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diff --git a/old/20080913-501.txt b/old/20080913-501.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c400c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20080913-501.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3628 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Story of Doctor Dolittle + +Author: Hugh Lofting + +Posting Date: September 13, 2008 [EBook #501] +Release Date: April, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + THE + Story of + DOCTOR DOLITTLE + + + by + + Hugh Lofting + + + BEING THE + HISTORY OF HIS PECULIAR LIFE + AT HOME AND ASTONISHING ADVENTURES + IN FOREIGN PARTS NEVER BEFORE PRINTED. + + + TO + ALL CHILDREN + CHILDREN IN YEARS AND CHILDREN IN HEART + I DEDICATE THIS STORY + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +There are some of us now reaching middle age who discover themselves to +be lamenting the past in one respect if in none other, that there are +no books written now for children comparable with those of thirty years +ago. I say written FOR children because the new psychological business +of writing ABOUT them as though they were small pills or hatched in +some especially scientific method is extremely popular today. Writing +for children rather than about them is very difficult as everybody who +has tried it knows. It can only be done, I am convinced, by somebody +having a great deal of the child in his own outlook and sensibilities. +Such was the author of "The Little Duke" and "The Dove in the Eagle's +Nest," such the author of "A Flatiron for a Farthing," and "The Story +of a Short Life." Such, above all, the author of "Alice in Wonderland." +Grownups imagine that they can do the trick by adopting baby language +and talking down to their very critical audience. There never was a +greater mistake. The imagination of the author must be a child's +imagination and yet maturely consistent, so that the White Queen in +"Alice," for instance, is seen just as a child would see her, but she +continues always herself through all her distressing adventures. The +supreme touch of the white rabbit pulling on his white gloves as he +hastens is again absolutely the child's vision, but the white rabbit as +guide and introducer of Alice's adventures belongs to mature grown +insight. + +Geniuses are rare and, without being at all an undue praiser of times +past, one can say without hesitation that until the appearance of Hugh +Lofting, the successor of Miss Yonge, Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Gatty and Lewis +Carroll had not appeared. I remember the delight with which some six +months ago I picked up the first "Dolittle" book in the Hampshire +bookshop at Smith College in Northampton. One of Mr. Lofting's +pictures was quite enough for me. The picture that I lighted upon when +I first opened the book was the one of the monkeys making a chain with +their arms across the gulf. Then I looked further and discovered Bumpo +reading fairy stories to himself. And then looked again and there was +a picture of John Dolittle's house. + +But pictures are not enough although most authors draw so badly that if +one of them happens to have the genius for line that Mr. Lofting shows +there must be, one feels, something in his writing as well. There is. +You cannot read the first paragraph of the book, which begins in the +right way "Once upon a time" without knowing that Mr. Lofting believes +in his story quite as much as he expects you to. That is the first +essential for a story teller. Then you discover as you read on that he +has the right eye for the right detail. What child-inquiring mind +could resist this intriguing sentence to be found on the second page of +the book: + + +"Besides the gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had +rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen +closet and a hedgehog in the cellar." + +And then when you read a little further you will discover that the +Doctor is not merely a peg on whom to hang exciting and various +adventures but that he is himself a man of original and lively +character. He is a very kindly, generous man, and anyone who has ever +written stories will know that it is much more difficult to make +kindly, generous characters interesting than unkindly and mean ones. +But Dolittle is interesting. It is not only that he is quaint but that +he is wise and knows what he is about. The reader, however young, who +meets him gets very soon a sense that if he were in trouble, not +necessarily medical, he would go to Dolittle and ask his advice about +it. Dolittle seems to extend his hand from the page and grasp that of +his reader, and I can see him going down the centuries a kind of Pied +Piper with thousands of children at his heels. But not only is he a +darling and alive and credible but his creator has also managed to +invest everybody else in the book with the same kind of life. + +Now this business of giving life to animals, making them talk and +behave like human beings, is an extremely difficult one. Lewis Carroll +absolutely conquered the difficulties, but I am not sure that anyone +after him until Hugh Lofting has really managed the trick; even in such +a masterpiece as "The Wind in the Willows" we are not quite convinced. +John Dolittle's friends are convincing because their creator never +forces them to desert their own characteristics. Polynesia, for +instance, is natural from first to last. She really does care about +the Doctor but she cares as a bird would care, having always some place +to which she is going when her business with her friends is over. And +when Mr. Lofting invents fantastic animals he gives them a kind of +credible possibility which is extraordinarily convincing. It will be +impossible for anyone who has read this book not to believe in the +existence of the pushmi-pullyu, who would be credible enough even were +there no drawing of it, but the picture on page 145 settles the matter +of his truth once and for all. + +In fact this book is a work of genius and, as always with works of +genius, it is difficult to analyze the elements that have gone to make +it. There is poetry here and fantasy and humor, a little pathos but, +above all, a number of creations in whose existence everybody must +believe whether they be children of four or old men of ninety or +prosperous bankers of forty-five. I don't know how Mr. Lofting has +done it; I don't suppose that he knows himself. There it is--the first +real children's classic since "Alice." HUGH WALPOLE. + + + +CONTENTS + +INTRODUCTION + + I PUDDLEBY + II ANIMAL LANGUAGE + III MORE MONEY TROUBLES + IV A MESSAGE FROM AFRICA + V THE GREAT JOURNEY + VI POLYNESIA AND THE KING + VII THE BRIDGE OF APES + VIII THE LEADER OF THE LIONS + IX THE MONKEYS COUNCIL + X THE RAREST ANIMAL OF ALL + XI THE BLACK PRINCE + XII MEDICINE AND MAGIC + XIII RED SAILS AND BLUE WINGS + XIV THE RATS WARNING + XV THE BARBARY DRAGON + XVI TOO-TOO, THE LISTENER + XVII THE OCEAN GOSSIPS + XVIII SMELLS + XIX THE ROCK + XX THE FISHERMAN'S TOWN + XXI HOME AGAIN + + + + +THE STORY OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE + + + +THE FIRST CHAPTER + +PUDDLEBY + +ONCE upon a time, many years ago when our grandfathers were little +children--there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle--John Dolittle, +M.D. "M.D." means that he was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot. + +He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the folks, +young and old, knew him well by sight. And whenever he walked down the +street in his high hat everyone would say, "There goes the +Doctor!--He's a clever man." And the dogs and the children would all +run up and follow behind him; and even the crows that lived in the +church-tower would caw and nod their heads. + +The house he lived in, on the edge of the town, was quite small; but +his garden was very large and had a wide lawn and stone seats and +weeping-willows hanging over. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was +housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself. + +He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the +gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had rabbits in +the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and +a hedgehog in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old lame +horse-twenty-five years of age--and chickens, and pigeons, and two +lambs, and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the +duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the +owl Too-Too. + +His sister used to grumble about all these animals and said they made +the house untidy. And one day when an old lady with rheumatism came to +see the Doctor, she sat on the hedgehog who was sleeping on the sofa +and never came to see him any more, but drove every Saturday all the +way to Oxenthorpe, another town ten miles off, to see a different +doctor. + +Then his sister, Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said, + +"John, how can you expect sick people to come and see you when you keep +all these animals in the house? It's a fine doctor would have his +parlor full of hedgehogs and mice! That's the fourth personage these +animals have driven away. Squire Jenkins and the Parson say they +wouldn't come near your house again--no matter how sick they are. We +are getting poorer every day. If you go on like this, none of the best +people will have you for a doctor." + +"But I like the animals better than the 'best people'," said the Doctor. + +"You are ridiculous," said his sister, and walked out of the room. + +So, as time went on, the Doctor got more and more animals; and the +people who came to see him got less and less. Till at last he had no +one left--except the Cat's-meat-Man, who didn't mind any kind of +animals. But the Cat's-meat Man wasn't very rich and he only got sick +once a year--at Christmas-time, when he used to give the Doctor +sixpence for a bottle of medicine. + +Sixpence a year wasn't enough to live on--even in those days, long ago; +and if the Doctor hadn't had some money saved up in his money-box, no +one knows what would have happened. + +And he kept on getting still more pets; and of course it cost a lot to +feed them. And the money he had saved up grew littler and littler. + +Then he sold his piano, and let the mice live in a bureau-drawer. But +the money he got for that too began to go, so he sold the brown suit he +wore on Sundays and went on becoming poorer and poorer. + +And now, when he walked down the street in his high hat, people would +say to one another, "There goes John Dolittle, M.D.! There was a time +when he was the best known doctor in the West Country--Look at him +now--He hasn't any money and his stockings are full of holes!" + +But the dogs and the cats and the children still ran up and followed +him through the town--the same as they had done when he was rich. + + + +THE SECOND CHAPTER + +ANIMAL LANGUAGE + +IT happened one day that the Doctor was sitting in his kitchen talking +with the Cat's-meat-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache. + +"Why don't you give up being a people's doctor, and be an +animal-doctor?" asked the Cat's-meat-Man. + +The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out at the +rain and singing a sailor-song to herself. She stopped singing and +started to listen. + +"You see, Doctor," the Cat's-meat-Man went on, "you know all about +animals--much more than what these here vets do. That book you +wrote--about cats, why, it's wonderful! I can't read or write +myself--or maybe _I_'D write some books. But my wife, Theodosia, she's +a scholar, she is. And she read your book to me. Well, it's +wonderful--that's all can be said--wonderful. You might have been a cat +yourself. You know the way they think. And listen: you can make a lot +of money doctoring animals. Do you know that? You see, I'd send all +the old women who had sick cats or dogs to you. And if they didn't get +sick fast enough, I could put something in the meat I sell 'em to make +'em sick, see?" + +"Oh, no," said the Doctor quickly. "You mustn't do that. That +wouldn't be right." + +"Oh, I didn't mean real sick," answered the Cat's-meat-Man. "Just a +little something to make them droopy-like was what I had reference to. +But as you say, maybe it ain't quite fair on the animals. But they'll +get sick anyway, because the old women always give 'em too much to eat. +And look, all the farmers 'round about who had lame horses and weak +lambs--they'd come. Be an animal-doctor." + +When the Cat's-meat-Man had gone the parrot flew off the window on to +the Doctor's table and said, + +"That man's got sense. That's what you ought to do. Be an +animal-doctor. Give the silly people up--if they haven't brains enough +to see you're the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals +instead--THEY'll soon find it out. Be an animal-doctor." + +"Oh, there are plenty of animal-doctors," said John Dolittle, putting +the flower-pots outside on the window-sill to get the rain. + +"Yes, there ARE plenty," said Polynesia. "But none of them are any +good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I'll tell you something. Did you +know that animals can talk?" + +"I knew that parrots can talk," said the Doctor. + +"Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages--people's language and +bird-language," said Polynesia proudly. "If I say, 'Polly wants a +cracker,' you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-ee, fee-fee?" + +"Good Gracious!" cried the Doctor. "What does that mean?" + +"That means, 'Is the porridge hot yet?'--in bird-language." + +"My! You don't say so!" said the Doctor. "You never talked that way to +me before." + +"What would have been the good?" said Polynesia, dusting some +cracker-crumbs off her left wing. "You wouldn't have understood me if +I had." + +"Tell me some more," said the Doctor, all excited; and he rushed over +to the dresser-drawer and came back with the butcher's book and a +pencil. "Now don't go too fast--and I'll write it down. This is +interesting--very interesting--something quite new. Give me the Birds' +A.B.C. first--slowly now." + +So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals had a language +of their own and could talk to one another. And all that afternoon, +while it was raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table giving him +bird words to put down in the book. + +At tea-time, when the dog, Jip, came in, the parrot said to the Doctor, +"See, HE'S talking to you." + +"Looks to me as though he were scratching his ear," said the Doctor. + +"But animals don't always speak with their mouths," said the parrot in +a high voice, raising her eyebrows. "They talk with their ears, with +their feet, with their tails--with everything. Sometimes they don't +WANT to make a noise. Do you see now the way he's twitching up one +side of his nose?" + +"What's that mean?" asked the Doctor. + +"That means, 'Can't you see that it has stopped raining?'" Polynesia +answered. "He is asking you a question. Dogs nearly always use their +noses for asking questions." + +After a while, with the parrot's help, the Doctor got to learn the +language of the animals so well that he could talk to them himself and +understand everything they said. Then he gave up being a people's +doctor altogether. + +As soon as the Cat's-meat-Man had told every one that John Dolittle was +going to become an animal-doctor, old ladies began to bring him their +pet pugs and poodles who had eaten too much cake; and farmers came many +miles to show him sick cows and sheep. + +One day a plow-horse was brought to him; and the poor thing was +terribly glad to find a man who could talk in horse-language. + +"You know, Doctor," said the horse, "that vet over the hill knows +nothing at all. He has been treating me six weeks now--for spavins. +What I need is SPECTACLES. I am going blind in one eye. There's no +reason why horses shouldn't wear glasses, the same as people. But that +stupid man over the hill never even looked at my eyes. He kept on +giving me big pills. I tried to tell him; but he couldn't understand a +word of horse-language. What I need is spectacles." + +"Of course--of course," said the Doctor. "I'll get you some at once." + +"I would like a pair like yours," said the horse--"only green. They'll +keep the sun out of my eyes while I'm plowing the Fifty-Acre Field." + +"Certainly," said the Doctor. "Green ones you shall have." + +"You know, the trouble is, Sir," said the plow-horse as the Doctor +opened the front door to let him out--"the trouble is that ANYBODY +thinks he can doctor animals--just because the animals don't complain. +As a matter of fact it takes a much cleverer man to be a really good +animal-doctor than it does to be a good people's doctor. My farmer's +boy thinks he knows all about horses. I wish you could see him--his +face is so fat he looks as though he had no eyes--and he has got as +much brain as a potato-bug. He tried to put a mustard-plaster on me +last week." + +"Where did he put it?" asked the Doctor. + +"Oh, he didn't put it anywhere--on me," said the horse. "He only tried +to. I kicked him into the duck-pond." + +"Well, well!" said the Doctor. + +"I'm a pretty quiet creature as a rule," said the horse--"very patient +with people--don't make much fuss. But it was bad enough to have that +vet giving me the wrong medicine. And when that red-faced booby started +to monkey with me, I just couldn't bear it any more." + +"Did you hurt the boy much?" asked the Doctor. + +"Oh, no," said the horse. "I kicked him in the right place. The vet's +looking after him now. When will my glasses be ready?" + +"I'll have them for you next week," said the Doctor. "Come in again +Tuesday--Good morning!" + +Then John Dolittle got a fine, big pair of green spectacles; and the +plow-horse stopped going blind in one eye and could see as well as ever. + +And soon it became a common sight to see farm-animals wearing glasses +in the country round Puddleby; and a blind horse was a thing unknown. + +And so it was with all the other animals that were brought to him. As +soon as they found that he could talk their language, they told him +where the pain was and how they felt, and of course it was easy for him +to cure them. + +Now all these animals went back and told their brothers and friends +that there was a doctor in the little house with the big garden who +really WAS a doctor. And whenever any creatures got sick--not only +horses and cows and dogs--but all the little things of the fields, like +harvest-mice and water-voles, badgers and bats, they came at once to +his house on the edge of the town, so that his big garden was nearly +always crowded with animals trying to get in to see him. + +There were so many that came that he had to have special doors made for +the different kinds. He wrote "HORSES" over the front door, "COWS" over +the side door, and "SHEEP" on the kitchen door. Each kind of animal +had a separate door--even the mice had a tiny tunnel made for them into +the cellar, where they waited patiently in rows for the Doctor to come +round to them. + +And so, in a few years' time, every living thing for miles and miles +got to know about John Dolittle, M.D. And the birds who flew to other +countries in the winter told the animals in foreign lands of the +wonderful doctor of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, who could understand their +talk and help them in their troubles. In this way he became famous +among the animals--all over the world--better known even than he had +been among the folks of the West Country. And he was happy and liked +his life very much. + +One afternoon when the Doctor was busy writing in a book, Polynesia sat +in the window--as she nearly always did--looking out at the leaves +blowing about in the garden. Presently she laughed aloud. + +"What is it, Polynesia?" asked the Doctor, looking up from his book. + +"I was just thinking," said the parrot; and she went on looking at the +leaves. + +"What were you thinking?" + +"I was thinking about people," said Polynesia. "People make me sick. +They think they're so wonderful. The world has been going on now for +thousands of years, hasn't it? And the only thing in animal-language +that PEOPLE have learned to understand is that when a dog wags his tail +he means 'I'm glad!'