"Look, look, there's fish in those trees," screamed Roger, bouncing up and down on Ato's plump shoulder. "How about some flying fish for breakfast, Cook dear?"
"Breakfast? Breakfast? Can it really be time for breakfast? Ho, hum! I thought I was still asleep and dreaming," grunted Ato, giving himself a little shake. "Well, forests or no forests, a man must eat, I suppose!" And still gazing delightedly over his shoulder, the ship's cook trod reluctantly toward the galley, while Tandy hurried into the cabin for his paints.
CHAPTER 13
The Sea Forest
Tandy had to call Samuel twice before he would come to breakfast and when he finally did sit down, he was so busy preparing to explore the sea forest he ate scarcely a bite.
"We'll take the jolly boat," he decided, making long notes in his journal between his sips of coffee, "the small nets and knives and baskets for cuttings and any specimens we may pick up and—"
"Why the jolly boat when we have a jolly sea-going hippopotamus?" inquired Roger, elevating one eyebrow. "A jolly hippopotamus, I might add, who runs under her own power and saves us the trouble of rowing!" Roger was much annoyed because he had failed to catch a flying fish before breakfast and instead of eating his hard-boiled eggs, kept winging over to the open port to glare at his finny rivals. Tandy, like the Captain, was too excited to eat, and even Ato downed his omelette and fresh strawberries from the Peakenspire fruit vine with rare speed and indifference.
"It's a lucky thing you're so enormous, Kobo," puffed the ship's cabin boy, dropping down on the raft a few minutes later. "Ato's got his crab nets and fishing lines, Samuel's bringing an aquarium, a couple of baskets and a box. And I have this pail, my paints and a cage in case Roger does manage to catch one of those flying fish." Kobo was staring fixedly at her vegetable vine as Tandy dropped down beside her, and now snapping off a whole bushel of beans, she turned round and, munching contentedly, surveyed the excited boy at her side.