Small Fry Old Jack's Boat

Ha! Oh.

Good day to you.

# This is the place to be for Salty Dog and me

# Down by the harbour we'll be there

# Round every corner there's something to share

# Give us a cheer our friends are here

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

Ha-ha, come on, Salty!

# This is the place to meet

# Down at the end of the street

# Seagulls flying up in the blue

# There's always a cup of tea waiting for you

# Out in the sun, having some fun

# Just Salty Dog and me

# Haul away, haul away Sing a song of the sea

# Hoist the sail

# I'll tell you a tale of Salty Dog and me

# This is the place to go

# And these are the people we know

# The village is busy with things to see

# And there's the Rainbow down by the quay

# There's stories to tell join us as well

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

# Dee-dee, dee-dee. #

Come on, up here. Come on.

-Oh, Miss Bowline-Hitch, no tricycle today?

-Broken. It won't go!

Sam's repairing it for me. It's very inconvenient.

-Oh, well, I'm sure she'll get it fixed very soon.

-I hope so!

-I need it for this afternoon. I'm very busy today, very busy-busy!

-Yes.

Come on, Salty, we'll see how Sam's getting on. Busy-busy!

-Oh, all right, Jack? Salty!

-Hello, Sam, how's it going?

No problem, just a simple matter of replacing the bearings,

oiling the, um...something else.

-Are you sure you know what you're doing?

-Of course I do. Oh!

BANG! CRASH!

I'll fix that later. I'm making a list.

I think Miss Bowline-Hitch needs it back soon.

-She's very...

-Busy-busy?

-Yeah, that's what she said.

-Oh, dear!

-Did she say when she wanted it for?

-She wants it for this afternoon.

-Oh, dear!

-Is that a problem?

Well, Jack, to be honest, I'm better with scooters.

They're simpler.

Three-wheeled cycles are a bit complicated for me!

CRASH! BANG!

-I'll add that to the list.

-I think you've got your work cut out there.

-I'll leave you to it. Good luck!

-Thanks, Jack.

-Yeah, bye-bye.

-Bye!

-Come on, Salty. Bye.

-Oh, dear.

There she is - the Rainbow. What have you got for us today, m'dear?

Hee-hee! Come on, Salty.

# Dee-dee, dee-dee. #

Here we are.

You settle down there, girl. Poor old Sam, eh?

She's got a bit of a job on her hands

fixing that tricycle, you know.

Wonder if I have any old tools here that she could...

What's this?

Bubble mixture. What is that doing in here? Hmm? Eh?

It's yours, isn't it, Salty? You were...

You're always losing that. I don't know...ha!

Do you remember the last time we lost your bubble mixture? Ha-ha!

That was a bit of an adventure, that was.

Oh, let me get myself comfortable and I'll tell you the story.

What are you doing?

This is going to make your whiskers stand on end, girl. Ha-ha-ha!

Once upon a twinkly time, the Rainbow set off from Staithes,

waved goodbye to Whitby and disappeared over the horizon.

And as we sailed, we sang.

# Just Salty dog and me are sailing on the sea

# There's many a thing we know we should fix

# But we prefer trying our favourite tricks

# Drifting away on a hot sunny day

# Just Salty dog and me. #

Now, on this particular day,

Salty wanted to practise her bubble-blowing tricks.

She's very good at blowing bubbles.

I fetched her bottle of bubble mix

and Salty's special bubble-blowing wand.

I dipped the wand in the bubble mix

and then held it up like this.

Salty then blew a huge bubble.

I think it must have been the biggest bubble Salty had ever blown.

It got so big it almost filled the deck of the Rainbow.

"Oh, that's a real corker!" I said.

But just as Salty was considering giving up being a sea dog

and starting a career in the circus...BANG!

The bubble popped!

And as it popped, it knocked the bottle of bubble mixture

over the side of the Rainbow and...PLOP!

Into the deep sea.

"Aaaaarrr!" howled Salty. "My bubble mix!"

And we watched it disappear down and down.

"Don't worry, girl," I said, "We'll get it back."

So, before you could say "limboing lobsters"

we were under the waves in search of Salty's bubble mixture.

We wandered for a while and we hadn't gone far

when a very handsome cardinalfish,

all silvery-greyish with black stripes,

appeared from a thick clump of seaweed.

"Hello!" I said, "We've lost a bottle of bubble mixture,

"you haven't seen it, have you?"

The cardinalfish twitched his tail

and swam in circles around the seaweed

but he didn't say anything, not a word.

"Perhaps he's shy," said Salty. Mr and Mrs Cod swam by.

"Bubble mixture?" said Mrs Cod,

"We haven't seen anything, have we, Harold?"

"No, dear," said Mr Cod.

"And it's no use asking Natty, the cardinalfish,"

Mrs Cod continued.

"He used to be ever so chatty but he hasn't said a word for days."

She was right.