--It's funny, isn't it? You are the very first man +to talk like us. Oh, sometimes people annoy me dreadfully--such airs +they put on--talking about 'the dumb animals.' DUMB!--Huh! Why I knew +a macaw once who could say 'Good morning!' in seven different ways +without once opening his mouth. He could talk every language--and +Greek. An old professor with a gray beard bought him. But he didn't +stay. He said the old man didn't talk Greek right, and he couldn't +stand listening to him teach the language wrong. I often wonder what's +become of him. That bird knew more geography than people will ever +know.--PEOPLE, Golly! I suppose if people ever learn to fly--like any +common hedge-sparrow--we shall never hear the end of it!" + +"You're a wise old bird," said the Doctor. "How old are you really? I +know that parrots and elephants sometimes live to be very, very old." + +"I can never be quite sure of my age," said Polynesia. "It's either a +hundred and eighty-three or a hundred and eighty-two. But I know that +when I first came here from Africa, King Charles was still hiding in +the oak-tree--because I saw him. He looked scared to death." + + + +THE THIRD CHAPTER + +MORE MONEY TROUBLES + +AND soon now the Doctor began to make money again; and his sister, +Sarah, bought a new dress and was happy. Some of the animals who came +to see him were so sick that they had to stay at the Doctor's house for +a week. And when they were getting better they used to sit in chairs +on the lawn. + +And often even after they got well, they did not want to go away--they +liked the Doctor and his house so much. And he never had the heart to +refuse them when they asked if they could stay with him. So in this +way he went on getting more and more pets. + +Once when he was sitting on his garden wall, smoking a pipe in the +evening, an Italian organ-grinder came round with a monkey on a string. +The Doctor saw at once that the monkey's collar was too tight and that +he was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the Italian, +gave the man a shilling and told him to go. The organ-grinder got +awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the monkey. But the +Doctor told him that if he didn't go away he would punch him on the +nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he wasn't very tall. So +the Italian went away saying rude things and the monkey stayed with +Doctor Dolittle and had a good home. The other animals in the house +called him "Chee-Chee"--which is a common word in monkey-language, +meaning "ginger." + +And another time, when the circus came to Puddleby, the crocodile who +had a bad tooth-ache escaped at night and came into the Doctor's +garden. The Doctor talked to him in crocodile-language and took him +into the house and made his tooth better. But when the crocodile saw +what a nice house it was--with all the different places for the +different kinds of animals--he too wanted to live with the Doctor. He +asked couldn't he sleep in the fish-pond at the bottom of the garden, +if he promised not to eat the fish. When the circus-men came to take +him back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away. But +to every one in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten. + +But now the old ladies grew afraid to send their lap-dogs to Doctor +Dolittle because of the crocodile; and the farmers wouldn't believe +that he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to be +cured. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go +back to his circus. But he wept such big tears, and begged so hard to +be allowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn't the heart to turn him out. + +So then the Doctor's sister came to him and said, "John, you must send +that creature away. Now the farmers and the old ladies are afraid to +send their animals to you--just as we were beginning to be well off +again. Now we shall be ruined entirely. This is the last straw. I +will no longer be housekeeper for you if you don't send away that +alligator." + +"It isn't an alligator," said the Doctor--"it's a crocodile." + +"I don't care what you call it," said his sister. "It's a nasty thing +to find under the bed. I won't have it in the house." + +"But he has promised me," the Doctor answered, "that he will not bite +any one. He doesn't like the circus; and I haven't the money to send +him back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and +on the whole is very well behaved. Don't be so fussy." + +"I tell you I WILL NOT have him around," said Sarah. "He eats the +linoleum. If you don't send him away this minute I'll--I'll go and get +married!" + +"All right," said the Doctor, "go and get married. It can't be +helped." And he took down his hat and went out into the garden. + +So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and went off; and the Doctor was +left all alone with his animal family. + +And very soon he was poorer than he had ever been before. With all +these mouths to fill, and the house to look after, and no one to do the +mending, and no money coming in to pay the butcher's bill, things began +to look very difficult. But the Doctor didn't worry at all. + +"Money is a nuisance," he used to say. "We'd all be much better off if +it had never been invented. What does money matter, so long as we are +happy?" + +But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one evening +when the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire they +began talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl, +Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was only +money enough left to last another week--if they each had one meal a day +and no more. + +Then the parrot said, "I think we all ought to do the housework +ourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is for our +sakes that the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor." + +So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking and +mending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and make +the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts, and the pig was +to do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper and +laundress, because she was the oldest. + +Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do--all +except Chee-Chee, who had hands, and could do things like a man. But +they soon got used to it; and they used to think it great fun to watch +Jip, the dog, sweeping his tail over the floor with a rag tied onto it +for a broom. After a little they got to do the work so well that the +Doctor said that he had never had his house kept so tidy or so clean +before. + +In this way things went along all right for a while; but without money +they found it very hard. + +Then the animals made a vegetable and flower stall outside the +garden-gate and sold radishes and roses to the people that passed by +along the road. + +But still they didn't seem to make enough money to pay all the +bills--and still the Doctor wouldn't worry. When the parrot came to +him and told him that the fishmonger wouldn't give them any more fish, +he said, + +"Never mind. So long as the hens lay eggs and the cow gives milk we +can have omelettes and junket. And there are plenty of vegetables left +in the garden. The Winter is still a long way off. Don't fuss. That +was the trouble with Sarah--she would fuss. I wonder how Sarah's +getting on--an excellent woman--in some ways--Well, well!" + +But the snow came earlier than usual that year; and although the old +lame horse hauled in plenty of wood from the forest outside the town, +so they could have a big fire in the kitchen, most of the vegetables in +the garden were gone, and the rest were covered with snow; and many of +the animals were really hungry. + + + +THE FOURTH CHAPTER + +A MESSAGE FROM AFRICA + +THAT Winter was a very cold one. And one night in December, when they +were all sitting round the warm fire in the kitchen, and the Doctor was +reading aloud to them out of books he had written himself in +animal-language, the owl, Too-Too, suddenly said, "Sh! What's that +noise outside?" + +They all listened; and presently they heard the sound of some one +running. Then the door flew open and the monkey, Chee-Chee, ran in, +badly out of breath. + +"Doctor!" he cried, "I've just had a message from a cousin of mine in +Africa. There is a terrible sickness among the monkeys out there. They +are all catching it--and they are dying in hundreds. They have heard +of you, and beg you to come to Africa to stop the sickness." + +"Who brought the message?" asked the Doctor, taking off his spectacles +and laying down his book. + +"A swallow," said Chee-Chee. "She is outside on the rain-butt." + +"Bring her in by the fire," said the Doctor. "She must be perished with +the cold. The swallows flew South six weeks ago!" + +So the swallow was brought in, all huddled and shivering; and although +she was a little afraid at first, she soon got warmed up and sat on the +edge of the mantelpiece and began to talk. + +When she had finished the Doctor said, + +"I would gladly go to Africa--especially in this bitter weather. But +I'm afraid we haven't money enough to buy the tickets. Get me the +money-box, Chee-Chee." + +So the monkey climbed up and got it off the top shelf of the dresser. + +There was nothing in it--not one single penny! + +"I felt sure there was twopence left," said the Doctor. + +"There WAS," said the owl. "But you spent it on a rattle for that +badger's baby when he was teething." + +"Did I?" said the Doctor--"dear me, dear me! What a nuisance money is, +to be sure! Well, never mind. Perhaps if I go down to the seaside I +shall be able to borrow a boat that will take us to Africa. I knew a +seaman once who brought his baby to me with measles. Maybe he'll lend +us his boat--the baby got well." + +So early the next morning the Doctor went down to the seashore. And +when he came back he told the animals it was all right--the sailor was +going to lend them the boat. + +Then the crocodile and the monkey and the parrot were very glad and +began to sing, because they were going back to Africa, their real home. +And the Doctor said, + +"I shall only be able to take you three--with Jip the dog, Dab-Dab the +duck, Gub-Gub the pig and the owl, Too-Too. The rest of the animals, +like the dormice and the water-voles and the bats, they will have to go +back and live in the fields where they were born till we come home +again. But as most of them sleep through the Winter, they won't mind +that--and besides, it wouldn't be good for them to go to Africa." + +So then the parrot, who had been on long sea-voyages before, began +telling the Doctor all the things he would have to take with him on the +ship. + +"You must have plenty of pilot-bread," she said--"'hard tack' they call +it. And you must have beef in cans--and an anchor." + +"I expect the ship will have its own anchor," said the Doctor. + +"Well, make sure," said Polynesia. "Because it's very important. You +can't stop if you haven't got an anchor. And you'll need a bell." + +"What's that for?" asked the Doctor. + +"To tell the time by," said the parrot. "You go and ring it every +half-hour and then you know what time it is. And bring a whole lot of +rope--it always comes in handy on voyages." + +Then they began to wonder where they were going to get the money from +to buy all the things they needed. + +"Oh, bother it! Money again," cried the Doctor. "Goodness! I shall +be glad to get to Africa where we don't have to have any! I'll go and +ask the grocer if he will wait for his money till I get back--No, I'll +send the sailor to ask him." + +So the sailor went to see the grocer. And presently he came back with +all the things they wanted. + +Then the animals packed up; and after they had turned off the water so +the pipes wouldn't freeze, and put up the shutters, they closed the +house and gave the key to the old horse who lived in the stable. And +when they had seen that there was plenty of hay in the loft to last the +horse through the Winter, they carried all their luggage down to the +seashore and got on to the boat. + +The Cat's-meat-Man was there to see them off; and he brought a large +suet-pudding as a present for the Doctor because, he said he had been +told, you couldn't get suet-puddings in foreign parts. + +As soon as they were on the ship, Gub-Gub, the pig, asked where the +beds were, for it was four o'clock in the afternoon and he wanted his +nap. So Polynesia took him downstairs into the inside of the ship and +showed him the beds, set all on top of one another like book-shelves +against a wall. + +"Why, that isn't a bed!" cried Gub-Gub. "That's a shelf!" + +"Beds are always like that on ships," said the parrot. "It isn't a +shelf. Climb up into it and go to sleep. That's what you call 'a +bunk.'" + +"I don't think I'll go to bed yet," said Gub-Gub. "I'm too excited. I +want to go upstairs again and see them start." + +"Well, this is your first trip," said Polynesia. "You will get used to +the life after a while." And she went back up the stairs of the ship, +humming this song to herself, + + I've seen the Black Sea and the Red Sea; + I rounded the Isle of Wight; + I discovered the Yellow River, + And the Orange too by night. + Now Greenland drops behind again, + And I sail the ocean Blue. + I'm tired of all these colors, Jane, + So I'm coming back to you. + + +They were just going to start on their journey, when the Doctor said he +would have to go back and ask the sailor the way to Africa. + +But the swallow said she had been to that country many times and would +show them how to get there. + +So the Doctor told Chee-Chee to pull up the anchor and the voyage began. + + + +THE FIFTH CHAPTER + +THE GREAT JOURNEY + +NOW for six whole weeks they went sailing on and on, over the rolling +sea, following the swallow who flew before the ship to show them the +way. At night she carried a tiny lantern, so they should not miss her +in the dark; and the people on the other ships that passed said that +the light must be a shooting star. + +As they sailed further and further into the South, it got warmer and +warmer. Polynesia, Chee-Chee and the crocodile enjoyed the hot sun no +end. They ran about laughing and looking over the side of the ship to +see if they could see Africa yet. + +But the pig and the dog and the owl, Too-Too, could do nothing in such +weather, but sat at the end of the ship in the shade of a big barrel, +with their tongues hanging out, drinking lemonade. + +Dab-Dab, the duck, used to keep herself cool by jumping into the sea +and swimming behind the ship. And every once in a while, when the top +of her head got too hot, she would dive under the ship and come up on +the other side. In this way, too, she used to catch herrings on +Tuesdays and Fridays--when everybody on the boat ate fish to make the +beef last longer. + +When they got near to the Equator they saw some flying-fishes coming +towards them. And the fishes asked the parrot if this was Doctor +Dolittle's ship. When she told them it was, they said they were glad, +because the monkeys in Africa were getting worried that he would never +come. Polynesia asked them how many miles they had yet to go; and the +flying-fishes said it was only fifty-five miles now to the coast of +Africa. + +And another time a whole school of porpoises came dancing through the +waves; and they too asked Polynesia if this was the ship of the famous +doctor. And when they heard that it was, they asked the parrot if the +Doctor wanted anything for his journey. + +And Polynesia said, "Yes. We have run short of onions." + +"There is an island not far from here," said the porpoises, "where the +wild onions grow tall and strong. Keep straight on--we will get some +and catch up to you." + +So the porpoises dashed away through the sea. And very soon the parrot +saw them again, coming up behind, dragging the onions through the waves +in big nets made of seaweed. + +The next evening, as the sun was going down the Doctor said, + +"Get me the telescope, Chee-Chee. Our journey is nearly ended. Very +soon we should be able to see the shores of Africa." + +And about half an hour later, sure enough, they thought they could see +something in front that might be land. But it began to get darker and +darker and they couldn't be sure. Then a great storm came up, with +thunder and lightning. The wind howled; the rain came down in +torrents; and the waves got so high they splashed right over the boat. + +Presently there was a big BANG! The ship stopped and rolled over on +its side. + +"What's happened?" asked the Doctor, coming up from downstairs. + +"I'm not sure," said the parrot; "but I think we're ship-wrecked. Tell +the duck to get out and see." + +So Dab-Dab dived right down under the waves. And when she came up she +said they had struck a rock; there was a big hole in the bottom of the +ship; the water was coming in; and they were sinking fast. + +"We must have run into Africa," said the Doctor. "Dear me, dear +me!