The Story of Doctor Dolittle (Full Book) 📚 Read Free Online

The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting is a tale about a kind-hearted doctor who discovers he can talk to animals with the help of his parrot, Polynesia. After learning their languages, Doctor Dolittle embarks on a journey to Africa to save monkeys from a deadly epidemic, overcoming challenges with the help of his loyal animal companions. The story highlights themes of compassion, adventure, and the value of understanding and communication across species.

Chapter 1: Puddleby

Long ago, when our grandfathers were young children, there was a doctor whose name was Dolittle – Doctor John Dolittle.

He lived in a small town called Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the people, young and old, knew him by sight. And when he walked down the street wearing his tall hat, everyone said, “Look, there goes the doctor! He is a clever man.” And the dogs and the children all ran up to him and followed him, and even the crows that lived in the church tower cawed and nodded their heads.

The house where he lived, on the edge of the town, was quite small, but his garden was very big and had a wide lawn and stone chairs and weeping willows hanging over the water’s edge. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, did the housekeeping for him, but the doctor took care of the garden himself.

He loved animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the goldfish at the bottom of the pond in 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 also had a cow with a calf and an old lame horse of twenty-five years, as well as 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 always grumbled about all the animals and said they made the house dirty. And one day, when an old lady with rheumatism came to visit the doctor, she accidentally sat on the hedgehog, which was sleeping on the couch. The old lady never came back to visit the doctor. She preferred to drive all the way to Oxenthorpe, another town sixteen kilometers away, to see another doctor.

Then his sister, Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said:

“John, how do you expect sick people to come visit you when you keep all these animals in the house? A good doctor but his parlor is full of hedgehogs and mice. Who wants that? That’s now the fourth person that these animals have driven away. Sir Jasper and the rector are also saying that they will not come near your house anymore – no matter how sick they are. We’re getting poorer every day. If you keep this up, none of the best people will want you as a doctor.”

“But I love the animals more than the kindest and best people,” said the doctor.

“You’re ridiculous,” said his sister and left the room.

So as time went by, the doctor acquired more and more animals as visitors; and the number of people who came to see him became fewer and fewer. Until he had no one left – except the Cat’s-meat-man, who had no objection to animals. But the Cat’s-meat-man was not very rich, and he only got sick once a year – at Christmas. Then he gave the doctor six coins for a bottle of medicine.

Six coins a year was not enough to live on – even in those days, long ago. If the doctor had not saved some money in his piggy bank, no one knows what would have happened.

And he acquired more and more pets; and of course, it cost a lot to feed them. And the money he had saved was getting less and less.

Then he sold his piano and let the mice live in a desk drawer. But the money he got for that began to run out too, so he sold the brown suit he wore on Sundays and became poorer and poorer.

And now, when he walked down the street wearing his tall hat, people said to each other, “Look, there goes John Dolittle! There was a time when he was the most famous doctor in the West – look at him now – he has no money and his socks are full of holes!”

But the dogs and cats and children still ran up to him and followed him through the town – just as they had done when he was rich.

Chapter 2: 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 visit him with stomach pains.

“Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor and become an animal doctor?” asked the Cat’s-meat Man.

The parrot, Polynesia, sat at the window looking at the rain and singing a sea-song to herself. She stopped singing and began to listen.

“You see, doctor,” went on the Cat’s-meat Man, “you know all about animals, much more than what these veterinarians here know. That book you wrote, about cats, well, it’s great! I can’t read or write myself or I’d certainly write some books. But my wife, Theodosia, she’s a scholar, she really is. And she read me your book. Well, it’s great— that’s all that can be said— just great. You could have been a cat yourself. You know exactly how cats think. And look: you can make a lot of money by treating animals. Do you know that? Look, I could send all the old women with sick cats or dogs to you. And if they don’t get sick quickly enough, I could put something in the meat I sell to make them ill, see?”

“Oh, no,” said the Doctor quickly. “You mustn’t do that. That wouldn’t be right.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean really ill,” answered the Cat’s-meat Man. “Just a little something to make them drowsy, that’s what I meant. But, as you say, perhaps it wouldn’t be quite fair to the animals. But they’ll get sick anyway, because the old women always give them too much to eat. And look, all the farmers around who had lame horses and weak lambs—they’d come. You really ought to be an animal doctor.”

When the Cat’s-meat Man had gone, the parrot flew from the window to the Doctor’s table and said,

“That man has sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal doctor. Give up these silly people. If they haven’t brains enough to see that you’re the best doctor in the world, let them go. Take care of animals instead. They’ll soon see. Be an animal doctor.”

