"Don't you dare call that monkey fish after me," screeched the Read Bird, flying round to have another look at his strange prize. "Why, it's uglier than a blue monkey, looks like a regular goblin, if you ask me." And to tell the truth, the monkey fish was even uglier than a goblin, shaped like a monkey but scaled all over, and with unpleasant goggly eyes and three short spikes sticking out of its forehead.
"It does look like a goblin," agreed Tandy with an amused sniff. "But let's call it Mo-fi, which is short for fish and monkey."
"Tip tops'ls!" approved Samuel Salt, taking out his note book. "Wonder what it eats?"
"Great grandmothers, what would it eat?" moaned Ato, looking blankly at Samuel. "Another mouth to feed and listen to! Dear, Dear and DEAR!"
"Oh, give it a box of animal crackers," put in Roger carelessly.
"No, I brought along some gold fish food for just such an emergency as this," declared Samuel, making a little flourish with his pencil as he wrote busily in his journal. "Gold fish food will be splendid for a monkey fish."
"Well, don't forget the bananas—for remember it's a monkey, too," chirped Roger, settling on the Captain's shoulder to read what he had written. So, laughing and joking and in the highest good humor the exploring party returned to the Crescent Moon.
What with planting the slips from the sea tree, settling Mo-fi in his aquarium cage, pressing the leaves from the marine forest, and making copies and further notes about the sea lions in his journal, Samuel did not get his ship under way till late afternoon.
Ramming into the sea tree, beyond scraping off some paint, had done little damage, so singing boisterously, Samuel finally heaved up his anchor. And soon, with Ato stirring up a huge clam chowder, Tandy painting the sea forest on the chart and Roger scouring the hold for Mo-fi's fish food, the Crescent Moon again dipped adventurously into the southeast swell.