--Well--we must all swim to land." + +But Chee-Chee and Gub-Gub did not know how to swim. + +"Get the rope!" said Polynesia. "I told you it would come in handy. +Where's that duck? Come here, Dab-Dab. Take this end of the rope, fly +to the shore and tie it on to a palm-tree; and we'll hold the other end +on the ship here. Then those that can't swim must climb along the rope +till they reach the land. That's what you call a 'life-line.'" + +So they all got safely to the shore--some swimming, some flying; and +those that climbed along the rope brought the Doctor's trunk and +handbag with them. + +But the ship was no good any more--with the big hole in the bottom; and +presently the rough sea beat it to pieces on the rocks and the timbers +floated away. + +Then they all took shelter in a nice dry cave they found, high up in +the cliffs, till the storm was over. + +When the sun came out next morning they went down to the sandy beach to +dry themselves. + +"Dear old Africa!" sighed Polynesia. "It's good to get back. Just +think--it'll be a hundred and sixty-nine years to-morrow since I was +here! And it hasn't changed a bit! Same old palm-trees; same old red +earth; same old black ants! There's no place like home!" + +And the others noticed she had tears in her eyes--she was so pleased to +see her country once again. + +Then the Doctor missed his high hat; for it had been blown into the sea +during the storm. So Dab-Dab went out to look for it. And presently +she saw it, a long way off, floating on the water like a toy-boat. + +When she flew down to get it, she found one of the white mice, very +frightened, sitting inside it. + +"What are you doing here?" asked the duck. "You were told to stay +behind in Puddleby." + +"I didn't want to be left behind," said the mouse. "I wanted to see +what Africa was like--I have relatives there. So I hid in the baggage +and was brought on to the ship with the hard-tack. When the ship sank +I was terribly frightened--because I cannot swim far. I swam as long +as I could, but I soon got all exhausted and thought I was going to +sink. And then, just at that moment, the old man's hat came floating +by; and I got into it because I did not want to be drowned." + +So the duck took up the hat with the mouse in it and brought it to the +Doctor on the shore. And they all gathered round to have a look. + +"That's what you call a 'stowaway,'" said the parrot. + +Presently, when they were looking for a place in the trunk where the +white mouse could travel comfortably, the monkey, Chee-Chee, suddenly +said, + +"Sh! I hear footsteps in the jungle!" + +They all stopped talking and listened. And soon a black man came down +out of the woods and asked them what they were doing there. + +"My name is John Dolittle--M. D.," said the Doctor. "I have been asked +to come to Africa to cure the monkeys who are sick." + +"You must all come before the King," said the black man. + +"What king?" asked the Doctor, who didn't want to waste any time. + +"The King of the Jolliginki," the man answered. "All these lands +belong to him; and all strangers must be brought before him. Follow +me." + +So they gathered up their baggage and went off, following the man +through the jungle. + + + +THE SIXTH CHAPTER + +POLYNESIA AND THE KING + +WHEN they had gone a little way through the thick forest they came to a +wide, clear space; and they saw the King's palace which was made of mud. + +This was where the King lived with his Queen, Ermintrude, and their +son, Prince Bumpo. The Prince was away fishing for salmon in the +river. But the King and Queen were sitting under an umbrella before +the palace door. And Queen Ermintrude was asleep. + +When the Doctor had come up to the palace the King asked him his +business; and the Doctor told him why he had come to Africa. + +"You may not travel through my lands," said the King. "Many years ago +a white man came to these shores; and I was very kind to him. But after +he had dug holes in the ground to get the gold, and killed all the +elephants to get their ivory tusks, he went away secretly in his +ship--without so much as saying 'Thank you.' Never again shall a white +man travel through the lands of Jolliginki." + +Then the King turned to some of the black men who were standing near +and said, "Take away this medicine-man--with all his animals, and lock +them up in my strongest prison." + +So six of the black men led the Doctor and all his pets away and shut +them up in a stone dungeon. The dungeon had only one little window, +high up in the wall, with bars in it; and the door was strong and thick. + +Then they all grew very sad; and Gub-Gub, the pig, began to cry. But +Chee-Chee said he would spank him if he didn't stop that horrible +noise; and he kept quiet. + +"Are we all here?" asked the Doctor, after he had got used to the dim +light. + +"Yes, I think so," said the duck and started to count them. + +"Where's Polynesia?" asked the crocodile. "She isn't here." + +"Are you sure?" said the Doctor. "Look again. Polynesia! Polynesia! +Where are you?" + +"I suppose she escaped," grumbled the crocodile. "Well, that's just +like her!--Sneaked off into the jungle as soon as her friends got into +trouble." + +"I'm not that kind of a bird," said the parrot, climbing out of the +pocket in the tail of the Doctor's coat. "You see, I'm small enough to +get through the bars of that window; and I was afraid they would put me +in a cage instead. So while the King was busy talking, I hid in the +Doctor's pocket--and here I am! That's what you call a 'ruse,'" she +said, smoothing down her feathers with her beak. + +"Good Gracious!" cried the Doctor. "You're lucky I didn't sit on you." + +"Now listen," said Polynesia, "to-night, as soon as it gets dark, I am +going to creep through the bars of that window and fly over to the +palace. And then--you'll see--I'll soon find a way to make the King +let us all out of prison." + +"Oh, what can YOU do?" said Gub-Gub, turning up his nose and beginning +to cry again. "You're only a bird!" + +"Quite true," said the parrot. "But do not forget that although I am +only a bird, I CAN TALK LIKE A MAN--and I know these people." + +So that night, when the moon was shining through the palm-trees and all +the King's men were asleep, the parrot slipped out through the bars of +the prison and flew across to the palace. The pantry window had been +broken by a tennis ball the week before; and Polynesia popped in +through the hole in the glass. + +She heard Prince Bumpo snoring in his bed-room at the back of the +palace. Then she tip-toed up the stairs till she came to the King's +bedroom. She opened the door gently and peeped in. + +The Queen was away at a dance that night at her cousin's; but the King +was in bed fast asleep. + +Polynesia crept in, very softly, and got under the bed. + +Then she coughed--just the way Doctor Dolittle used to cough. +Polynesia could mimic any one. + +The King opened his eyes and said sleepily: "Is that you, Ermintrude?" +(He thought it was the Queen come back from the dance.) + +Then the parrot coughed again--loud, like a man. And the King sat up, +wide awake, and said, "Who's that?" + +"I am Doctor Dolittle," said the parrot--just the way the Doctor would +have said it. + +"What are you doing in my bedroom?" cried the King. "How dare you get +out of prison! Where are you?--I don't see you." + +But the parrot just laughed--a long, deep jolly laugh, like the +Doctor's. + +"Stop laughing and come here at once, so I can see you," said the King. + +"Foolish King!" answered Polynesia. "Have you forgotten that you are +talking to John Dolittle, M.D.--the most wonderful man on earth? Of +course you cannot see me. I have made myself invisible. There is +nothing I cannot do. Now listen: I have come here to-night to warn you. +If you don't let me and my animals travel through your kingdom, I will +make you and all your people sick like the monkeys. For I can make +people well: and I can make people ill--just by raising my little +finger. Send your soldiers at once to open the dungeon door, or you +shall have mumps before the morning sun has risen on the hills of +Jolliginki." + +Then the King began to tremble and was very much afraid. + +"Doctor," he cried, "it shall be as you say. Do not raise your little +finger, please!" And he jumped out of bed and ran to tell the soldiers +to open the prison door. + +As soon as he was gone, Polynesia crept downstairs and left the palace +by the pantry window. + +But the Queen, who was just letting herself in at the backdoor with a +latch-key, saw the parrot getting out through the broken glass. And +when the King came back to bed she told him what she had seen. + +Then the King understood that he had been tricked, and he was +dreadfully angry. He hurried back to the prison at once + +But he was too late. The door stood open. The dungeon was empty. The +Doctor and all his animals were gone. + + + +THE SEVENTH CHAPTER + +THE BRIDGE OF APES + +QUEEN ERMINTRUDE had never in her life seen her husband so terrible as +he got that night. He gnashed his teeth with rage. He called +everybody a fool. He threw his tooth-brush at the palace cat. He +rushed round in his night-shirt and woke up all his army and sent them +into the jungle to catch the Doctor. Then he made all his servants go +too--his cooks and his gardeners and his barber and Prince Bumpo's +tutor--even the Queen, who was tired from dancing in a pair of tight +shoes, was packed off to help the soldiers in their search. + +All this time the Doctor and his animals were running through the +forest towards the Land of the Monkeys as fast as they could go. + +Gub-Gub, with his short legs, soon got tired; and the Doctor had to +carry him--which made it pretty hard when they had the trunk and the +hand-bag with them as well. + +The King of the Jolliginki thought it would be easy for his army to +find them, because the Doctor was in a strange land and would not know +his way. But he was wrong; because the monkey, Chee-Chee, knew all the +paths through the jungle--better even than the King's men did. And he +led the Doctor and his pets to the very thickest part of the forest--a +place where no man had ever been before--and hid them all in a big +hollow tree between high rocks. + +"We had better wait here," said Chee-Chee, "till the soldiers have gone +back to bed. Then we can go on into the Land of the Monkeys." + +So there they stayed the whole night through. + +They often heard the King's men searching and talking in the jungle +round about. But they were quite safe, for no one knew of that +hiding-place but Chee-Chee--not even the other monkeys. + +At last, when daylight began to come through the thick leaves overhead, +they heard Queen Ermintrude saying in a very tired voice that it was no +use looking any more--that they might as well go back and get some +sleep. + +As soon as the soldiers had all gone home, Chee-Chee brought the Doctor +and his animals out of the hiding-place and they set off for the Land +of the Monkeys. + +It was a long, long way; and they often got very tired--especially +Gub-Gub. But when he cried they gave him milk out of the cocoanuts +which he was very fond of. + +They always had plenty to eat and drink; because Chee-Chee and +Polynesia knew all the different kinds of fruits and vegetables that +grow in the jungle, and where to find them--like dates and figs and +ground-nuts and ginger and yams. They used to make their lemonade out +of the juice of wild oranges, sweetened with honey which they got from +the bees' nests in hollow trees. No matter what it was they asked for, +Chee-Chee and Polynesia always seemed to be able to get it for them--or +something like it. They even got the Doctor some tobacco one day, when +he had finished what he had brought with him and wanted to smoke. + +At night they slept in tents made of palm-leaves, on thick, soft beds +of dried grass. And after a while they got used to walking such a lot +and did not get so tired and enjoyed the life of travel very much. + +But they were always glad when the night came and they stopped for +their resting-time. Then the Doctor used to make a little fire of +sticks; and after they had had their supper, they would sit round it in +a ring, listening to Polynesia singing songs about the sea, or to +Chee-Chee telling stories of the jungle. + +And many of the tales that Chee-Chee told were very interesting. +Because although the monkeys had no history-books of their own before +Doctor Dolittle came to write them for them, they remember everything +that happens by telling stories to their children. And Chee-Chee spoke +of many things his grandmother had told him--tales of long, long, long +ago, before Noah and the Flood--of the days when men dressed in +bear-skins and lived in holes in the rock and ate their mutton raw, +because they did not know what cooking was--having never seen a fire. +And he told them of the Great Mammoths and Lizards, as long as a train, +that wandered over the mountains in those times, nibbling from the +tree-tops. And often they got so interested listening, that when he +had finished they found their fire had gone right out; and they had to +scurry round to get more sticks and build a new one. + +Now when the King's army had gone back and told the King that they +couldn't find the Doctor, the King sent them out again and told them +they must stay in the jungle till they caught him. So all this time, +while the Doctor and his animals were going along towards the Land of +the Monkeys, thinking themselves quite safe, they were still being +followed by the King's men. If Chee-Chee had known this, he would most +likely have hidden them again. But he didn't know it. + +One day Chee-Chee climbed up a high rock and looked out over the +tree-tops. And when he came down he said they were now quite close to +the Land of the Monkeys and would soon be there. + +And that same evening, sure enough, they saw Chee-Chee's cousin and a +lot of other monkeys, who had not yet got sick, sitting in the trees by +the edge of a swamp, looking and waiting for them. And when they saw +the famous doctor really come, these monkeys made a tremendous noise, +cheering and waving leaves and swinging out of the branches to greet +him. + +They wanted to carry his bag and his trunk and everything he had--and +one of the bigger ones even carried Gub-Gub who had got tired again. +Then two of them rushed on in front to tell the sick monkeys that the +great doctor had come at last. + +But the King's men, who were still following, had heard the noise of +the monkeys cheering; and they at last knew where the Doctor was, and +hastened on to catch him. + +The big monkey carrying Gub-Gub was coming along behind slowly, and he +saw the Captain of the army sneaking through the trees. So he hurried +after the Doctor and told him to run. + +Then they all ran harder than they had ever run in their lives; and the +King's men, coming after them, began to run too; and the Captain ran +hardest of all. + +Then the Doctor tripped over his medicine-bag and fell down in the mud, +and the Captain thought he would surely catch him this time. + +But the Captain had very long ears--though his hair was very short. +And as he sprang forward to take hold of the Doctor, one of his ears +caught fast in a tree; and the rest of the army had to stop and help +him. + +By this time the Doctor had picked himself up, and on they went again, +running and running. And Chee-Chee shouted, + +"It's all right! We haven't far to go now!" + +But before they could get into the Land of the Monkeys, they came to a +steep cliff with a river flowing below. This was the end of the +Kingdom of Jolliginki; and the Land of the Monkeys was on the other +side--across the river. + +And Jip, the dog, looked down over the edge of the steep, steep cliff +and said, + +"Golly! How are we ever going to get across?" + +"Oh, dear!" said Gub-Gub. "The King's men are quite close now--Look at +them! I am afraid we are going to be taken back to prison again." +And he began to weep. + +But the big monkey who was carrying the pig dropped him on the ground +and cried out to the other monkeys. + +"Boys--a bridge! Quick!