“Oh, there are plenty of animal doctors already,” said John Dolittle, putting the flower-pots outside on the windowsill to catch the rain.

“Yes, there are enough,” said Polynesia. “But none of them are any good. Listen now, Doctor, I’ll tell you something. Did you know animals can talk?”

“I knew parrots could talk,” said the Doctor.

“Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages— the language of men and the language of birds,” said Polynesia proudly. “If I say, ‘Polly wants a cracker,’ you understand me. But if you heard this, ‘Ka-ka oi-ee, fee-fee?'”

“Good gracious!” cried the Doctor. “What does that mean?”

“That means, ‘Is the porridge hot?’ in bird language.”

“My goodness me! You don’t say!” said the Doctor. “You’ve never talked to me like that before.”

“What would have been the use?” said Polynesia, wiping some cracker-crumbs off her left wing. “You wouldn’t have understood me if I had.”

“Tell me again,” said the doctor, now completely excited. He ran to the chest of drawers and came back with a notebook and a pencil. “Don’t go too fast now, I’ll write it down. This is interesting – very interesting – something very new. First give me the Bird A.B.C. – but slowly now.”

And so the doctor found out that animals had their own language and could talk to each other. And all afternoon, while it rained, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table and gave him bird words to write in the book.

During tea, when the dog Jip came in, the parrot said to the doctor: “Look, he’s talking to you.”

“It seems to me more like he’s scratching his ear,” said the doctor.

“But animals don’t always talk with their mouths,” said the parrot in a high-pitched 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 sound. See how he’s pulling one side of his nose now?”

“What does that mean?” asked the doctor.

“That means, ‘Can’t you see it has stopped raining?'” answered Polynesia. “He’s asking you a question. Dogs almost always use their nose to ask questions.”

After a while, with the help of the parrot, the doctor learned the language of animals so well that he could talk to them himself and understood everything they said. Then he gave up his work as a people’s doctor.

As soon as the Cat’s-Meat-Man had told everyone that John Dolittle was going to be an animal doctor, old ladies began to bring him their cats and poodles that had eaten too much cake. And farmers came from many miles around to show him sick cows and sheep.

One day a plough horse was brought to him. The poor animal was overjoyed to find a man who could speak in horse language.

“You know, doctor,” said the horse, “that vet up the hill doesn’t know a thing. He’s been treating me for six weeks now, but it’s no use. What I need is glasses. I’m going blind in one eye. There’s no reason why horses shouldn’t wear glasses, just like people. But that stupid man up the hill didn’t even look in my eyes. He kept giving me big pills. I tried to tell him, but he didn’t understand a word of horse language. What I need is glasses.”

“Of course – of course,” said the doctor. “I’ll order a pair for you right away.”

“I’d like to have a pair of glasses like yours,” said the horse, “only in green. The glasses will keep the sun out of my eyes while I’m ploughing the fifty-acre field.”

“Sure,” said the doctor. “You’ll get a green pair of glasses.”

“You know what the trouble is, sir,” said the plough horse as the doctor opened the front door to let him out, “the trouble is that everyone thinks they can treat animals just because the animals don’t complain. But in fact it takes a much cleverer man to be a really good animal doctor than to be a good people doctor. My farm boy thinks he knows everything about horses. I wish you could see him, his face is so thick he looks like he hasn’t got any eyes, and he has as much brains as a potato beetle. Last week he tried to put a mustard plaster on me.”

“Where did he put it?” asked the doctor.

“Oh, he didn’t put it on me anywhere,” said the horse. “He just tried. I kicked him into the duckpond.”

“My goodness!” said the doctor.

“I am generally a quite peaceful being,” said the horse. “Very patient with people, I don’t make a fuss. But it was bad enough that the veterinarian gave me the wrong medicine. And when that red farmer boy started, I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Did you hurt the boy badly?” asked the doctor.

“Oh no,” said the horse. “I just kicked him in the right place. The veterinarian is taking care of him now. When will my glasses be ready?”

“I’ll have the glasses for you next week,” said the doctor. “Come back on Tuesday. Then you’ll be able to see as well as ever.”

John Dolittle received a beautiful, large green pair of glasses, and the plow horse was no longer blind in one eye and could see as well as ever.

Soon it became a common sight to see farm animals wearing glasses in the area around Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. And a blind horse could no longer be found.

And so it went with all the other animals that were brought to him. Once they discovered that he could speak their language, they told him where they were hurting and how they were feeling, and of course, it was easy for him to heal them.

