Mrs. Popper is busy cleaning the kitchen when she realizes that Captain Cook has made multiple trips in and out of his refrigerator. Although Mrs. Popper’s housekeeping has been put off schedule due to the penguin’s arrival, the authors advise that “Captain Cook [i]s now attending to the picking up” (44). He pokes into the corners of every room and scavenges under all the furniture to make a large collection of miscellaneous household objects. One by one, he carries each item into the kitchen and places it in the refrigerator. When Mrs. Popper realizes what Captain Cook is doing, she is astonished and calls Mr. Popper. He explains that the penguin is building a “rookery” (46), or nest, from found items in lieu of Antarctic stones.

In the meantime, Mr. Popper is busy getting himself tidied and quite dressed up. He dons a “white shirt with a white tie and white flannel trousers” (47) in addition to the black evening coat that he wore on his wedding day. He looks like Captain Cook and struts around the kitchen imitating the bird’s walk before asking Mrs. Popper for some of her clothesline rope.