--Make a bridge! We've only a minute to do it. +They've got the Captain loose, and he's coming on like a deer. Get +lively! A bridge! A bridge!" + +The Doctor began to wonder what they were going to make a bridge out +of, and he gazed around to see if they had any boards hidden any place. + +But when he looked back at the cliff, there, hanging across the river, +was a bridge all ready for him--made of living monkeys! For while his +back was turned, the monkeys--quick as a flash--had made themselves +into a bridge, just by holding hands and feet. + +And the big one shouted to the Doctor, "Walk over! Walk over--all of +you--hurry!" + +Gub-Gub was a bit scared, walking on such a narrow bridge at that dizzy +height above the river. But he got over all right; and so did all of +them. + +John Dolittle was the last to cross. And just as he was getting to the +other side, the King's men came rushing up to the edge of the cliff. + +Then they shook their fists and yelled with rage. For they saw they +were too late. The Doctor and all his animals were safe in the Land of +the Monkeys and the bridge was pulled across to the other side. + +Then Chee-Chee turned to the Doctor and said, + +"Many great explorers and gray-bearded naturalists have lain long weeks +hidden in the jungle waiting to see the monkeys do that trick. But we +never let a white man get a glimpse of it before. You are the first to +see the famous 'Bridge of Apes.'" + +And the Doctor felt very pleased. + + + +THE EIGHTH CHAPTER + +THE LEADER OF THE LIONS + +JOHN DOLITTLE now became dreadfully, awfully busy. He found hundreds +and thousands of monkeys sick--gorillas, orangoutangs, chimpanzees, +dog-faced baboons, marmosettes, gray monkeys, red ones--all kinds. And +many had died. + +The first thing he did was to separate the sick ones from the well +ones. Then he got Chee-Chee and his cousin to build him a little house +of grass. The next thing: he made all the monkeys who were still well +come and be vaccinated. + +And for three days and three nights the monkeys kept coming from the +jungles and the valleys and the hills to the little house of grass, +where the Doctor sat all day and all night, vaccinating and vaccinating. + +Then he had another house made--a big one, with a lot of beds in it; +and he put all the sick ones in this house. + +But so many were sick, there were not enough well ones to do the +nursing. So he sent messages to the other animals, like the lions and +the leopards and the antelopes, to come and help with the nursing. + +But the Leader of the Lions was a very proud creature. And when he +came to the Doctor's big house full of beds he seemed angry and +scornful. + +"Do you dare to ask me, Sir?" he said, glaring at the Doctor. "Do you +dare to ask me--ME, THE KING OF BEASTS, to wait on a lot of dirty +monkeys? Why, I wouldn't even eat them between meals!" + +Although the lion looked very terrible, the Doctor tried hard not to +seem afraid of him. + +"I didn't ask you to eat them," he said quietly. "And besides, they're +not dirty. They've all had a bath this morning. YOUR coat looks as +though it needed brushing--badly. Now listen, and I'll tell you +something: the day may come when the lions get sick. And if you don't +help the other animals now, the lions may find themselves left all +alone when THEY are in trouble. That often happens to proud people." + +"The lions are never IN trouble--they only MAKE trouble," said the +Leader, turning up his nose. And he stalked away into the jungle, +feeling he had been rather smart and clever. + +Then the leopards got proud too and said they wouldn't help. And then +of course the antelopes--although they were too shy and timid to be +rude to the Doctor like the lion--THEY pawed the ground, and smiled +foolishly, and said they had never been nurses before. + +And now the poor Doctor was worried frantic, wondering where he could +get help enough to take care of all these thousands of monkeys in bed. + +But the Leader of the Lions, when he got back to his den, saw his wife, +the Queen Lioness, come running out to meet him with her hair untidy. + +"One of the cubs won't eat," she said. "I don't know WHAT to do with +him. He hasn't taken a thing since last night." + +And she began to cry and shake with nervousness--for she was a good +mother, even though she was a lioness. + +So the Leader went into his den and looked at his children--two very +cunning little cubs, lying on the floor. And one of them seemed quite +poorly. + +Then the lion told his wife, quite proudly, just what he had said to +the Doctor. And she got so angry she nearly drove him out of the den. +"You never DID have a grain of sense!" she screamed. "All the animals +from here to the Indian Ocean are talking about this wonderful man, and +how he can cure any kind of sickness, and how kind he is--the only man +in the whole world who can talk the language of the animals! And now, +NOW--when we have a sick baby on our hands, you must go and offend him! +You great booby! Nobody but a fool is ever rude to a GOOD doctor. +You--," and she started pulling her husband's hair. + +"Go back to that white man at once," she yelled, "and tell him you're +sorry. And take all the other empty-headed lions with you--and those +stupid leopards and antelopes. Then do everything the Doctor tells +you. Work hard! And perhaps he will be kind enough to come and see +the cub later. Now be off!-- HURRY, I tell you! You're not fit to be +a father!" + +And she went into the den next door, where another mother-lion lived, +and told her all about it. + +So the Leader of the Lions went back to the Doctor and said, "I +happened to be passing this way and thought I'd look in. Got any help +yet?" + +"No," said the Doctor. "I haven't. And I'm dreadfully worried." + +"Help's pretty hard to get these days," said the lion. "Animals don't +seem to want to work any more. You can't blame them--in a way.... +Well, seeing you're in difficulties, I don't mind doing what I +can--just to oblige you--so long as I don't have to wash the creatures. +And I have told all the other hunting animals to come and do their +share. The leopards should be here any minute now.... Oh, and by the +way, we've got a sick cub at home. I don't think there's much the +matter with him myself. But the wife is anxious. If you are around +that way this evening, you might take a look at him, will you?" + +Then the Doctor was very happy; for all the lions and the leopards and +the antelopes and the giraffes and the zebras--all the animals of the +forests and the mountains and the plains--came to help him in his work. +There were so many of them that he had to send some away, and only kept +the cleverest. + +And now very soon the monkeys began to get better. At the end of a +week the big house full of beds was half empty. And at the end of the +second week the last monkey had got well. + +Then the Doctor's work was done; and he was so tired he went to bed and +slept for three days without even turning over. + + + +THE NINTH CHAPTER + +THE MONKEYS' COUNCIL + +CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor's door, keeping everybody away till +he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the monkeys that he must now go +back to Puddleby. + +They were very surprised at this; for they had thought that he was +going to stay with them forever. And that night all the monkeys got +together in the jungle to talk it over. + +And the Chief Chimpanzee rose up and said, + +"Why is it the good man is going away? Is he not happy here with us?" + +But none of them could answer him. + +Then the Grand Gorilla got up and said, + +"I think we all should go to him and ask him to stay. Perhaps if we +make him a new house and a bigger bed, and promise him plenty of +monkey-servants to work for him and to make life pleasant for +him--perhaps then he will not wish to go." + + +Then Chee-Chee got up; and all the others whispered, "Sh! Look! +Chee-Chee, the great Traveler, is about to speak!" + +And Chee-Chee said to the other monkeys, + +"My friends, I am afraid it is useless to ask the Doctor to stay. He +owes money in Puddleby; and he says he must go back and pay it." + +And the monkeys asked him, "What is MONEY?" + + +Then Chee-Chee told them that in the Land of the White Men you could +get nothing without money; you could DO nothing without money--that it +was almost impossible to LIVE without money. + +And some of them asked, "But can you not even eat and drink without +paying?" + +But Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he told them that even he, when +he was with the organ-grinder, had been made to ask the children for +money. + +And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest Orangoutang and said, +"Cousin, surely these Men be strange creatures! Who would wish to live +in such a land? My gracious, how paltry!" + +Then Chee-Chee said, + +"When we were coming to you we had no boat to cross the sea in and no +money to buy food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us some +biscuits; and we said we would pay him when we came back. And we +borrowed a boat from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks when we +reached the shores of Africa. Now the Doctor says he must go back and +get the sailor another boat--because the man was poor and his ship was +all he had." + +And the monkeys were all silent for a while, sitting quite still upon +the ground and thinking hard. + +At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said, + +"I do not think we ought to let this good man leave our land till we +have given him a fine present to take with him, so that he may know we +are grateful for all that he has done for us." + +And a little, tiny red monkey who was sitting up in a tree shouted down, + +"I think that too!" + +And then they all cried out, making a great noise, "Yes, yes. Let us +give him the finest present a White Man ever had!" + +Now they began to wonder and ask one another what would be the best +thing to give him. And one said, "Fifty bags of cocoanuts!" And +another--"A hundred bunches of bananas!-- At least he shall not have +to buy his fruit in the Land Where You Pay to Eat!" + +But Chee-Chee told them that all these things would be too heavy to +carry so far and would go bad before half was eaten. + +"If you want to please him," he said, "give him an animal. You may be +sure he will be kind to it. Give him some rare animal they have not +got in the menageries." + +And the monkeys asked him, "What are MENAGERIES?" + +Then Chee-Chee explained to them that menageries were places in the +Land of the White Men, where animals were put in cages for people to +come and look at. And the monkeys were very shocked and said to one +another, + +"These Men are like thoughtless young ones--stupid and easily amused. +Sh! It is a prison he means." + +So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare animal it could be that they +should give the Doctor--one the White Men had not seen before. And the +Major of the Marmosettes asked, + +"Have they an iguana over there?" + +But Chee-Chee said, "Yes, there is one in the London Zoo." + +And another asked, "Have they an okapi?" + +But Chee-Chee said, "Yes. In Belgium, where my organ-grinder took me +five years ago, they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp." + +And another asked, "Have they a pushmi-pullyu?" + +Then Chee-Chee said, "No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu. +Let us give him that." + + + +THE TENTH CHAPTER + +THE RAREST ANIMAL OF ALL + +PUSHMI-PULLYUS are now extinct. That means, there aren't any more. +But long ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive, there were some of them +still left in the deepest jungles of Africa; and even then they were +very, very scarce. They had no tail, but a head at each end, and sharp +horns on each head. They were very shy and terribly hard to catch. +The black men get most of their animals by sneaking up behind them +while they are not looking. But you could not do this with the +pushmi-pullyu--because, no matter which way you came towards him, he +was always facing you. And besides, only one half of him slept at a +time. The other head was always awake--and watching. This was why +they were never caught and never seen in Zoos. Though many of the +greatest huntsmen and the cleverest menagerie-keepers spent years of +their lives searching through the jungles in all weathers for +pushmi-pullyus, not a single one had ever been caught. Even then, +years ago, he was the only animal in the world with two heads. + +Well, the monkeys set out hunting for this animal through the forest. +And after they had gone a good many miles, one of them found peculiar +footprints near the edge of a river; and they knew that a pushmi-pullyu +must be very near that spot. + +Then they went along the bank of the river a little way and they saw a +place where the grass was high and thick; and they guessed that he was +in there. + +So they all joined hands and made a great circle round the high grass. +The pushmi-pullyu heard them coming; and he tried hard to break through +the ring of monkeys. But he couldn't do it. When he saw that it was +no use trying to escape, he sat down and waited to see what they wanted. + +They asked him if he would go with Doctor Dolittle and be put on show +in the Land of the White Men. + +But he shook both his heads hard and said, "Certainly not!" + +They explained to him that he would not be shut up in a menagerie but +would just be looked at. They told him that the Doctor was a very kind +man but hadn't any money; and people would pay to see a two-headed +animal and the Doctor would get rich and could pay for the boat he had +borrowed to come to Africa in. + +But he answered, "No. You know how shy I am--I hate being stared at." +And he almost began to cry. + +Then for three days they tried to persuade him. + +And at the end of the third day he said he would come with them and see +what kind of a man the Doctor was, first. + +So the monkeys traveled back with the pushmi-pullyu. And when they +came to where the Doctor's little house of grass was, they knocked on +the door. + +The duck, who was packing the trunk, said, "Come in!" + +And Chee-Chee very proudly took the animal inside and showed him to the +Doctor. + +"What in the world is it?" asked John Dolittle, gazing at the strange +creature. + +"Lord save us!" cried the duck. "How does it make up its mind?" + +"It doesn't look to me as though it had any," said Jip, the dog. + +"This, Doctor," said Chee-Chee, "is the pushmi-pullyu--the rarest +animal of the African jungles, the only two-headed beast in the world! +Take him home with you and your fortune's made. People will pay any +money to see him." + +"But I don't want any money," said the Doctor. + +"Yes, you do," said Dab-Dab, the duck. "Don't you remember how we had +to pinch and scrape to pay the butcher's bill in Puddleby? And how are +you going to get the sailor the new boat you spoke of--unless we have +the money to buy it?" + + +"I was going to make him one," said the Doctor. + +"Oh, do be sensible!" cried Dab-Dab. "Where would you get all the wood +and the nails to make one with?--And besides, what are we going to live +on? We shall be poorer than ever when we get back. Chee-Chee's +perfectly right: take the funny-looking thing along, do!" + +"Well, perhaps there is something in what you say," murmured the +Doctor. "It certainly would make a nice new kind of pet. But does the +er--what-do-you-call-it really want to go abroad?" + +"Yes, I'll go," said the pushmi-pullyu who saw at once, from the +Doctor's face, that he was a man to be trusted. "You have been so kind +to the animals here--and the monkeys tell me that I am the only one who +will do. But you must promise me that if I do not like it in the Land +of the White Men you will send me back." + +"Why, certainly--of course, of course," said the Doctor. "Excuse me, +surely you are related to the Deer Family, are you not?" + +"Yes," said the pushmi-pullyu--"to the Abyssinian Gazelles and the +Asiatic Chamois--on my mother's side. My father's great-grandfather +was the last of the Unicorns." + +"Most interesting!" murmured the Doctor; and he took a book out of the +trunk which Dab-Dab was packing and began turning the pages. "Let us +see if Buffon says anything--" + +"I notice," said the duck, "that you only talk with one of your mouths. +Can't the other head talk as well?" + +"Oh, yes," said the pushmi-pullyu. "But I keep the other mouth for +eating--mostly. In that way I can talk while I am eating without being +rude. Our people have always been very polite." + +When the packing was finished and everything was ready to start, the +monkeys gave a grand party for the Doctor, and all the animals of the +jungle came. And they had pineapples and mangoes and honey and all +sorts of good things to eat and drink. + +After they had all finished eating, the Doctor got up and said, + +"My friends: I am not clever at speaking long words after dinner, like +some men; and I have just eaten many fruits and much honey. But I wish +to tell you that I am very sad at leaving your beautiful country. +Because I have things to do in the Land of the White Men, I must go. +After I have gone, remember never to let the flies settle on your food +before you eat it; and do not sleep on the ground when the rains are +coming. I--er--er--I hope you will all live happily ever after." + +When the Doctor stopped speaking and sat down, all the monkeys clapped +their hands a long time and said to one another, "Let it be remembered +always among our people that he sat and ate with us, here, under the +trees. For surely he is the Greatest of Men!" + +And the Grand Gorilla, who had the strength of seven horses in his +hairy arms, rolled a great rock up to the head of the table and said, + +"This stone for all time shall mark the spot." + +And even to this day, in the heart of the Jungle, that stone still is +there. And monkey-mothers, passing through the forest with their +families, still point down at it from the branches and whisper to their +children, "Sh! There it is--look--where the Good White Man sat and ate +food with us in the Year of the Great Sickness!" + +Then, when the party was over, the Doctor and his pets started out to +go back to the seashore. And all the monkeys went with him as far as +the edge of their country, carrying his trunk and bags, to see him off. + + + +THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER + +THE BLACK PRINCE + +BY the edge of the river they stopped and said farewell. + +This took a long time, because all those thousands of monkeys wanted to +shake John Dolittle by the hand. + +Afterwards, when the Doctor and his pets were going on alone, Polynesia +said, + +"We must tread softly and talk low as we go through the land of the +Jolliginki. If the King should hear us, he will send his soldiers to +catch us again; for I am sure he is still very angry over the trick I +played on him." + +"What I am wondering," said the Doctor, "is where we are going to get +another boat to go home in.... Oh well, perhaps we'll find one lying +about on the beach that nobody is using. 