The animals gladly came to his house on the edge of town. When they returned, they told their brothers and friends that there was a doctor in the cottage with the big garden who was a real doctor. And when creatures became sick – not just horses and cows and dogs – but all the little animals of the fields, like harvest mice and water mice, badgers and bats, they came straight to his house on the edge of town. His large garden was almost always full of animals who wanted to see him.

There were so many that he had to have special doors made for the different types. He wrote “HORSES” on the front door, “COWS” on the side door, and “SHEEP” on the kitchen door. Each type of animal had a separate door – even the mice had a small tunnel specially made for them to the basement. There they stood patiently in rows, waiting for the doctor to come to them.

And so, in a few years’ time, every living creature for miles and miles around knew about John Dolittle, M.D. And the birds that flew to other countries in the winter told the animals in strange lands about the great doctor of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, who could understand their animal language and help them with their problems. In this way, he became famous among the animals all over the world. He became even better known than he had been among the people of the West Country. He was happy and loved his life.

One afternoon, when the doctor was busy writing a book, the parrot Polynesia sat at the window – as she almost always did – and watched the leaves blowing in the garden. A moment later, she laughed out loud.

“What’s the matter, Polynesia?” asked the doctor, looking up from his book.

“I was just thinking,” said the parrot, still looking at the leaves.

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about people,” said Polynesia. “People make me sick. They think they’re so great. The world has been revolving around them for thousands of years, hasn’t it? And the only thing people have learned to understand in animal language is that when a dog wags his tail, he means, ‘I’m happy.’

It’s funny, isn’t it? You’re the very first man who talks like we do. Oh, sometimes people annoy me terribly. They have such arrogant judgments about ‘dumb animals.’

“Stupid! – Huh? Why, I once knew a parrot who could say ‘Good morning’ in seven different ways without ever opening his beak. He could speak every language, even Greek. An old professor with a gray beard bought him. But the parrot didn’t stay. He said the old man didn’t speak Greek well, and he couldn’t stand listening to him mangle the language. I often wonder what became of him. That bird knew more geography than people will ever know.

People, pffft. I suppose if people ever learn to fly – like any ordinary hedge-sparrow can – they’ll never stop bragging about it.”

“You’re a wise old bird,” said the doctor. “How old are you, by the way? I know parrots and elephants sometimes get 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 two hundred and eighty-two. But I do know that when I first came here from Africa, King Charles was still hiding in an oak tree when he saw me. He looked absolutely terrified.”

Chapter 3: More Money Troubles

And soon the doctor began earning money again. His sister Sarah bought a new dress, and they were happy.

Some of the animals who came to visit him were so sick that they had to stay in the doctor’s house for a week. And when they got better, they sat on chairs on the lawn.

And often, even after they had gotten better, they didn’t want to leave. They loved 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 he acquired more and more pets.

One evening, while smoking his pipe on his garden wall, an Italian organ grinder with a monkey on a string came by. The doctor immediately noticed that the collar on the monkey was too tight and that the animal was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the Italian, gave the man a coin, and told him to leave.

The organ grinder became extremely angry and said he wanted to keep the monkey. But the doctor told him that if he didn’t leave, he would punch him in the nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, although he was not very tall. So the Italian left, 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 commonly used word in the language of apes and means “ginger.”

Another time, when the circus came to Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, the crocodile, who had terrible toothache, escaped and came to the doctor’s garden. The doctor spoke to him in crocodile language and brought him into the house and fixed his teeth. But when the crocodile saw what a beautiful house it was – with all those different places for different kinds of animals – he wanted to live with the doctor too. He asked if he could sleep at the bottom of the fishpond in the garden and promised not to eat the fish in the pond. When the circus men came to take him away, he became so wild and fierce that he drove them away. But the crocodile was always as gentle as a little kitten to everyone in the house.

But now the old ladies were afraid to send their lap dogs to Doctor Dolittle because of the crocodile, and the farmers didn’t believe that the crocodile wouldn’t eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to be healed. So the doctor went to the crocodile and told him he had to go back to his circus. But the crocodile cried such big crocodile tears and begged so hard to stay that the doctor didn’t have the heart to send him away.

Then the doctor’s sister came to him and said:

“John, you really have to send that creature away. Now the farmers and old ladies are afraid to bring their animals to you – just when we were starting to do well again. If we continue like this, we will be completely ruined. This is really the last straw. I won’t be your housekeeper anymore if you don’t send that alligator away.”

“It’s not an alligator,” said the doctor, “it’s a crocodile.”

“I don’t care what you call it,” said his sister. “It’s disgusting when it’s under the bed. I don’t want that beast in the house.”

“But he promised me,” the doctor replied, “that he wouldn’t bite anyone. He’s not happy in the circus. Besides, I don’t have the money to send him back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and has generally been very well behaved so far. Don’t be so picky.”

