[CHAPTER VI]
WEATHER BUREAUS
When the lunch was over the Doctor took an armchair beside the kitchen stove and lit his pipe. "I am thinking," he said to the gull, "of starting a new department in my post office. Many of the birds who have helped me in this mail business seem to be remarkably good weather prophets. And what you have just told me about your knowledge of the sea and storms has given me the idea of opening a weather bureau."
"The Doctor took an armchair beside the kitchen stove"
"What's that?" asked Jip, who was brushing up the table crumbs, to be put out later for the birds on the houseboat deck.
"A weather bureau," said the Doctor, "is a very important thing—especially for shipping and farmers. It is an office for telling you what kind of weather you're going to have."