'Never lift your foot till +you come to the stile.'" + +One day, while they were passing through a very thick part of the +forest, Chee-Chee went ahead of them to look for cocoanuts. And while +he was away, the Doctor and the rest of the animals, who did not know +the jungle-paths so well, got lost in the deep woods. They wandered +around and around but could not find their way down to the seashore. + +Chee-Chee, when he could not see them anywhere, was terribly upset. He +climbed high trees and looked out from the top branches to try and see +the Doctor's high hat; he waved and shouted; he called to all the +animals by name. But it was no use. They seemed to have disappeared +altogether. + +Indeed they had lost their way very badly. They had strayed a long way +off the path, and the jungle was so thick with bushes and creepers and +vines that sometimes they could hardly move at all, and the Doctor had +to take out his pocket-knife and cut his way along. They stumbled into +wet, boggy places; they got all tangled up in thick +convolvulus-runners; they scratched themselves on thorns, and twice +they nearly lost the medicine-bag in the under-brush. There seemed no +end to their troubles; and nowhere could they come upon a path. + +At last, after blundering about like this for many days, getting their +clothes torn and their faces covered with mud, they walked right into +the King's back-garden by mistake. The King's men came running up at +once and caught them. + +But Polynesia flew into a tree in the garden, without anybody seeing +her, and hid herself. The Doctor and the rest were taken before the +King. + +"Ha, ha!" cried the King. "So you are caught again! This time you +shall not escape. Take them all back to prison and put double locks on +the door. This White Man shall scrub my kitchen-floor for the rest of +his life!" + +So the Doctor and his pets were led back to prison and locked up. And +the Doctor was told that in the morning he must begin scrubbing the +kitchen-floor. + +They were all very unhappy. + +"This is a great nuisance," said the Doctor. "I really must get back to +Puddleby. That poor sailor will think I've stolen his ship if I don't +get home soon.... I wonder if those hinges are loose." + +But the door was very strong and firmly locked. There seemed no chance +of getting out. Then Gub-Gub began to cry again. + +All this time Polynesia was still sitting in the tree in the +palace-garden. She was saying nothing and blinking her eyes. + +This was always a very bad sign with Polynesia. Whenever she said +nothing and blinked her eyes, it meant that somebody had been making +trouble, and she was thinking out some way to put things right. People +who made trouble for Polynesia or her friends were nearly always sorry +for it afterwards. + +Presently she spied Chee-Chee swinging through the trees still looking +for the Doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and asked +her what had become of him. + +"The Doctor and all the animals have been caught by the King's men and +locked up again," whispered Polynesia. "We lost our way in the jungle +and blundered into the palace-garden by mistake." + +"But couldn't you guide them?" asked Chee-Chee; and he began to scold +the parrot for letting them get lost while he was away looking for the +cocoanuts. + +"It was all that stupid pig's fault," said Polynesia. "He would keep +running off the path hunting for ginger-roots. And I was kept so busy +catching him and bringing him back, that I turned to the left, instead +of the right, when we reached the swamp.--Sh!--Look! There's Prince +Bumpo coming into the garden! He must not see us.--Don't move, whatever +you do!" + +And there, sure enough, was Prince Bumpo, the King's son, opening the +garden-gate. He carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He came +strolling down the gravel-walk, humming a sad song, till he reached a +stone seat right under the tree where the parrot and the monkey were +hiding. Then he lay down on the seat and began reading the +fairy-stories to himself. + +Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him, keeping very quiet and still. + +After a while the King's son laid the book down and sighed a weary sigh. + +"If I were only a WHITE prince!" said he, with a dreamy, far-away look +in his eyes. + +Then the parrot, talking in a small, high voice like a little girl, +said aloud, + +"Bumpo, some one might turn thee into a white prince perchance." + +The King's son started up off the seat and looked all around. + +"What is this I hear?" he cried. "Methought the sweet music of a +fairy's silver voice rang from yonder bower! Strange!" + +"Worthy Prince," said Polynesia, keeping very still so Bumpo couldn't +see her, "thou sayest winged words of truth. For 'tis I, Tripsitinka, +the Queen of the Fairies, that speak to thee. I am hiding in a +rose-bud." + +"Oh tell me, Fairy-Queen," cried Bumpo, clasping his hands in joy, "who +is it can turn me white?" + +"In thy father's prison," said the parrot, "there lies a famous wizard, +John Dolittle by name. Many things he knows of medicine and magic, and +mighty deeds has he performed. Yet thy kingly father leaves him +languishing long and lingering hours. Go to him, brave Bumpo, +secretly, when the sun has set; and behold, thou shalt be made the +whitest prince that ever won fair lady! I have said enough. I must +now go back to Fairyland. Farewell!" + +"Farewell!" cried the Prince. "A thousand thanks, good Tripsitinka!" + +And he sat down on the seat again with a smile upon his face, waiting +for the sun to set. + + + +THE TWELFTH CHAPTER + +MEDICINE AND MAGIC + +VERY, very quietly, making sure that no one should see her, Polynesia +then slipped out at the back of the tree and flew across to the prison. + +She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through the bars of the window, +trying to sniff the cooking-smells that came from the palace-kitchen. +She told the pig to bring the Doctor to the window because she wanted +to speak to him. So Gub-Gub went and woke the Doctor who was taking a +nap. + +"Listen," whispered the parrot, when John Dolittle's face appeared: +"Prince Bumpo is coming here to-night to see you. And you've got to +find some way to turn him white. But be sure to make him promise you +first that he will open the prison-door and find a ship for you to +cross the sea in." + +"This is all very well," said the Doctor. "But it isn't so easy to turn +a black man white. You speak as though he were a dress to be re-dyed. +It's not so simple. 'Shall the leopard change his spots, or the +Ethiopian his skin,' you know?" + +"I don't know anything about that," said Polynesia impatiently. "But +you MUST turn this man white. Think of a way--think hard. You've got +plenty of medicines left in the bag. He'll do anything for you if you +change his color. It is your only chance to get out of prison." + +"Well, I suppose it MIGHT be possible," said the Doctor. "Let me +see--," and he went over to his medicine-bag, murmuring something about +"liberated chlorine on animal-pigment--perhaps zinc-ointment, as a +temporary measure, spread thick--" + +Well, that night Prince Bumpo came secretly to the Doctor in prison and +said to him, + +"White Man, I am an unhappy prince. Years ago I went in search of The +Sleeping Beauty, whom I had read of in a book. And having traveled +through the world many days, I at last found her and kissed the lady +very gently to awaken her--as the book said I should. 'Tis true indeed +that she awoke. But when she saw my face she cried out, 'Oh, he's +black!' And she ran away and wouldn't marry me--but went to sleep again +somewhere else. So I came back, full of sadness, to my father's +kingdom. Now I hear that you are a wonderful magician and have many +powerful potions. So I come to you for help. If you will turn me +white, so that I may go back to The Sleeping Beauty, I will give you +half my kingdom and anything besides you ask." + +"Prince Bumpo," said the Doctor, looking thoughtfully at the bottles in +his medicine-bag, "supposing I made your hair a nice blonde +color--would not that do instead to make you happy?" + +"No," said Bumpo. "Nothing else will satisfy me. I must be a white +prince." + +"You know it is very hard to change the color of a prince," said the +Doctor--"one of the hardest things a magician can do. You only want +your face white, do you not?" + +"Yes, that is all," said Bumpo. "Because I shall wear shining armor +and gauntlets of steel, like the other white princes, and ride on a +horse." + +"Must your face be white all over?" asked the Doctor. + +"Yes, all over," said Bumpo--"and I would like my eyes blue too, but I +suppose that would be very hard to do." + +"Yes, it would," said the Doctor quickly. "Well, I will do what I can +for you. You will have to be very patient though--you know with some +medicines you can never be very sure. I might have to try two or three +times. You have a strong skin--yes? Well that's all right. Now come +over here by the light--Oh, but before I do anything, you must first go +down to the beach and get a ship ready, with food in it, to take me +across the sea. Do not speak a word of this to any one. And when I +have done as you ask, you must let me and all my animals out of prison. +Promise--by the crown of Jolliginki!" + +So the Prince promised and went away to get a ship ready at the +seashore. + +When he came back and said that it was done, the Doctor asked Dab-Dab +to bring a basin. Then he mixed a lot of medicines in the basin and +told Bumpo to dip his face in it. + +The Prince leaned down and put his face in--right up to the ears. + +He held it there a long time--so long that the Doctor seemed to get +dreadfully anxious and fidgety, standing first on one leg and then on +the other, looking at all the bottles he had used for the mixture, and +reading the labels on them again and again. A strong smell filled the +prison, like the smell of brown paper burning. + +At last the Prince lifted his face up out of the basin, breathing very +hard. And all the animals cried out in surprise. + +For the Prince's face had turned as white as snow, and his eyes, which +had been mud-colored, were a manly gray! + +When John Dolittle lent him a little looking-glass to see himself in, +he sang for joy and began dancing around the prison. But the Doctor +asked him not to make so much noise about it; and when he had closed +his medicine-bag in a hurry he told him to open the prison-door. + +Bumpo begged that he might keep the looking-glass, as it was the only +one in the Kingdom of Jolliginki, and he wanted to look at himself all +day long. But the Doctor said he needed it to shave with. + +Then the Prince, taking a bunch of copper keys from his pocket, undid +the great double locks. And the Doctor with all his animals ran as +fast as they could down to the seashore; while Bumpo leaned against the +wall of the empty dungeon, smiling after them happily, his big face +shining like polished ivory in the light of the moon. + +When they came to the beach they saw Polynesia and Chee-Chee waiting +for them on the rocks near the ship. + +"I feel sorry about Bumpo," said the Doctor. + +"I am afraid that medicine I used will never last. Most likely he will +be as black as ever when he wakes up in the morning--that's one reason +why I didn't like to leave the mirror with him. But then again, he +MIGHT stay white--I had never used that mixture before. To tell the +truth, I was surprised, myself, that it worked so well. But I had to +do something, didn't I?--I couldn't possibly scrub the King's kitchen +for the rest of my life. It was such a dirty kitchen!--I could see it +from the prison-window.--Well, well!--Poor Bumpo!" + +"Oh, of course he will know we were just joking with him," said the +parrot. + +"They had no business to lock us up," said Dab-Dab, waggling her tail +angrily. "We never did them any harm. Serve him right, if he does turn +black again! I hope it's a dark black." + +"But HE didn't have anything to do with it," said the Doctor. "It was +the King, his father, who had us locked up--it wasn't Bumpo's fault.... +I wonder if I ought to go back and apologize--Oh, well--I'll send him +some candy when I get to Puddleby. And who knows?--he may stay white +after all." + +"The Sleeping Beauty would never have him, even if he did," said +Dab-Dab. "He looked better the way he was, I thought. But he'd never +be anything but ugly, no matter what color he was made." + +"Still, he had a good heart," said the Doctor--"romantic, of +course--but a good heart. After all, 'handsome is as handsome does.'" + +"I don't believe the poor booby found The Sleeping Beauty at all," said +Jip, the dog. "Most likely he kissed some farmer's fat wife who was +taking a snooze under an apple-tree. Can't blame her for getting +scared! I wonder who he'll go and kiss this time. Silly business!" + +Then the pushmi-pullyu, the white mouse, Gub-Gub, Dab-Dab, Jip and the +owl, Too-Too, went on to the ship with the Doctor. But Chee-Chee, +Polynesia and the crocodile stayed behind, because Africa was their +proper home, the land where they were born. + +And when the Doctor stood upon the boat, he looked over the side across +the water. And then he remembered that they had no one with them to +guide them back to Puddleby. + +The wide, wide sea looked terribly big and lonesome in the moonlight; +and he began to wonder if they would lose their way when they passed +out of sight of land. + +But even while he was wondering, they heard a strange whispering noise, +high in the air, coming through the night. And the animals all stopped +saying Good-by and listened. + +The noise grew louder and bigger. It seemed to be coming nearer to +them--a sound like the Autumn wind blowing through the leaves of a +poplar-tree, or a great, great rain beating down upon a roof. + +And Jip, with his nose pointing and his tail quite straight, said, + +"Birds!--millions of them--flying fast--that's it!" + +And then they all looked up. And there, streaming across the face of +the moon, like a huge swarm of tiny ants, they could see thousands and +thousands of little birds. Soon the whole sky seemed full of them, and +still more kept coming--more and more. There were so many that for a +little they covered the whole moon so it could not shine, and the sea +grew dark and black--like when a storm-cloud passes over the sun. + +And presently all these birds came down close, skimming over the water +and the land; and the night-sky was left clear above, and the moon +shone as before. Still never a call nor a cry nor a song they made--no +sound but this great rustling of feathers which grew greater now than +ever. When they began to settle on the sands, along the ropes of the +ship--anywhere and everywhere except the trees--the Doctor could see +that they had blue wings and white breasts and very short, feathered +legs. As soon as they had all found a place to sit, suddenly, there +was no noise left anywhere--all was quiet; all was still. + +And in the silent moonlight John Dolittle spoke: + +"I had no idea that we had been in Africa so long. It will be nearly +Summer when we get home. For these are the swallows going back. +Swallows, I thank you for waiting for us. It is very thoughtful of +you. Now we need not be afraid that we will lose our way upon the +sea.... Pull up the anchor and set the sail!" + +When the ship moved out upon the water, those who stayed behind, +Chee-Chee, Polynesia and the crocodile, grew terribly sad. For never +in their lives had they known any one they liked so well as Doctor John +Dolittle of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. + +And after they had called Good-by to him again and again and again, +they still stood there upon the rocks, crying bitterly and waving till +the ship was out of sight. + + + +THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER + +RED SAILS AND BLUE WINGS + +SAILING homeward, the Doctor's ship had to pass the coast of Barbary. +This coast is the seashore of the Great Desert. It is a wild, lonely +place--all sand and stones. And it was here that the Barbary pirates +lived. + +These pirates, a bad lot of men, used to wait for sailors to be +shipwrecked on their shores. And often, if they saw a boat passing, +they would come out in their fast sailing-ships and chase it. When they +caught a boat like this at sea, they would steal everything on it; and +after they had taken the people off they would sink the ship and sail +back to Barbary singing songs and feeling proud of the mischief they +had done. Then they used to make the people they had caught write home +to their friends for money. And if the friends sent no money, the +pirates often threw the people into the sea. + +Now one sunshiny day the Doctor and Dab-Dab were walking up and down on +the ship for exercise; a nice fresh wind was blowing the boat along, +and everybody was happy. Presently Dab-Dab saw the sail of another +ship a long way behind them on the edge of the sea. It was a red sail. + +"I don't like the look of that sail," said Dab-Dab. "I have a feeling +it isn't a friendly ship. I am afraid there is more trouble coming to +us." + +Jip, who was lying near taking a nap in the sun, began to growl and +talk in his sleep. + +"I smell roast beef cooking," he mumbled--"underdone roast beef--with +brown gravy over it." + +"Good gracious!" cried the Doctor. "What's the matter with the dog? +Is he SMELLING in his sleep--as well as talking?" + +"I suppose he is," said Dab-Dab. "All dogs can smell in their sleep." + +"But what is he smelling?" asked the Doctor. + +"There is no roast beef cooking on our ship." "No," said Dab-Dab. "The +roast beef must be on that other ship over there." + +"But that's ten miles away," said the Doctor. "He couldn't smell that +far surely!" + +"Oh, yes, he could," said Dab-Dab. "You ask him." + +Then Jip, still fast asleep, began to growl again and his lip curled up +angrily, showing his clean, white teeth. + +"I smell bad men," he growled--"the worst men I ever smelt. I smell +trouble. I smell a fight--six bad scoundrels fighting against one +brave man. I want to help him. Woof--oo--WOOF!" Then he barked, loud, +and woke himself up with a surprised look on his face. + +"See!" cried Dab-Dab. "That boat is nearer now. You can count its +three big sails--all red. Whoever it is, they are coming after us.... I +wonder who they are." + +"They are bad sailors," said Jip; "and their ship is very swift. They +are surely the pirates of Barbary." + +"Well, we must put up more sails on our boat," said the Doctor, "so we +can go faster and get away from them. Run downstairs, Jip, and fetch +me all the sails you see." + +The dog hurried downstairs and dragged up every sail he could find. + +But even when all these were put up on the masts to catch the wind, the +boat did not go nearly as fast as the pirates'--which kept coming on +behind, closer and closer. + +"This is a poor ship the Prince gave us," said Gub-Gub, the pig--"the +slowest he could find, I should think. Might as well try to win a race +in a soup-tureen as hope to get away from them in this old barge. Look +how near they are now!