“I tell you again, I don’t want him around,” said Sarah. “He eats the linoleum floor. If you don’t send him away now, I’m leaving and I’m going to get married!”

“Fine,” said the doctor. “Go ahead and get married. There’s nothing else to do.” And he took off his hat and went into the garden.

So Sarah Dolittle packed her things and left, and the doctor was left all alone with his animal family.

And soon he was poorer than ever before. With all these mouths to feed, and the house to take care of, and no one to do repairs, and no money coming in to pay the butcher’s bill, life began to look very difficult. But still the doctor didn’t worry.

“Money is a nuisance,” he always said. “We’d all be better off if it was never invented. What does money matter? It’s being happy that counts.”

But soon the animals themselves began to worry. And one evening, when the doctor was sleeping in his chair by the kitchen fire, they began whispering to each other. The owl, Too-Too, who was good at counting, worked out that there was only enough money left to last a week, if they each had one meal a day and no more.

Then the parrot said, “I think we should all do the housework ourselves. As much as we can, anyway. It’s for us that the old man is leading such a lonely and poor life.”

So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, would do the cooking and repair work. The dog had to sweep the floors. The duck had to dust and make the beds. The owl, Too-Too, had to keep the accounts, and the pig had to tend the garden. They made Polynesia, the parrot, the housekeeper and laundress because she was the oldest.

Of course, they all found their new jobs very difficult at first, except for Chee-Chee, who had hands and could do things like a man. But they soon got used to it. They always found it very funny to see Jip, the dog, sweeping the floor with a rag tied to his tail like a broom. After a while, they could do the work so well that the doctor said he had never seen his house so tidy or so clean before.

So things went well for a while, but living without money was very hard for them.

So the animals made a vegetable and flower stand outside the garden gate and sold radishes and roses to passers-by along the road. But they still didn’t seem to be making enough money to pay all the bills, but the doctor still didn’t worry. When the parrot came to him and told him that the fishmonger wouldn’t give them any more fish, he said:

“It doesn’t matter. As long as the chickens lay eggs and the cow gives milk, we can eat omelets and curds. And there are plenty of vegetables in the garden. Winter is still far away. Don’t worry. That was Sarah’s problem, she would have made a fuss about it. I wonder how Sarah is doing, she’s an excellent woman, at least in some respects!”

But unfortunately, the snow came that year earlier than usual. Although the old lame horse brought back a lot 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. Many of the animals were really hungry.

Chapter 4: A Message from Africa

The winter had been very cold and had a white snow cap. And one evening in December, when they were all gathered around the warm fire in the kitchen and the doctor was reading to them from books he had written in animal language, the owl Too-Too suddenly said:

“Shh, be quiet! What’s that noise outside?”

They all listened; and soon they heard the sound of someone running. Then the door flew open and the monkey, Chee-Chee, ran in, heavily out of breath.

“Doctor!” he cried, “I’ve just received a message from a cousin of mine in Africa. There is a terrible disease spreading among the apes there. They all get it and they die by the hundreds. They have heard of you, and they are begging you to come to Africa to stop the disease.”

“Who brought the message?” asked the doctor, taking off his glasses and laying down his book.

“A swallow,” said Chee-Chee. “She’s outside on the rain barrel.”

“Bring her to the fire,” said the doctor. “She must be nearly frozen. The swallows flew south six weeks ago!” So the swallow was brought in. The bird was all huddled up and shivering. Although she was at first a little scared, she soon warmed up and perched on the edge of the mantelpiece and began to speak.

When she finished, the doctor said, “I would like to go to Africa to help, especially since the weather is so bad here. But I’m afraid we don’t have enough money to buy the tickets. Bring me the money-box, Chee-Chee.” So the monkey climbed up and took the money-box from the top shelf of the dresser. There was nothing in it – not even a penny!

“I was sure there were two coins left,” said the doctor.

“There were,” said the owl. “But you spent them on a rattle for the baby badger, when he was teething.”

“Still, I’m sure there were two coins left. I really thought so,” said the doctor. “Goodness gracious! Money is such a nuisance, that’s one thing I’m sure of! Well, never mind. Perhaps if I go to the coast, I can borrow a boat to take us to Africa. I once knew a sailor who brought his baby with measles to me. Maybe he’ll lend us his boat, now that the baby is better.”

