"He says I may serve his dinner in the cabin," snickered Roger, popping a biscuit into his mouth and swallowing it whole.
"Well, don't you do it!" roared the Captain, bringing his fist down with an angry thump. "No use to start such nonsense!"
"But he's so thin and feeble. The poor child's just full of raw roots and jungle grass," murmured Ato, beginning to heap a platter with meat and vegetables. "Wait till he folds himself round some of these seafarin' rations. He'll be a different person."
"And he'd better be!" rumbled the Captain of the Crescent Moon, pulling in his chair. "And if you and Roger want to spoil the little pest, go ahead, but he'd better keep out of MY way. HAH!"
"I could drop the dinner on his head," suggested Roger helpfully as Ato handed him an appetizing tray for Tandy. "How would that be?"
"Utterly reprehensible, and conduct unbecoming in a Royal Read Bird and able-bodied seaman," chuckled the ship's cook, shaking his finger at Roger. "Why don't you try to help the little beggar and set him a good example?"
Now Roger, in spite of his sharp tongue, was really a sociable and kind-hearted bird and the sight of Tandy sitting so forlornly on his bunk made him regret his teasing speeches. After all, the little fellow was far from home and had had a hard time in the jungle.
"Here!" he puffed, setting down the tray and lighting the lantern. "This'll put feathers on your chest, young one, and mind you eat every scrap."
"Thank you," answered Tandy, so drearily that Roger with a shudder of distaste fled back to the cheerful company of Samuel and Ato. But later, when Samuel had gone below to pot the precious plants from Patrippany Island and the ship's cook was leaning over the rail conversing cozily with the hippopotamus, Roger flew back to Tandy's cabin resolved to help him if he could. With calm satisfaction he noted that Tandy had eaten everything on the tray. Lying on his back, the young King of Ozamaland was staring solemnly up at the beams over his bunk.