"
This was true enough. The penguins had not seemed to resent their
nests being interfered with at all, but had gathered round the
invaders with much curiosity. The trouble all originated when Rastus
had sneaked up to a small penguin while the professor was busy
extracting an egg from a nest, and with a cry of:
"Oh, you lubly lilly chickin, ah hev yo fer supper, sho nuff," had
grabbed the creature.
It instantly sent up a loud cry of fear and rage, which its mates
seemed to regard as a battle cry, for they all fell on the rash
invaders of their realm at once.
As the boys dashed down the snowbank into the rookery, with their
revolvers drawn, the professor, with a loud yell, fell backward into a
well-filled nest. He arose with yellow yolks streaming from him and
covered with down, feathers and eggshell, that made him look like a
spectacled penguin himself. Rastus fared no better and was being
beaten and pecked unmercifully when the boys rushed down to the
rescue.
"Fire your revolvers in the air!" cried Frank. "Don't kill the poor
things."
"Fo' goodness sake kill dis big feller dat's a-peckin' mah nose off!"
yelled Rastus, struggling on the ground in the midst of a mass of
broken eggs.
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