So the next morning, the doctor set out early for the coast. And when he returned, he told the animals that it was all right – the sailor would lend them his boat. Then the crocodile and the monkey and the parrot were very happy and started to sing, for they were going back to Africa, their real home. And the doctor said:

“I can only take three animals with me – besides Jip the dog, Dab-Dab the duck, Gub-Gub the pig, and Too-Too the owl. The rest of the animals, like the chipmunks and the water-rats and the bats, will have to go back to the fields where they were born, until we come home again. But since most of them sleep through the winter, they won’t mind. Besides, it wouldn’t be good for them to go to Africa.”

Then the parrot, who had already made long sea voyages, began to tell the doctor what he should take on the ship.

“You must have plenty of ship’s biscuits,” he said, “hardtack is best. And you must have canned beef, and of course an anchor.”

“I expect the ship will have its own anchor,” said the doctor.

“Well, make sure to have an anchor,” said Polynesia. “An anchor is really important. You can’t stop without an anchor. And you need a bell.”

“What is that for?” asked the doctor.

“To let you know the time,” said the Parrot. “You’ll ring it every half hour and then you’ll know what time it is. And take a lot of rope with you – it’s always useful on long journeys.”

Then they started wondering where they would get the money to buy all the things they needed.

“Oh, see, there it is again! Money is the problem,” exclaimed the doctor. “I’ll be glad to go to Africa, they surely don’t have any thieves there! I’ll go ask the grocer if he can wait for his money until I return – no wait, I’ll send the sailor to ask him.” So the sailor went to the grocer. And soon he came back with all the things they wanted.

Then the animals packed and after they had shut off the water so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, and placed the shutters, they locked up the house and gave the key to the old Horse that lived in the stable. And when they had seen that there was enough hay in the manger to last the Horse through the winter, they carried all their luggage to the shore and got on the boat. The Cat’s-meat-man was there to see them off. He also brought a large pudding made of kidneys as a gift for the doctor. This pudding, as he was told, could not be found abroad.

As soon as they were on the ship, Gub-Gub the pig asked where the beds were, because it was four o’clock in the afternoon and he wanted to take a nap. So Polynesia took him downstairs, inside the ship and showed him the beds. The beds were all stacked up one above the other, like bookshelves against a wall.

“Well, that’s not a bed!” exclaimed Gub-Gub. “That’s a plank!”

“Beds are always like that on ships,” said the Parrot. “It’s not a plank. Climb in and go to sleep. This is called a ‘bunk bed.'”

“I don’t think I’ll go to bed just yet,” said Gub-Gub. “The journey has just begun, I’m too excited. I want to go up and see the departure again.”

“Well, this is your first trip after all,” said Polynesia. “You’ll get used to this life after a while.” And he went back up the stairs of the ship, humming this song to himself:

“I’ve seen the Black Sea and the Red Sea, I’ve sailed around the Isle of Wight, I discovered the Yellow River, And the Orange River too – at night, Now I’m leaving Greenland behind me, And sailing over the Blue ocean, I’m tired of all these colors, Jane, So I’ll be back to you soon.”

They were just about to begin their journey when the doctor said he had to go back to ask the sailor for directions 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 hoist the anchor and the journey began.

Chapter 5: The Great Journey

For six weeks they sailed on and on, over the rolling sea, following the Swallow, who flew ahead of the ship to guide them. At night, the Swallow carried a small lantern so they wouldn’t lose her in the dark. The people on the other passing ships said that the light must be a falling star. As they sailed further and further south, it got warmer and warmer. Polynesia, Chee-Chee, and the Crocodile endlessly enjoyed the hot sun. They ran around laughing and looked over the side of the ship to see if they could already see Africa. But the Pig, the Dog, and the Owl, Too-Too, couldn’t do anything in such weather. They sat at the end of the ship in the shade of a large barrel. Their tongues were hanging out of their mouths, and they drank a lot of lemonade.

Dab-Dab the duck kept herself cool by jumping into the sea and swimming behind the ship. And occasionally, when her head became too hot, she dove under the ship and came up on the other side. In this way, she also caught herring on Tuesdays and Fridays. Then everyone on the boat ate fish to make the meat last longer. When they got near the equator, they saw some flying fish heading towards them. And the fish asked the Parrot if this was the ship of Doctor Dolittle. When she told them that it was, they said they were happy because the monkeys in Africa were worried he would never come. Polynesia asked them how many miles they still had to go. The flying fish said that it was only fifty-five miles to the coast of Africa.

Another time, a school of porpoises came dancing through the waves. They also 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 needed anything else for his journey.

And Polynesia said, “Yes. We are short on onions.”

