The Pirates and the Babbling Soup

It was quiet at sea that day. The only sound came from the waves rocking the huge ship back and forth. Leaning against the helm, bored to tears, Captain Hubbub watched his dejected crew hoisting the ropes, mopping the floor, and most consequentially, not saying a word. There were twenty pirates milling about the ship. Yet on board, it was as silent as the grave.

Do you know why they felt like not talking? A week ago, they had lost a battle to enemy privateers, who confiscated their weapons, all their rum, and their goodies, too, leaving the pirates of Captain Hubbub’s ship quite ashamed of themselves. So, now they kept quiet.

“It’s driving me crazy!” Captain Hubbub exclaimed.

He had grown quite unhappy about the silence. He missed the noise made by glasses clinking together, the sounds the chains made as they clanked, and the wild sea rustling.

“I can’t stand hearing nothing from them anymore!” he exclaimed, murmuring to himself.

“Me neither!” giggled the macaw parrot perched on Hubbub’s shoulder as he flapped its colourful wings. “I can't listen to this stillness!”

Burying his head in his hands, Hubbub asked himself how to get the pirates to make some noise again. He tried telling them jokes, even threatening to throw them overboard unless they started piping up again, but nothing worked.

“Cook!” the parrot squawked. “Here comes the cook!”

Sure enough, the parrot had seen the portly cook scrambling up the stairs to the captain’s bridge.

“Captain, I can’t help noticing how hushed your ship’s been and you’re unhappy about it.”

“You’d hear a feather fall,” Hubbub lamented, looking around the hushed deck.

“I might just have the solution for you,” the cook offered. “Let me cook the crew some babbling soup…