-- You can see the mustaches on the faces of the +men--six of them. What are we going to do?" + +Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows that +pirates were coming after them in a swift ship, and what should he do +about it. + +When the swallows heard this, they all came down on to the Doctor's +ship; and they told him to unravel some pieces of long rope and make +them into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he could. Then the ends +of these strings were tied on to the front of the ship; and the +swallows took hold of the strings with their feet and flew off, pulling +the boat along. + +And although swallows are not very strong when only one or two are by +themselves, it is different when there are a great lot of them +together. And there, tied to the Doctor's ship, were a thousand +strings; and two thousand swallows were pulling on each string--all +terribly swift fliers. + +And in a moment the Doctor found himself traveling so fast he had to +hold his hat on with both hands; for he felt as though the ship itself +were flying through waves that frothed and boiled with speed. + +And all the animals on the ship began to laugh and dance about in the +rushing air, for when they looked back at the pirates' ship, they could +see that it was growing smaller now, instead of bigger. The red sails +were being left far, far behind. + + + +THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER + +THE RATS' WARNING + +DRAGGING a ship through the sea is hard work. And after two or three +hours the swallows began to get tired in the wings and short of breath. +Then they sent a message down to the Doctor to say that they would have +to take a rest soon; and that they would pull the boat over to an +island not far off, and hide it in a deep bay till they had got breath +enough to go on. + +And presently the Doctor saw the island they had spoken of. It had a +very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it. + +When the ship had sailed safely into the bay where it could not be seen +from the open sea, the Doctor said he would get off on to the island to +look for water--because there was none left to drink on his ship. And +he told all the animals to get out too and romp on the grass to stretch +their legs. + +Now as they were getting off, the Doctor noticed that a whole lot of +rats were coming up from downstairs and leaving the ship as well. Jip +started to run after them, because chasing rats had always been his +favorite game. But the Doctor told him to stop. + +And one big black rat, who seemed to want to say something to the +Doctor, now crept forward timidly along the rail, watching the dog out +of the corner of his eye. And after he had coughed nervously two or +three times, and cleaned his whiskers and wiped his mouth, he said, + +"Ahem--er--you know of course that all ships have rats in them, Doctor, +do you not?" + +And the Doctor said, "Yes." + +"And you have heard that rats always leave a sinking ship?" + +"Yes," said the Doctor--"so I've been told." + +"People," said the rat, "always speak of it with a sneer--as though it +were something disgraceful. But you can't blame us, can you? After +all, who WOULD stay on a sinking ship, if he could get off it?" + +"It's very natural," said the Doctor--"very natural. I quite +understand.... Was there-- Was there anything else you wished to say?" + +"Yes," said the rat. "I've come to tell you that we are leaving this +one. But we wanted to warn you before we go. This is a bad ship you +have here. It isn't safe. The sides aren't strong enough. Its boards +are rotten. Before to-morrow night it will sink to the bottom of the +sea." + +"But how do you know?" asked the Doctor. + +"We always know," answered the rat. "The tips of our tails get that +tingly feeling--like when your foot's asleep. This morning, at six +o'clock, while I was getting breakfast, my tail suddenly began to +tingle. At first I thought it was my rheumatism coming back. So I +went and asked my aunt how she felt--you remember her?--the long, +piebald rat, rather skinny, who came to see you in Puddleby last Spring +with jaundice? Well--and she said HER tail was tingling like +everything! Then we knew, for sure, that this boat was going to sink +in less than two days; and we all made up our minds to leave it as soon +as we got near enough to any land. It's a bad ship, Doctor. Don't +sail in it any more, or you'll be surely drowned.... Good-by! We are +now going to look for a good place to live on this island." + +"Good-by!" said the Doctor. "And thank you very much for coming to +tell me. Very considerate of you--very! Give my regards to your aunt. +I remember her perfectly.... Leave that rat alone, Jip! Come here! +Lie down!" + +So then the Doctor and all his animals went off, carrying pails and +saucepans, to look for water on the island, while the swallows took +their rest. + +"I wonder what is the name of this island," said the Doctor, as he was +climbing up the mountainside. "It seems a pleasant place. What a lot +of birds there are!" + +"Why, these are the Canary Islands," said Dab-Dab. "Don't you hear the +canaries singing?" + +The Doctor stopped and listened. + +"Why, to be sure--of course!" he said. "How stupid of me! I wonder if +they can tell us where to find water." + +And presently the canaries, who had heard all about Doctor Dolittle +from birds of passage, came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, +clear water where the canaries used to take their bath; and they showed +him lovely meadows where the bird-seed grew and all the other sights of +their island. + +And the pushmi-pullyu was glad they had come; because he liked the +green grass so much better than the dried apples he had been eating on +the ship. And Gub-Gub squeaked for joy when he found a whole valley +full of wild sugarcane. + +A little later, when they had all had plenty to eat and drink, and were +lying on their backs while the canaries sang for them, two of the +swallows came hurrying up, very flustered and excited. + +"Doctor!" they cried, "the pirates have come into the bay; and they've +all got on to your ship. They are downstairs looking for things to +steal. They have left their own ship with nobody on it. If you hurry +and come down to the shore, you can get on to their ship--which is very +fast--and escape. But you'll have to hurry." + +"That's a good idea," said the Doctor--"splendid!" + +And he called his animals together at once, said Good-by to the +canaries and ran down to the beach. + +When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three +red sails, standing in the water; and--just as the swallows had +said--there was nobody on it; all the pirates were downstairs in the +Doctor's ship, looking for things to steal. + +So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all +crept on to the pirate-ship. + + + +THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER + +THE BARBARY DRAGON + +EVERYTHING would have gone all right if the pig had not caught a cold +in his head while eating the damp sugar-cane on the island. This is +what happened: + +After they had pulled up the anchor without a sound, and were moving +the ship very, very carefully out of the bay, Gub-Gub suddenly sneezed +so loud that the pirates on the other ship came rushing upstairs to see +what the noise was. + +As soon as they saw that the Doctor was escaping, they sailed the other +boat right across the entrance to the bay so that the Doctor could not +get out into the open sea. + +Then the leader of these bad men (who called himself "Ben Ali, The +Dragon") shook his fist at the Doctor and shouted across the water, + +"Ha! Ha! You are caught, my fine friend! You were going to run off in +my ship, eh? But you are not a good enough sailor to beat Ben Ali, the +Barbary Dragon. I want that duck you've got--and the pig too. We'll +have pork-chops and roast duck for supper to-night. And before I let +you go home, you must make your friends send me a trunk-full of gold." + +Poor Gub-Gub began to weep; and Dab-Dab made ready to fly to save her +life. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor, + +"Keep him talking, Doctor. Be pleasant to him. Our old ship is bound +to sink soon--the rats said it would be at the bottom of the sea before +to-morrow night--and the rats are never wrong. Be pleasant, till the +ship sinks under him. Keep him talking." + +"What, until to-morrow night!" said the Doctor. "Well, I'll do my +best.... Let me see-- What shall I talk about?" + +"Oh, let them come on," said Jip. "We can fight the dirty rascals. +There are only six of them. Let them come on. I'd love to tell that +collie next door, when we get home, that I had bitten a real pirate. +Let 'em come. We can fight them." + +"But they have pistols and swords," said the Doctor. "No, that would +never do. I must talk to him.... Look here, Ben Ali--" + +But before the Doctor could say any more, the pirates began to sail the +ship nearer, laughing with glee, and saying one to another, "Who shall +be the first to catch the pig?" + +Poor Gub-Gub was dreadfully frightened; and the pushmi-pullyu began to +sharpen his horns for a fight by rubbing them on the mast of the ship; +while Jip kept springing into the air and barking and calling Ben Ali +bad names in dog-language. + +But presently something seemed to go wrong with the pirates; they +stopped laughing and cracking jokes; they looked puzzled; something was +making them uneasy. + +Then Ben Ali, staring down at his feet, suddenly bellowed out, + +"Thunder and Lightning!--Men, THE BOAT'S LEAKING!" + +And then the other pirates peered over the side and they saw that the +boat was indeed getting lower and lower in the water. And one of them +said to Ben Ali, + +"But surely if this old boat were sinking we should see the rats +leaving it." + +And Jip shouted across from the other ship, + +"You great duffers, there are no rats there to leave! They left two +hours ago! 'Ha, ha,' to you, 'my fine friends!'" + +But of course the men did not understand him. Soon the front end of the +ship began to go down and down, faster and faster--till the boat looked +almost as though it were standing on its head; and the pirates had to +cling to the rails and the masts and the ropes and anything to keep +from sliding off. Then the sea rushed roaring in and through all the +windows and the doors. And at last the ship plunged right down to the +bottom of the sea, making a dreadful gurgling sound; and the six bad +men were left bobbing about in the deep water of the bay. + +Some of them started to swim for the shores of the island; while others +came and tried to get on to the boat where the Doctor was. But Jip +kept snapping at their noses, so they were afraid to climb up the side +of the ship. + +Then suddenly they all cried out in great fear, + +"THE SHARKS! The sharks are coming! Let us get on to the ship before +they eat us! Help, help!--The sharks! The sharks!" + +And now the Doctor could see, all over the bay, the backs of big fishes +swimming swiftly through the water. + +And one great shark came near to the ship, and poking his nose out of +the water he said to the Doctor, + +"Are you John Dolittle, the famous animal-doctor?" + +"Yes," said Doctor Dolittle. "That is my name." + +"Well," said the shark, "we know these pirates to be a bad +lot--especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will gladly eat +them up for you--and then you won't be troubled any more." + +"Thank you," said the Doctor. "This is really most attentive. But I +don't think it will be necessary to eat them. Don't let any of them +reach the shore until I tell you--just keep them swimming about, will +you? And please make Ben Ali swim over here that I may talk to him." + +So the shark went off and chased Ben Ali over to the Doctor. + +"Listen, Ben Ali," said John Dolittle, leaning over the side. "You +have been a very bad man; and I understand that you have killed many +people. These good sharks here have just offered to eat you up for +me--and 'twould indeed be a good thing if the seas were rid of you. But +if you will promise to do as I tell you, I well let you go in safety." + +"What must I do?" asked the pirate, looking down sideways at the big +shark who was smelling his leg under the water. + +"You must kill no more people," said the Doctor; "you must stop +stealing; you must never sink another ship; you must give up being a +pirate altogether." + +"But what shall I do then?" asked Ben Ali. "How shall I live?" + +"You and all your men must go on to this island and be +bird-seed-farmers," the Doctor answered. "You must grow bird-seed for +the canaries." + +The Barbary Dragon turned pale with anger. "GROW BIRD-SEED!" he groaned +in disgust. "Can't I be a sailor?" + +"No," said the Doctor, "you cannot. You have been a sailor long +enough--and sent many stout ships and good men to the bottom of the +sea. For the rest of your life you must be la peaceful farmer. The +shark is waiting. Do not waste any more of his time. Make up your +mind." + +"Thunder and Lightning!" Ben Ali muttered--"BIRD-SEED!" Then he looked +down into the water again and saw the great fish smelling his other leg. + +"Very well," he said sadly. "We'll be farmers." + +"And remember," said the Doctor, "that if you do not keep your +promise--if you start killing and stealing again, I shall hear of it, +because the canaries will come and tell me. And be very sure that I +will find a way to punish you. For though I may not be able to sail a +ship as well as you, so long as the birds and the beasts and the fishes +are my friends, I do not have to be afraid of a pirate chief--even +though he call himself 'The Dragon of Barbary.' Now go and be a good +farmer and live in peace." + +Then the Doctor turned to the big shark, and waving his hand he said, + +"All right. Let them swim safely to the land." + + + +THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER + +TOO-TOO, THE LISTENER + +HAVING thanked the sharks again for their kindness, the Doctor and his +pets set off once more on their journey home in the swift ship with the +three red sails. + +As they moved out into the open sea, the animals all went downstairs to +see what their new boat was like inside; while the Doctor leant on the +rail at the back of the ship with a pipe in his mouth, watching the +Canary Islands fade away in the blue dusk of the evening. + +While he was standing there, wondering how the monkeys were getting +on--and what his garden would look like when he got back to Puddleby, +Dab-Dab came tumbling up the stairs, all smiles and full of news. + +"Doctor!" she cried. "This ship of the pirates is simply +beautiful--absolutely. The beds downstairs are made of primrose +silk--with hundreds of big pillows and cushions; there are thick, soft +carpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there are all +sorts of good things to eat and drink--special things; the +larder--well, it's just like a shop, that's all. You never saw anything +like it in your life-- Just think--they kept five different kinds of +sardines, those men! Come and look.... Oh, and we found a little room +down there with the door locked; and we are all crazy to get in and see +what's inside. Jip says it must be where the pirates kept their +treasure. But we can't open the door. Come down and see if you can +let us in." + +So the Doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautiful +ship. He found the animals gathered round a little door, all talking +at once, trying to guess what was inside. The Doctor turned the handle +but it wouldn't open. Then they all started to hunt for the key. They +looked under the mat; they looked under all the carpets; they looked in +all the cupboards and drawers and lockers--in the big chests in the +ship's dining-room; they looked everywhere. + +While they were doing this they discovered a lot of new and wonderful +things that the pirates must have stolen from other ships: Kashmir +shawls as thin as a cobweb, embroidered with flowers of gold; jars of +fine tobacco from Jamaica; carved ivory boxes full of Russian tea; an +old violin with a string broken and a picture on the back; a set of big +chess-men, carved out of coral and amber; a walking-stick which had a +sword inside it when you pulled the handle; six wine-glasses with +turquoise and silver round the rims; and a lovely great sugar-bowl, +made of mother o' pearl. But nowhere in the whole boat could they find +a key to fit that lock. + +So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the key-hole. +But something had been stood against the wall on the inside and he +could see nothing. + +While they were standing around, wondering what they should do, the +owl, Too-Too, suddenly said, + +"Sh!