OLIVER. Couldn't. The ship sank with all hands before I could get
them. But it doesn't matter, because (going up to one of the trees) I
recognise this as the bull's-eye tree. (He picks a couple of
bull's-eyes and gives one to her.)
JILL. Oh, Oliver, how lovely! Thank you. (She puts it in her mouth.)
OLIVER (sucking hard). There was nothing but breadfruit trees here the
first time I was marooned on it. Rotten things to have on a decent
island. So I planted a bull's-eye tree, and a barley-sugar-cane grove,
and one or two other things, and made a jolly ripping place of it.
JILL (pointing). What's that tree over there?
OLIVER. That one? Rice-pudding tree.
JILL (getting up indignantly). Oliver! Take me back to the boat at
once.
OLIVER. I say, shut up, Jill. You didn't think I meant it for _you_,
did you?
JILL. But there's only you and me on the island.
OLIVER. What about the domestic animals? I suppose _they've_ got to
eat.
JILL. Oh, how lovely! Have we got a goat and a parrot, and a--a--
OLIVER. Much better than that. Look in that cage there.
JILL. Oh, is that a cage? I never noticed it. What do I do?
OLIVER (going to it). Here, I'll show you (He draws the blind, and the
DOCTOR is exposed sitting on a stump of wood and blinking at the
sudden light) What do you think of that?
JILL. Oliver!
OLIVER (proudly). I thought of that in bed one night. Spiffing idea,
isn't it? I've got some other ones in the plantation over there.
Awfully good specimens. I feed 'em on rice-pudding.
JILL. Can this one talk?
OLIVER. I'm teaching it. (Stirring it up with a stick) Come up there.
DOCTOR (mumbling). Ninety-nine, ninety-nine . . .
OLIVER. That's all it can say at present. I'm going to give it a swim
in the lagoon to-morrow. I want to see if there are any sharks. If
there aren't, then we can bathe there afterwards.
(The DOCTOR shudders.)
JILL. Have you given it a name yet? I think I should like to call it
Fluffkins.
OLIVER. Righto! Good night, Fluffkins. Time little doctors were in
bed. (He pulls down the blind.)
JILL (lying down again). Well, I think it's a lovely island.
OLIVER (lying beside her). If there's anything you want, you know,
you've only got to say so. Pirates or anything like that. There's a
ginger-beer well if you're thirsty.
JILL (closing her eyes). I'm quite happy, Oliver, thank you.
OLIVER (after a pause, a little awkwardly). Jill, you didn't ever want
to marry a pirate, did you?
JILL (still on her back with her eyes shut). I hadn't thought about it
much, Oliver dear.
OLIVER. Because I can get you an awfully decent pirate, if you like,
and if I was his brother-in-law it would be ripping. I've often been
marooned with him, of course, but never as his brother-in-law.
JILL. Why don't you marry his daughter and be his son-in-law?
OLIVER. He hasn't got a daughter.
JILL. Well, you could think him one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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