Natty didn't say anything, he just kept twitching his tail

and swimming around the seaweed.

"I think he wants us to follow him," I said.

"Yeah. Come on, Salty, we may come across the bubble mix on the way.

"Come on, this way!"

So...off we went.

It was me, Salty and Mr and Mrs Cod following Natty around the seaweed.

Round and round the seaweed,

again and again and Salty was starting to get dizzy!

"We seem to be going around and round the same patch of seaweed,"

I said to Natty.

Well, Natty seemed quite upset by this.

He twitched his tail more than ever.

"We need to find our bubble mixture," I continued.

Suddenly, Natty opened his mouth. "Look in the seaweed!" he blurted.

He was right.

Nestled in the seaweed was the little bottle of bubble mixture.

Salty was thrilled!

But Natty wasn't.

As he had opened his mouth to speak to us,

you'll never believe what happened.

Lots and lots of teeny, tiny, shimmery little fishes swam out.

"My fry, my fry, my baby fish! They're escaping!" Natty cried.

"They're not big enough to be free in the sea yet."

And then, I remembered.

A daddy cardinalfish

looks after his eggs in his mouth until they hatch out into fry -

that's baby fish - and until they grow big enough to swim in the sea.

"Oh, dear. Natty was looking after the fry in his mouth," I said.

"No wonder he wasn't chatty, Harold," said Mrs Cod.

"No, dear," said Mr Cod.

Well, the tiny fry were now drifting off in all directions

like dandelion seeds on the wind.

"Wahey! We're in the big sea!" they cried.

"Quick! They're not safe!" cried Natty.

"I need to keep them in my mouth for a few more days

"until they're a bit bigger. I don't want to lose them!"

"We'll help you catch them," I said. "But how?"

And then Salty's whiskers whistled.

She was having one of her bright ideas.

She dashed into the seaweed and grabbed the bubble mix

from its seaweedy hiding place and brought it back to me.

"Salty," I said, "this is no time for blowing bubbles."

But Salty announced it was the perfect time for blowing bubbles,

so I took out the bubble wand, I held it up and Salty blew.

She blew out a huge bubble. Her biggest yet.

And it wafted and bobbled and hovered and wobbled

and scooped up all the little fry inside it.

Salty then blew the bubble in Natty's direction.

"Oh, oh, here they come! My little fry!" Natty cried.

As the bubble settled over him, he popped it with his nose

and the teeny-tiny fry all dropped gently back into his mouth

where they were safe again.

"Bye-bye!" said the little fry. "See you when we're bigger!"

Mrs Cod was very impressed.

"Salty is an excellent bubble blower,

"isn't she, Harold?" she said.

"Yes, dear." said Mr Cod.

Natty, he flicked his tail happily.

"Salty," I said, "I think that is Natty's way of saying thank you

"without opening his mouth again."

And Natty nodded happily.

Salty gave Natty a nuzzle with her nose.

She was very pleased that his fry were safe

and, of course, she was very happy

that we had found her bubble mixture.

"Come on, Salty! Time to be getting back to Staithes," I said.

So, we said our goodbyes

and before you could say "somersaulting seagulls"

we were back on board our beloved Rainbow, heading for the horizon.

As the evening sun shone on the deck,

Salty practised her bubble-blowing tricks and she didn't stop

until we were back in Staithes and home again.

Did you like that story, Salty? All true, of course.

Mind you, my stories always are.

DOOR OPENS

How are you doing with Miss Bowline-Hitch's tricycle, Sam?

Not good, Jack, not good! How long have I got?

-Uh, well, I'm not really sure.

-Yoo-hoo!

-Huh!

-She's back! Don't let her in.

-No. Leave this to me. Come along, Salty.

-Hello, Jack!

-Oh, ha-ha! Miss Bowline-Hitch.

-About your tricycle...

-It should be ready by now. Busy-busy.

-Well, it's like this...

-Busy-busy!

Oh, dear. Oh, dear, Salty.

Miss Bowline-Hitch is not going to be too pleased

about her tricycle lying in bits in there.

Well, at least nobody's shouting!

Ha-ha! Oh!

-Right, Miss Bowline-Hitch, all sorted?

-I'm very pleased.

-VERY pleased indeed.

-Oh, really?

-Yes, look!

My tricycle wasn't ready, so Sam's lent me this marvellous scooter!

-It's just right.

-Of course.

Now, I really must be on my way. Busy-busy!

Good luck.

-Well, that worked out better than I thought it would!

-Well done, Sam.

You made a busy lady very happy!

Good. I'll have it all fixed by tomorrow.

-Now, I'd like to make a busy old sailor happy too.

-Really?

Let me buy you a cup of tea at the Mermaid.

Thank you very much, you're on. Oh, could I do with a cup of tea!

Well, Salty, that's it for today.

We'll see all our friends again next time.

Oh, and we'll see you next time as well.

Bye-bye! Come on, girl.