“There is an island not far from here,” said the porpoises, “where big, strong wild onions grow. Just go straight ahead – we’ll get some and catch up with you.” So the porpoises rushed away through the sea. But soon the Parrot saw them again, they came after the boat and dragged the onions through the waves in large nets of seaweed. The next evening, when the sun was setting, the doctor said:

“Pass me the telescope, Chee-Chee. Our journey is almost over. Very soon we will be able to see the coast of Africa.”

And about half an hour later, they did indeed think they saw something ahead that could be land. But it started getting darker and darker, and they weren’t sure. Then a great storm arose, with thunder and lightning. The wind howled, the rain poured down in torrents, and the waves became so high that they splashed straight over the boat. At that moment, there was a loud bang, and the ship stopped and rolled over on its side.

“What happened?” asked the doctor, coming from below.

“I’m not sure,” said the Parrot, “but I think we’ve shipwrecked. Tell the Duck to go out and look.” So Dab-Dab dived straight down into the waves. And when she came up, she said they had hit a rock. There was a large hole in the bottom of the ship. Water was pouring in, and they were sinking fast.

“We have met Africa, that’s for sure,” said the doctor. “But dear me, dear me! Well, we’ll all have to swim to shore.”

But Chee-Chee and Gub-Gub didn’t know how to swim.

“Grab 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 to a palm tree. We’ll hold the other end of the rope on the ship here. Then those who can’t swim can climb along the rope until they reach land. That’s called a ‘lifeline’.” So they all arrived safely on the shore, some by swimming, others by flying. Those who climbed along the rope brought the doctor’s trunk and bag with them. But the ship was beyond repair. There was a large hole in the bottom, and soon the rough sea dashed it to pieces on the rocks, and the wood drifted away.

The doctor and the animals sought shelter in a nice dry cave they found high up in the cliffs until the storm passed. When the sun came through the next morning, they went to the sandy beach to dry themselves off.

“Dear old Africa!” sighed Polynesia. “It’s so good to be back. Imagine, it will be one hundred and sixty-nine years tomorrow since I was last here! And it hasn’t changed! The same old palm trees, the same old red earth, and the same old black ants! There’s no place like home!” And the others noticed tears in her eyes. She was so happy to see her homeland again.

Then the doctor missed his high hat, which had been blown into the sea during the storm. So Dab-Dab went to look for it. Soon she saw the hat, floating very far away like a toy boat on the water. When she flew down to get the hat, she found one of the white mice in it. The mouse was very afraid.

“What are you doing here?” asked the Duck. “Didn’t you hear that you had to stay in Puddleby?”

“I didn’t want to be left behind,” said the mouse. “I wanted so much to see what Africa was like – I have relatives here. So I hid in the luggage and was brought on board the ship. When the ship sank, I was terribly frightened because I can’t swim far. I swam as long as I could, but I soon became exhausted and thought I would drown. And then, just at that moment, the doctor’s hat floated by, and I got into it because I didn’t want to drown.”

So the Duck took the hat with the mouse inside and brought it to the doctor on the shore. All the animals gathered around to have a look.

“This is called a ‘stowaway’,” said the Parrot.

Just as they were looking for a place in the trunk so the white mouse could travel comfortably, the monkey Chee-Chee suddenly said:

“Sshh, be quiet! I hear footsteps in the jungle!”

They all stopped talking and listened. And soon a man came out of the forest and asked what they were doing.

“My name is John Dolittle – M.D.,” said the doctor. “I was asked to come to Africa to cure the sick monkeys.”

“You’re all expected to come to the king,” said the man.

“Which king?” asked the doctor, who didn’t want to waste any time.

“The king of the Jolliginki,” replied the man. “All this land is his, and all foreigners must be brought to him first. Follow me.” So they gathered their luggage and followed the man through the jungle.

Chapter 6: Polynesia and the King

After walking a bit through the dense forest, they arrived at a large, bright clearing where they saw the king’s palace made of mud. The king lived there with his queen, Ermintrude, and their son, Prince Bumpo. The prince was away fishing for salmon in the river. However, the king and queen were sitting under a parasol in front of the palace door, and Queen Ermintrude was sleeping. When the doctor arrived at the palace, the king asked him about his business. The doctor told him why he had come to Africa.

“You may not travel through my land,” said the king. “Many years ago, a foreign man came to this coast, and I was very kind to him. But after he had dug holes in the ground to take the gold and killed all the elephants to get their ivory tusks, he secretly left with his ship without even saying thank you. Since then, no foreign man will ever travel through the lands of Jolliginki.”

Then the king turned to some of his helpers who were nearby and said, “Take this medicine man away, with all his animals, and lock them up in my most secure prison.” So six of his servants led the doctor and all his pets away and locked them up in a stone dungeon. The dungeon had only one small window high in the wall with bars on it, and the door was strong and thick. Then they were all very sad, and Gub-Gub the pig began to cry. But Chee-Chee said he would give him a beating if he didn’t stop that terrible noise, and the pig fell silent.

