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"A fine voyage," the Doctor said. He sounded somewhat abstracted; I was sure that he was trying to keep in his mind the many pages' worth of notes he had not at room to take, while we journeyed home inside the shell of the Great Glass Sea Snail.
Of course I wanted to see my mother and father again, after this long first voyage of mine, but I was also very much looking forward to sitting in the Doctor's kitchen, telling stories with the animals there. To think I would be able to tell some of my own. (Shared with the Doctor, Chee-Chee, and Polynesia of course.) I said, "New stories to tell."
"You know, Stubbins," the Doctor said. "Of all we did... Rescuing Long Arrow, the Floating Island, finding Shellfish language at last..." In the pause, I thought that being in a shipwreck was also a notable thing, but then Polynesia had said the Doctor was used to and extraordinarily untroubled by shipwrecks. So I did not suggest he include that in his list.
"One of the best things," he said, "was ending bullfighting on the islands. One silly show and wager, and there I could ensure peaceful lives for all those cattle and their families."
That was the Doctor all through, always thinking first not of his accomplishments but of how he helped.