When Dab-Dab roused the party next morning the sun was shining through the mist upon the lake doing its best to brighten up the scenery around them.  
Poor Mudface awoke with an acute attack of gout. He had not been bothered by this since the Doctor's arrival. But now he could scarcely move at all without great pain. And Dab-Dab brought his breakfast to him where he lay.
 
John Dolittle was inclined to blame himself for having asked him to go hunting in the lake for souvenirs the night before.
 
"I'm afraid that was what brought on the attack," said the Doctor, getting out his little black bag from the canoe and mixing some medicines. "But you know you really ought to move out of this damp country to some drier climate. I am aware that turtles can stand an awful lot of wet. But at your age one must be careful, you know."
 
"There isn't any other place I like as well," said Mudface. "It's so hard to find a country where you're not disturbed these days."
 
"Here, drink this," the Doctor ordered, handing him a tea-cup full of some brown mixture. "I think you will find that that will soon relieve the stiffness in your front legs."
 
The turtle drank it down. And in a minute or two he said he felt much better and could now move his legs freely without pain.
 
"It's a wonderful medicine, that," said he. "You are surely a great Doctor. Have you got any more of it?"
 
"I will make up several bottles of the mixture and leave them with you before I go," said John Dolittle. "But you really ought to get on high ground somewhere. This muddy little is no place for you to live. Isn't there a regular island in the lake, where you could make your home—if you're not to leave the Junganyika country?"
 
"Not one," said the turtle. "It's all like this, just miles and miles of mud and water. I used to like it—in fact I do still. I wouldn't wish for anything better if it weren't for this wretched gout of mine."
 
"Well," said the Doctor, "if you haven't got an island we must make one for you."
 
"Make one!" cried the turtle. "How would you go about it?"
 
"I'll show you very shortly," said John Dolittle. And he called Cheapside to him.
 
"Will you please fly down to Fantippo," he said to the City Manager, "and give this message to Speedy-the-Skimmer. And ask him to send it out to all the postmasters of the branch offices: The Swallow Mail is very shortly to be closed—at all events for a considerable time. I must now be returning to Puddleby and it will be impossible for me to continue the service in its present form after I have left No-Man's-Land. I wish to convey my thanks to all the birds, postmasters, clerks and letter-carriers who have so generously helped me in this work. The last favor which I am going to ask of them is a large one; and I hope they will give me their united support in it. I want them to build me an island in the middle of Lake Junganyika. It is for Mudface the turtle, the oldest animal living, who in days gone by did a very great deal for man and beast—for the whole world in fact—when the earth was passing through the darkest chapters in all its history. Tell Speedy to send word to all bird leaders throughout the world. Tell him I want as many birds as possible right away to build a healthy home where this brave turtle may end his long life in peace. It is the last thing I ask of the post office staff and I hope they will do their best for me."
 
Cheapside said that the message was so long he was afraid he would never be able to remember it by heart. So John Dolittle told him to take it down in bird and he it to him all over again.
 
That letter, the last circular order issued by the great Postmaster General to the staff of the Swallow Mail, was treasured by Cheapside for many years. He hid it under his untidy nest in St. Edmund's left ear on the south side of the chancel of St. Paul's Cathedral. He always hoped that the pigeons who lived in the front porch of the British Museum would some day get it into the Museum for him. But one morning, when men were cleaning the outside of the cathedral, it got blown out of St. Edmund's ear and, before Cheapside could overtake it, it sailed over the housetops into the river and sank.
 
The sparrow got back to Junganyika late that afternoon. H............