“Are we all here?” asked the doctor after he had become accustomed to the dim light.

“Yes, I think so,” said the duck, and began to count.

“Where is Polynesia?” asked the crocodile. “She’s not 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. Just slipped into the jungle as soon as her friends got into trouble.”

“I’m not that kind of bird,” said the parrot, climbing out of the doctor’s coat pocket. “You see, I’m small enough to squeeze through the bars of that window, and I was afraid they would put me in a cage instead. So while the doctor was busy talking to the king, I hid in the doctor’s coat pocket, and here I am. That’s what you call a ‘trick,'” she said, smoothing her feathers with her beak.

“Now listen,” Polynesia continued, “tonight, as soon as it gets dark, I’ll crawl through the bars of that window and fly to the palace. And then – you’ll see – I’ll soon find a way to make the king release all of us from prison.”

“But what can you do?” said Gub-Gub, wrinkling his nose and starting to cry again. “You’re just a bird!”

“Absolutely true,” said the parrot. “But don’t forget that, although I’m just a bird, I can talk like a man – and I know these dark tricks.”

So that night, when the moon shone through the palm trees and all the king’s men were asleep, the Parrot slipped through the bars of the prison and flew to the palace. The window of the storeroom had been broken by a tennis ball the week before, so Polynesia was able to enter through the hole in the glass. She heard Prince Bumpo snoring in his bedroom at the back of the palace. Then she tiptoed up the stairs to the king’s bedroom. She carefully opened the door and peered inside.

The queen was at a dance party with her cousin that evening, but the king was in bed, sound asleep. Polynesia flew very softly into the room and crawled under the bed. Then she coughed, just like Doctor Dolittle always coughed. Polynesia could imitate anyone. The king opened his eyes and said sleepily, “Is that you, Ermintrude?” (He thought it was the queen returning from the dance.)

Then the parrot coughed again, loudly, like a man. And the king sat up, wide awake, and said, “Who’s there?”

“I am Doctor Dolittle,” said the Parrot – exactly as the doctor would have said it.

“What are you doing in my bedroom?” cried the king. “How dare you come out of prison! Where are you? – I can’t see you.”

But the Parrot just laughed, a long, deep, jolly laugh, like the doctor’s.

“Stop laughing and come here immediately so I can see you,” said the king.

“You foolish king!” replied Polynesia. “Have you forgotten that you are talking to John Dolittle, M.D.? The most amazing man on earth? Of course, you can’t see me. I have made myself invisible. There is nothing I cannot do. Listen now: I have come here tonight to warn you. If you don’t let me and my animals travel through your kingdom, I will make you and all your people as sick as the monkeys. Because I can make people better but I can also make people sick just by raising my little finger. Send your soldiers immediately to open the dungeon door, or you will get a disease before the morning sun has risen on the hills of Jolliginki.”

Then the king began to tremble and became very afraid…

“Doctor,” he cried fearfully, “it will be as you say. Please don’t raise your little finger!” And he jumped out of bed and ran to the soldiers to open the prison door. As soon as he was gone, Polynesia crawled down and left the palace through the broken window in the storeroom. But the queen, who had just let herself in through the back door with a house key, saw the parrot flying out through the broken glass. And when the king returned to bed, she told him what she had seen.

Then the king realized he had been tricked, and he was terribly angry. He hurried back to the prison immediately. But he was too late. The door was open. The dungeon was empty. Doctor Dolittle and all his animals were gone.

Chapter 7: The Bridge of Apes

Queen Ermintrude had never seen her husband so angry before that night. He was grinding his teeth with rage, calling everyone a fool, throwing his toothbrush at the palace cat, running around in his nightshirt, and waking up his whole army to send them into the jungle to capture the doctor. Then he sent all of his servants – his cooks, gardeners, barber, and Prince Bumpo’s teacher – even the queen, who was tired from dancing in tight shoes, was ordered to help the soldiers in their search.

All the while, the doctor and his animals ran as fast as they could through the forest towards the Land of the Apes.

Gub-Gub the pig had short legs and quickly became tired, so the doctor had to carry him. This made it quite difficult because they also had the suitcase and handbag with them.

The King of Jolliginki thought it would be easy for his army to find them since the doctor was in a strange land and wouldn’t know the way. But he was completely wrong. The monkey Chee-Chee knew all the paths through the jungle – even better than the king’s men. And he led the doctor and his pets to the thickest part of the forest – a place where no one had ever been – and hid them all in a large hollow tree between high rocks.