--Listen!--I do believe there's some one in there!" + +They all kept still a moment. Then the Doctor said, + +"You must be mistaken, Too-Too. I don't hear anything." + +"I'm sure of it," said the owl. "Sh!--There it is again--Don't you +hear that?" + +"No, I do not," said the Doctor. "What kind of a sound is it?" + +"I hear the noise of some one putting his hand in his pocket," said the +owl. + +"But that makes hardly any sound at all," said the Doctor. "You +couldn't hear that out here." + +"Pardon me, but I can," said Too-Too. "I tell you there is some one on +the other side of that door putting his hand in his pocket. Almost +everything makes SOME noise--if your ears are only sharp enough to +catch it. Bats can hear a mole walking in his tunnel under the +earth--and they think they're good hearers. But we owls can tell you, +using only one ear, the color of a kitten from the way it winks in the +dark." + +"Well, well!" said the Doctor. "You surprise me. That's very +interesting.... Listen again and tell me what he's doing now." + +"I'm not sure yet," said Too-Too, "if it's a man at all. Maybe it's a +woman. Lift me up and let me listen at the key-hole and I'll soon tell +you." + +So the Doctor lifted the owl up and held him close to the lock of the +door. + +After a moment Too-Too said, + +"Now he's rubbing his face with his left hand. It is a small hand and +a small face. It MIGHT be a woman--No. Now he pushes his hair back off +his forehead--It's a man all right." + +"Women sometimes do that," said the Doctor. + +"True," said the owl. "But when they do, their long hair makes quite a +different sound.... Sh! Make that fidgety pig keep still. Now all hold +your breath a moment so I can listen well. This is very difficult, +what I'm doing now--and the pesky door is so thick! Sh! Everybody +quite still--shut your eyes and don't breathe." + +Too-Too leaned down and listened again very hard and long. + +At last he looked up into the Doctor's face and said, + +"The man in there is unhappy. He weeps. He has taken care not to +blubber or sniffle, lest we should find out that he is crying. But I +heard--quite distinctly--the sound of a tear falling on his sleeve." + +"How do you know it wasn't a drop of water falling off the ceiling on +him?" asked Gub-Gub. "Pshaw!--Such ignorance!" sniffed Too-Too. "A drop +of water falling off the ceiling would have made ten times as much +noise!" + +"Well," said the Doctor, "if the poor fellow's unhappy, we've got to +get in and see what's the matter with him. Find me an axe, and I'll +chop the door down." + + + + +THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER + +THE OCEAN GOSSIPS + +RIGHT away an axe was found. And the Doctor soon chopped a hole in the +door big enough to clamber through. + +At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So he +struck a match. + +The room was quite small; no window; the ceiling, low. For furniture +there was only one little stool. All round the room big barrels stood +against the walls, fastened at the bottom so they wouldn't tumble with +the rolling of the ship; and above the barrels, pewter jugs of all +sizes hung from wooden pegs. There was a strong, winey smell. And in +the middle of the floor sat a little boy, about eight years old, crying +bitterly. + +"I declare, it is the pirates' rum-room!" said Jip in a whisper. + +"Yes. Very rum!" said Gub-Gub. "The smell makes me giddy." + +The little boy seemed rather frightened to find a man standing there +before him and all those animals staring in through the hole in the +broken door. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle's face by the light +of the match, he stopped crying and got up. + +"You aren't one of the pirates, are you?" he asked. + +And when the Doctor threw back his head and laughed long and loud, the +little boy smiled too and came and took his hand. + +"You laugh like a friend," he said--"not like a pirate. Could you tell +me where my uncle is?" + +"I am afraid I can't," said the Doctor. "When did you see him last?" + +"It was the day before yesterday," said the boy. "I and my uncle were +out fishing in our little boat, when the pirates came and caught us. +They sunk our fishing-boat and brought us both on to this ship. They +told my uncle that they wanted him to be a pirate like them--for he was +clever at sailing a ship in all weathers. But he said he didn't want to +be a pirate, because killing people and stealing was no work for a good +fisherman to do. Then the leader, Ben Ali, got very angry and gnashed +his teeth, and said they would throw my uncle into the sea if he didn't +do as they said. They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of a +fight going on above. And when they let me come up again next day, my +uncle was nowhere to be seen. I asked the pirates where he was; but +they wouldn't tell me. I am very much afraid they threw him into the +sea and drowned him." + +And the little boy began to cry again. + +"Well now--wait a minute," said the Doctor. "Don't cry. Let's go and +have tea in the dining-room, and we'll talk it over. Maybe your uncle +is quite safe all the time. You don't KNOW that he was drowned, do +you? And that's something. Perhaps we can find him for you. First +we'll go and have tea--with strawberry-jam; and then we will see what +can be done." + +All the animals had been standing around listening with great +curiosity. And when they had gone into the ship's dining-room and were +having tea, Dab-Dab came up behind the Doctor's chair and whispered. + +"Ask the porpoises if the boy's uncle was drowned--they'll know." + +"All right," said the Doctor, taking a second piece of bread-and-jam. + +"What are those funny, clicking noises you are making with your +tongue?" asked the boy. + +"Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck-language," the Doctor +answered. "This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets." + +"I didn't even know that ducks had a language," said the boy. "Are all +these other animals your pets, too? What is that strange-looking thing +with two heads?" + +"Sh!" the Doctor whispered. "That is the pushmi-pullyu. Don't let him +see we're talking about him--he gets so dreadfully embarrassed.... Tell +me, how did you come to be locked up in that little room?" + +"The pirates shut me in there when they were going off to steal things +from another ship. When I heard some one chopping on the door, I didn't +know who it could be. I was very glad to find it was you. Do you +think you will be able to find my uncle for me?" + +"Well, we are going to try very hard," said the Doctor. "Now what was +your uncle like to look at?" + +"He had red hair," the boy answered--"very red hair, and the picture of +an anchor tattooed on his arm. He was a strong man, a kind uncle and +the best sailor in the South Atlantic. His fishing-boat was called The +Saucy Sally--a cutter-rigged sloop." + +"What's 'cutterigsloop'?" whispered Gub-Gub, turning to Jip. + +"Sh!--That's the kind of a ship the man had," said Jip. "Keep still, +can't you?" + +"Oh," said the pig, "is that all? I thought it was something to drink." + +So the Doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining-room, +and went upstairs to look for passing porpoises. + +And soon a whole school came dancing and jumping through the water, on +their way to Brazil. + +When they saw the Doctor leaning on the rail of his ship, they came +over to see how he was getting on. + +And the Doctor asked them if they had seen anything of a man with red +hair and an anchor tattooed on his arm. + +"Do you mean the master of The Saucy Sally?" asked the porpoises. + +"Yes," said the Doctor. "That's the man. Has he been drowned?" + +"His fishing-sloop was sunk," said the porpoises--"for we saw it lying +on the bottom of the sea. But there was nobody inside it, because we +went and looked." + +"His little nephew is on the ship with me here," said the Doctor. "And +he is terribly afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea. +Would you be so good as to find out for me, for sure, whether he has +been drowned or not?" + +"Oh, he isn't drowned," said the porpoises. "If he were, we would be +sure to have heard of it from the deep-sea Decapods. We hear all the +salt-water news. The shell-fish call us 'The Ocean Gossips.' No--tell +the little boy we are sorry we do not know where his uncle is; but we +are quite certain he hasn't been drowned in the sea." + +So the Doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew, who +clapped his hands with happiness. And the pushmi-pullyu took the +little boy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining-room table; +while all the other animals followed behind, beating the dish-covers +with spoons, pretending it was a parade. + + + +THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER + +SMELLS + +"YOUR uncle must now be FOUND," said the Doctor--"that is the next +thing--now that we know he wasn't thrown into the sea." + +Then Dab-Dab came up to him again and whispered, + +"Ask the eagles to look for the man. No living creature can see better +than an eagle. When they are miles high in the air they can count the +ants crawling on the ground. Ask the eagles." + +So the Doctor sent one of the swallows off to get some eagles. + +And in about an hour the little bird came back with six different kinds +of eagles: a Black Eagle, a Bald Eagle, a Fish Eagle, a Golden Eagle, +an Eagle-Vulture, and a White-tailed Sea Eagle. Twice as high as the +boy they were, each one of them. And they stood on the rail of the +ship, like round-shouldered soldiers all in a row, stern and still and +stiff; while their great, gleaming, black eyes shot darting glances +here and there and everywhere. + +Gub-Gub was scared of them and got behind a barrel. He said he felt as +though those terrible eyes were looking right inside of him to see what +he had stolen for lunch. + +And the Doctor said to the eagles, + +"A man has been lost--a fisherman with red hair and an anchor marked on +his arm. Would you be so kind as to see if you can find him for us? +This boy is the man's nephew." + +Eagles do not talk very much. And all they answered in their husky +voices was, + +"You may be sure that we will do our best--for John Dolittle." + +Then they flew off--and Gub-Gub came out from behind his barrel to see +them go. Up and up and up they went--higher and higher and higher +still. Then, when the Doctor could only just see them, they parted +company and started going off all different ways--North, East, South +and West, looking like tiny grains of black sand creeping across the +wide, blue sky. + +"My gracious!" said Gub-Gub in a hushed voice. "What a height! I +wonder they don't scorch their feathers--so near the sun!" + +They were gone a long time. And when they came back it was almost +night. + +And the eagles said to the Doctor, + +"We have searched all the seas and all the countries and all the +islands and all the cities and all the villages in this half of the +world. But we have failed. In the main street of Gibraltar we saw +three red hairs lying on a wheel-barrow before a baker's door. But +they were not the hairs of a man--they were the hairs out of a +fur-coat. Nowhere, on land or water, could we see any sign of this +boy's uncle. And if WE could not see him, then he is not to be +seen.... For John Dolittle--we have done our best." + +Then the six great birds flapped their big wings and flew back to their +homes in the mountains and the rocks. + +"Well," said Dab-Dab, after they had gone, "what are we going to do +now? The boy's uncle MUST be found--there's no two ways about that. +The lad isn't old enough to be knocking around the world by himself. +Boys aren't like ducklings--they have to be taken care of till they're +quite old.... I wish Chee-Chee were here. He would soon find the man. +Good old Chee-Chee! I wonder how he's getting on!" + +"If we only had Polynesia with us," said the white mouse. "SHE would +soon think of some way. Do you remember how she got us all out of +prison--the second time? My, but she was a clever one!" + +"I don't think so much of those eagle-fellows," said Jip. "They're +just conceited. They may have very good eyesight and all that; but +when you ask them to find a man for you, they can't do it--and they +have the cheek to come back and say that nobody else could do it. +They're just conceited--like that collie in Puddleby. And I don't +think a whole lot of those gossipy old porpoises either. All they +could tell us was that the man isn't in the sea. We don't want to know +where he ISN'T--we want to know where he IS." + +"Oh, don't talk so much," said Gub-Gub. "It's easy to talk; but it +isn't so easy to find a man when you have got the whole world to hunt +him in. Maybe the fisherman's hair has turned white, worrying about +the boy; and that was why the eagles didn't find him. You don't know +everything. You're just talking. You are not doing anything to help. +You couldn't find the boy's uncle any more than the eagles could--you +couldn't do as well." + +"Couldn't I?" said the dog. "That's all you know, you stupid piece of +warm bacon! I haven't begun to try yet, have I? You wait and see!" + +Then Jip went to the Doctor and said, + +"Ask the boy if he has anything in his pockets that belonged to his +uncle, will you, please?" + +So the Doctor asked him. And the boy showed them a gold ring which he +wore on a piece of string around his neck because it was too big for +his finger. He said his uncle gave it to him when they saw the pirates +coming. + +Jip smelt the ring and said, + +"That's no good. Ask him if he has anything else that belonged to his +uncle." + +Then the boy took from his pocket a great, big red handkerchief and +said, "This was my uncle's too." + +As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip shouted, + +"SNUFF, by Jingo!--Black Rappee snuff. Don't you smell it? His uncle +took snuff-- Ask him, Doctor." + +The Doctor questioned the boy again; and he said, "Yes. My uncle took +a lot of snuff." + +"Fine!" said Jip. "The man's as good as found. 'Twill be as easy as +stealing milk from a kitten. Tell the boy I'll find his uncle for him +in less than a week. Let us go upstairs and see which way the wind is +blowing." + +"But it is dark now," said the Doctor. "You can't find him in the +dark!" + +"I don't need any light to look for a man who smells of Black Rappee +snuff," said Jip as he climbed the stairs. "If the man had a hard +smell, like string, now--or hot water, it would be different. But +SNUFF!--Tut, tut!" + +"Does hot water have a smell?" asked the Doctor. + +"Certainly it has," said Jip. "Hot water smells quite different from +cold water. It is warm water--or ice--that has the really difficult +smell. Why, I once followed a man for ten miles on a dark night by the +smell of the hot water he had used to shave with--for the poor fellow +had no soap.... Now then, let us see which way the wind is blowing. +Wind is very important in long-distance smelling. It mustn't be too +fierce a wind--and of course it must blow the right way. A nice, +steady, damp breeze is the best of all.... Ha!--This wind is from the +North." + +Then Jip went up to the front of the ship and smelt the wind; and he +started muttering to himself, + +"Tar; Spanish onions; kerosene oil; wet raincoats; crushed +laurel-leaves; rubber burning; lace-curtains being washed--No, my +mistake, lace-curtains hanging out to dry; and foxes--hundreds of +'em--cubs; and--" + +"Can you really smell all those different things in this one wind?" +asked the Doctor. + +"Why, of course!" said Jip. "And those are only a few of the easy +smells--the strong ones. Any mongrel could smell those with a cold in +the head. Wait now, and I'll tell you some of the harder scents that +are coming on this wind--a few of the dainty ones." + +Then the dog shut his eyes tight, poked his nose straight up in the air +and sniffed hard with his mouth half-open. + +For a long time he said nothing. He kept as still as a stone. He +hardly seemed to be breathing at all. When at last he began to speak, +it sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly, in a dream. + +"Bricks," he whispered, very low--"old yellow bricks, crumbling with +age in a garden-wall; the sweet breath of young cows standing in a +mountain-stream; the lead roof of a dove-cote--or perhaps a +granary--with the mid-day sun on it; black kid gloves lying in a +bureau-drawer of walnut-wood; a dusty road with a horses' +drinking-trough beneath the sycamores; little mushrooms bursting +through the rotting leaves; and--and--and--" + +"Any parsnips?" asked Gub-Gub. + +"No," said Jip. "You always think of things to eat. No parsnips +whatever. And no snuff--plenty of pipes and cigarettes, and a few +cigars. But no snuff. We must wait till the wind changes to the South." + +"Yes, it's a poor wind, that," said Gub-Gub. "I think you're a fake, +Jip. Who ever heard of finding a man in the middle of the ocean just +by smell! I told you you couldn't do it." + +"Look here," said Jip, getting really angry. "You're going to get a +bite on the nose in a minute! You needn't think that just because the +Doctor won't let us give you what you deserve, that you can be as +cheeky as you like!" + +"Stop quarreling!" said the Doctor--"Stop it! Life's too short. Tell +me, Jip, where do you think those smells are coming from?" + +"From Devon and Wales--most of them," said Jip--"The wind is coming +that way." + +"Well, well!" said the Doctor. "You know that's really quite +remarkable--quite. I must make a note of that for my new book. I +wonder if you could train me to smell as well as that.... But +no--perhaps I'm better off the way I am. 