“Half a minute,” he said. “They may as well have a sermon at the same time.” Taking out his pencil he wrote in big letters along the side of the wooden fish, “ honesty is the best policy .” Then he put it back and covered the fish with stones. “Pile it up with stones,” he said, “so that it will take them some time to dig down to it.” And the Amazons and Swallows piled in stones until the hole was filled up.
“Now it looks just like it did before I began to make a fireplace,” said Titty.
“Well, that’s that,” said Captain Flint. “Good luck to them. And now,” he said, “if all you people had not been doing exactly what you were doing that night (even if you were supposed to be in bed), I should never have got that box again. I should have been sorry to lose the old box, because it’s been with me all over the world. And I should have lost the book I’ve been writing all summer in spite of the efforts of Nancy and Peggy to make any writing impossible. Never any of you start writing books. It isn’t worth it. This summer has been harder work for me than all the thirty years of knocking up and down that went before it. And if those scoundrels had got away with the box I could never have done it again. I owe a great deal to all of you, and most of all to the able-seaman. Look here, Able-seaman, you tell me anything in the world that I can get for you and you shall have it.”
“You did say that you were going to bring me back a parrot,” said the able-seaman, “and there isn’t anything in the world I’d rather have. If you really meant it,” she added.
“Was it you who said you wanted a grey one?”
“I like green ones best.”
“It’s a long time to wait till next summer,” said Captain Flint.
“I don’t mind waiting,” said the able-seaman.