster beds don't belong to me," said John Dolittle.
"Oh, dear!" sighed the duck. "Did anyone ever see a man who could find so many objections to getting rich? Who do they belong to, then?"
"To Chief Nyam-Nyam and his people, of course. He owns the Harmattan Rocks. Would you mind," the Doctor asked, turning to the cormorant, "getting me a few oysters of this kind to look at?"
"With the greatest of pleasure," said the cormorant.
And he flew out over the oyster beds and shot down into the sea like a stone. In a minute he was back again with three oysters—two in his feet and one in his mouth. The animals gathered around with bated breath while the Doctor opened them. In the first was a small gray pearl; in the second a middle-sized pink pearl, and in the third two enormous black ones.
"Gosh, how lovely!" murmured Gub-Gub.
"Pearls before swine," giggled the white mouse. "Tee, hee!"
"How uneducated you are!" snorted the pig, turning up his snout. "Ladies before gentlemen; swine before pearls!"