'Enough is as good as a +feast,' they say. Let's go down to supper. I'm quite hungry." + +"So am I," said Gub-Gub. + + + +THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER + +THE ROCK + +UP they got, early next morning, out of the silken beds; and they saw +that the sun was shining brightly and that the wind was blowing from +the South. + +Jip smelt the South wind for half an hour. Then he came to the Doctor, +shaking his head. + +"I smell no snuff as yet," he said. "We must wait till the wind +changes to the East." + +But even when the East wind came, at three o'clock that afternoon, the +dog could not catch the smell of snuff. + +The little boy was terribly disappointed and began to cry again, saying +that no one seemed to be able to find his uncle for him. But all Jip +said to the Doctor was, + +"Tell him that when the wind changes to the West, I'll find his uncle +even though he be in China--so long as he is still taking Black Rappee +snuff." + +Three days they had to wait before the West wind came. This was on a +Friday morning, early--just as it was getting light. A fine rainy mist +lay on the sea like a thin fog. And the wind was soft and warm and wet. + +As soon as Jip awoke he ran upstairs and poked his nose in the air. +Then he got most frightfully excited and rushed down again to wake the +Doctor up. + +"Doctor!" he cried. "I've got it! Doctor! Doctor! Wake up! Listen! +I've got it! The wind's from the West and it smells of nothing but +snuff. Come upstairs and start the ship--quick!" + +So the Doctor tumbled out of bed and went to the rudder to steer the +ship. + +"Now I'll go up to the front," said Jip; "and you watch my +nose--whichever way I point it, you turn the ship the same way. The +man cannot be far off--with the smell as strong as this. And the +wind's all lovely and wet. Now watch me!" + +So all that morning Jip stood in the front part of the ship, sniffing +the wind and pointing the way for the Doctor to steer; while all the +animals and the little boy stood round with their eyes wide open, +watching the dog in wonder. + +About lunch-time Jip asked Dab-Dab to tell the Doctor that he was +getting worried and wanted to speak to him. So Dab-Dab went and +fetched the Doctor from the other end of the ship and Jip said to him, + +"The boy's uncle is starving. We must make the ship go as fast as we +can." + +"How do you know he is starving?" asked the Doctor. + +"Because there is no other smell in the West wind but snuff," said Jip. +"If the man were cooking or eating food of any kind, I would be bound +to smell it too. But he hasn't even fresh water to drink. All he is +taking is snuff--in large pinches. We are getting nearer to him all +the time, because the smell grows stronger every minute. But make the +ship go as fast as you can, for I am certain that the man is starving." + +"All right," said the Doctor; and he sent Dab-Dab to ask the swallows +to pull the ship, the same as they had done when the pirates were +chasing them. + +So the stout little birds came down and once more harnessed themselves +to the ship. + +And now the boat went bounding through the waves at a terrible speed. +It went so fast that the fishes in the sea had to jump for their lives +to get out of the way and not be run over. + +And all the animals got tremendously excited; and they gave up looking +at Jip and turned to watch the sea in front, to spy out any land or +islands where the starving man might be. + +But hour after hour went by and still the ship went rushing on, over +the same flat, flat sea; and no land anywhere came in sight. + +And now the animals gave up chattering and sat around silent, anxious +and miserable. The little boy again grew sad. And on Jip's face there +was a worried look. + +At last, late in the afternoon, just as the sun was going down, the +owl, Too-Too, who was perched on the tip of the mast, suddenly startled +them all by crying out at the top of his voice, + +"Jip! Jip! I see a great, great rock in front of us--look--way out +there where the sky and the water meet. See the sun shine on it--like +gold! Is the smell coming from there?" + +And Jip called back, + +"Yes. That's it. That is where the man is.-- At last, at last!" + +And when they got nearer they could see that the rock was very +large--as large as a big field. No trees grew on it, no grass--nothing. +The great rock was as smooth and as bare as the back of a tortoise. + +Then the Doctor sailed the ship right round the rock. But nowhere on +it could a man be seen. All the animals screwed up their eyes and +looked as hard as they could; and John Dolittle got a telescope from +downstairs. + +But not one living thing could they spy--not even a gull, nor a +star-fish, nor a shred of sea-weed. + +They all stood still and listened, straining their ears for any sound. +But the only noise they heard was the gentle lapping of the little +waves against the sides of their ship. + +Then they all started calling, "Hulloa, there!--HULLOA!" till their +voices were hoarse. But only the echo came back from the rock. + +And the little boy burst into tears and said, + +"I am afraid I shall never see my uncle any more! What shall I tell +them when I get home!" + +But Jip called to the Doctor, + +"He must be there--he must--HE MUST! The smell goes on no further. He +must be there, I tell you! Sail the ship close to the rock and let me +jump out on it." + +So the Doctor brought the ship as close as he could and let down the +anchor. Then he and Jip got out of the ship on to the rock. + +Jip at once put his nose down close to the ground and began to run all +over the place. Up and down he went, back and forth--zig-zagging, +twisting, doubling and turning. And everywhere he went, the Doctor ran +behind him, close at his heels--till he was terribly out of breath. + +At last Jip let out a great bark and sat down. And when the Doctor came +running up to him, he found the dog staring into a big, deep hole in +the middle of the rock. + +"The boy's uncle is down there," said Jip quietly. "No wonder those +silly eagles couldn't see him!--It takes a dog to find a man." + +So the Doctor got down into the hole, which seemed to be a kind of +cave, or tunnel, running a long way under the ground. Then he struck a +match and started to make his way along the dark passage with Jip +following behind. + +The Doctor's match soon went out; and he had to strike another and +another and another. + +At last the passage came to an end; and the Doctor found himself in a +kind of tiny room with walls of rock. + +And there, in the middle of the room, his head resting on his arms, lay +a man with very red hair--fast asleep! + +Jip went up and sniffed at something lying on the ground beside him. +The Doctor stooped and picked it up. It was an enormous snuff-box. And +it was full of Black Rappee! + + + + +THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER + +THE FISHERMAN'S TOWN + +GENTLY then--very gently, the Doctor woke the man up. + +But just at that moment the match went out again. And the man thought +it was Ben Ali coming back, and he began to punch the Doctor in the +dark. + +But when John Dolittle told him who it was, and that he had his little +nephew safe on his ship, the man was tremendously glad, and said he was +sorry he had fought the Doctor. He had not hurt him much +though--because it was too dark to punch properly. Then he gave the +Doctor a pinch of snuff. + +And the man told how the Barbary Dragon had put him on to this rock and +left him there, when he wouldn't promise to become a pirate; and how he +used to sleep down in this hole because there was no house on the rock +to keep him warm. + +And then he said, + +"For four days I have had nothing to eat or drink. I have lived on +snuff." + +"There you are!" said Jip. "What did I tell you?" + +So they struck some more matches and made their way out through the +passage into the daylight; and the Doctor hurried the man down to the +boat to get some soup. + +When the animals and the little boy saw the Doctor and Jip coming back +to the ship with a red-headed man, they began to cheer and yell and +dance about the boat. And the swallows up above started whistling at +the top of their voices--thousands and millions of them--to show that +they too were glad that the boy's brave uncle had been found. The +noise they made was so great that sailors far out at sea thought that a +terrible storm was coming. "Hark to that gale howling in the East!" +they said. + +And Jip was awfully proud of himself--though he tried hard not to look +conceited. When Dab-Dab came to him and said, "Jip, I had no idea you +were so clever!" he just tossed his head and answered, + +"Oh, that's nothing special. But it takes a dog to find a man, you +know. Birds are no good for a game like that." + +Then the Doctor asked the red-haired fisherman where his home was. And +when he had told him, the Doctor asked the swallows to guide the ship +there first. + +And when they had come to the land which the man had spoken of, they +saw a little fishing-town at the foot of a rocky mountain; and the man +pointed out the house where he lived. + +And while they were letting down the anchor, the little boy's mother +(who was also the man's sister) came running down to the shore to meet +them, laughing and crying at the same time. She had been sitting on a +hill for twenty days, watching the sea and waiting for them to return. + +And she kissed the Doctor many times, so that he giggled and blushed +like a school-girl. And she tried to kiss Jip too; but he ran away and +hid inside the ship. + +"It's a silly business, this kissing," he said. "I don't hold by it. +Let her go and kiss Gub-Gub--if she MUST kiss something." + +The fisherman and his sister didn't want the Doctor to go away again in +a hurry. They begged him to spend a few days with them. So John +Dolittle and his animals had to stay at their house a whole Saturday +and Sunday and half of Monday. + +And all the little boys of the fishing-village went down to the beach +and pointed at the great ship anchored there, and said to one another +in whispers, + +"Look! That was a pirate-ship--Ben Ali's--the most terrible pirate +that ever sailed the Seven Seas! That old gentleman with the high hat, +who's staying up at Mrs. Trevelyan's, HE took the ship away from The +Barbary Dragon--and made him into a farmer. Who'd have thought it of +him--him so gentle--like and all!... Look at the great red sails! +Ain't she the wicked-looking ship--and fast?--My!" + +All those two days and a half that the Doctor stayed at the little +fishing-town the people kept asking him out to teas and luncheons and +dinners and parties; all the ladies sent him boxes of flowers and +candies; and the village-band played tunes under his window every night. + +At last the Doctor said, + +"Good people, I must go home now. You have really been most kind. I +shall always remember it. But I must go home--for I have things to do." + +Then, just as the Doctor was about to leave, the Mayor of the town came +down the street and a lot of other people in grand clothes with him. +And the Mayor stopped before the house where the Doctor was living; and +everybody in the village gathered round to see what was going to happen. + +After six page-boys had blown on shining trumpets to make the people +stop talking, the Doctor came out on to the steps and the Mayor spoke. + +"Doctor John Dolittle," said he: "It is a great pleasure for me to +present to the man who rid the seas of the Dragon of Barbary this +little token from the grateful people of our worthy Town." + +And the Mayor took from his pocket a little tissue-paper packet, and +opening it, he handed to the Doctor a perfectly beautiful watch with +real diamonds in the back. + +Then the Mayor pulled out of his pocket a still larger parcel and said, + +"Where is the dog?" + +Then everybody started to hunt for Jip. And at last Dab-Dab found him +on the other side of the village in a stable-yard, where all the dogs +of the country-side were standing round him speechless with admiration +and respect. + +When Jip was brought to the Doctor's side, the Mayor opened the larger +parcel; and inside was a dog-collar made of solid gold! And a great +murmur of wonder went up from the village-folk as the Mayor bent down +and fastened it round the dog's neck with his own hands. + +For written on the collar in big letters were these words: "JIP-THE +CLEVEREST DOG IN THE WORLD." + +Then the whole crowd moved down to the beach to see them off. And +after the red-haired fisherman and his sister and the little boy had +thanked the Doctor and his dog over and over and over again, the great, +swift ship with the red sails was turned once more towards Puddleby and +they sailed out to sea, while the village-band played music on the +shore. + + + +THE LAST CHAPTER + +HOME AGAIN + +MARCH winds had come and gone; April's showers were over; May's buds +had opened into flower; and the June sun was shining on the pleasant +fields, when John Dolittle at last got back to his own country. + +But he did not yet go home to Puddleby. First he went traveling through +the land with the pushmi-pullyu in a gipsy-wagon, stopping at all the +country-fairs. And there, with the acrobats on one side of them and +the Punch-and-Judy show on the other, they would hang out a big sign +which read, "COME AND SEE THE MARVELOUS TWO-HEADED ANIMAL FROM THE +JUNGLES OF AFRICA. Admission SIXPENCE." + +And the pushmi-pullyu would stay inside the wagon, while the other +animals would lie about underneath. The Doctor sat in a chair in front +taking the sixpences and smiling on the people as they went in; and +Dab-Dab was kept busy all the time scolding him because he would let +the children in for nothing when she wasn't looking. + +And menagerie-keepers and circus-men came and asked the Doctor to sell +them the strange creature, saying they would pay a tremendous lot of +money for him. But the Doctor always shook his head and said. + +"No. The pushmi-pullyu shall never be shut up in a cage. He shall be +free always to come and go, like you and me." + +Many curious sights and happenings they saw in this wandering life; but +they all seemed quite ordinary after the great things they had seen and +done in foreign lands. It was very interesting at first, being sort of +part of a circus; but after a few weeks they all got dreadfully tired +of it and the Doctor and all of them were longing to go home. + +But so many people came flocking to the little wagon and paid the +sixpence to go inside and see the pushmi-pullyu that very soon the +Doctor was able to give up being a showman. + +And one fine day, when the hollyhocks were in full bloom, he came back +to Puddleby a rich man, to live in the little house with the big garden. + +And the old lame horse in the stable was glad to see him; and so were +the swallows who had already built their nests under the eaves of his +roof and had young ones. And Dab-Dab was glad, too, to get back to the +house she knew so well--although there was a terrible lot of dusting to +be done, with cobwebs everywhere. + +And after Jip had gone and shown his golden collar to the conceited +collie next-door, he came back and began running round the garden like +a crazy thing, looking for the bones he had buried long ago, and +chasing the rats out of the tool-shed; while Gub-Gub dug up the +horseradish which had grown three feet high in the corner by the +garden-wall. + +And the Doctor went and saw the sailor who had lent him the boat, and +he bought two new ships for him and a rubber-doll for his baby; and he +paid the grocer for the food he had lent him for the journey to Africa. +And he bought another piano and put the white mice back in it--because +they said the bureau-drawer was drafty. + +Even when the Doctor had filled the old money-box on the dresser-shelf, +he still had a lot of money left; and he had to get three more +money-boxes, just as big, to put the rest in. + +"Money," he said, "is a terrible nuisance. But it's nice not to have to +worry." + +"Yes," said Dab-Dab, who was toasting muffins for his tea, "it is +indeed!" + +And when the Winter came again, and the snow flew against the +kitchen-window, the Doctor and his animals would sit round the big, +warm fire after supper; and he would read aloud to them out of his +books. + +But far away in Africa, where the monkeys chattered in the palm-trees +before they went to bed under the big yellow moon, they would say to +one another, + +"I wonder what The Good Man's doing now--over there, in the Land of the +White Men! Do you think he ever will come back?" + +And Polynesia would squeak out from the vines, + +"I think he will--I guess he will--I hope he will!" + +And then the crocodile would grunt up at them from the black mud of the +river, + +"I'm SURE he will--Go to sleep!" + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE *** + +***** This file should be named 501.txt or 501.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/501/ + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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