“We better wait here,” said Chee-Chee, “until the soldiers go back to bed. Then we can go on to the Land of the Apes.” So they stayed there all night.

They often heard the king’s men searching and talking in the jungle around them. But they were very safe because no one knew that hiding place except Chee-Chee. Even the other Apes didn’t know the spot.

Finally, as the daylight began to shine through the thick leaves above them, they heard Queen Ermintrude say in a very tired voice that there was no point in searching anymore and they might as well go back and get some sleep.

Once all the soldiers had gone home, Chee-Chee brought the doctor and his animals out of the hiding place, and they headed to the Land of the Apes.

It was a long, long way, and they became very tired, especially Gub-Gub the pig. But when he cried, they gave him milk from coconuts, which he loved.

They always had plenty to eat and drink along the way because Chee-Chee and Polynesia knew all the different kinds of fruits and vegetables that grow in the jungle, and they knew where to find them. Delicacies like dates, figs, peanuts, ginger, and yams were abundant. They made their lemonade from the juice of wild oranges, sweetened with honey they took from bee nests in hollow trees. Whatever they asked for, Chee-Chee and Polynesia seemed to be able to get it for them or something like it. One day they even gave the doctor some tobacco 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 so much and were no longer as tired and enjoyed traveling.

But they were always glad when night fell and they could stop to rest. Then the doctor would make a fire from branches. After they had eaten, they sat around it in a circle, listening to Polynesia singing songs about the sea, or to Chee-Chee telling stories about the jungle.

And many of the stories that Chee-Chee told were very interesting. Although the Apes did not have their own history books before Doctor Dolittle began writing them, they remembered everything that happened by telling stories to their children. And Chee-Chee spoke of many things that his grandmother had told him – stories from long, long, long ago, before Noah and the Flood, – about the time when men dressed in bear skins and lived in caves in the rock and ate their mutton raw because they did not know what cooking was. They had never seen fire back then.

He also spoke of the great mammoths and lizards, as long as a train, that roamed through the mountains at that time, nibbling the treetops. And often they were all so interested in listening that only when the story was over did they discover that their fire had gone out. Then they had to rush around to find more branches and build a new fire.

When the king’s army had returned and told the king that they could not find the doctor, the king sent them out again and told them to stay in the jungle until they had caught him. So all that time, while the doctor and his animals were going to the Land of the Apes and feeling completely safe, they were still being followed by the king’s men. If Chee-Chee had known this, he would probably have hidden them again. But he didn’t know….

One day Chee-Chee climbed a high rock and looked out over the treetops. And when he came down, he said they were now quite close to the Land of the Apes and would soon be there.

And that same evening they did indeed see Chee-Chee’s cousin and a lot of other Apes, who were not yet sick, sitting in the trees on the edge of a swamp, watching and waiting for them. And when they really saw the famous doctor coming, these Apes made a tremendous noise. They cheered and waved leaves and swung from the branches to greet him.

They wanted his bag and his suitcase and everything he was carrying – and one of the bigger Apes even carried Gub-Gub, who had become tired again. Then two of the Apes ran ahead to tell the sick Apes that the great doctor had finally come.

But the king’s men, who were still chasing them, had heard the sound of the cheering Apes. They now finally knew where the doctor was and hurried to catch him.

The big Ape carrying Gub-Gub walked slowly at the back and saw the captain of the army sneaking through the trees. So he hurried after the doctor and told him to run away.

Then they all ran harder than they had ever run in their lives. The king’s men, who were chasing them, also started to run and the captain ran the hardest of all.

Then the doctor stumbled over his medicine bag and fell in the mud, and the captain thought he would surely catch him this time.

But it so happened that the captain had very long ears, although his hair was very short. And when he jumped forward to grab the doctor, one of his ears got stuck in a tree and the rest of the army had to stop and help him.

By that time the doctor had got up again, and they went on again, running and running. And Chee-Chee shouted, “It’s all right! We don’t have much farther to go now!”

But before they could reach the Land of the Apes, they came to a steep cliff with a river flowing underneath. This was the end of the kingdom of Jolliginki. The Land of the Apes was on the other side – across the river.

Jip the dog looked down over the edge of the very steep cliff and said, “Good heavens, how are we ever going to get across?”

“Oh dear!” said Gub-Gub. “The king’s men are very close now, look at them! I’m afraid we’ll be taken back to prison.” And he began to cry again.

But the big ape who was carrying the pig promptly dropped him to the ground and shouted to the other apes:

“Boys – a bridge! Quickly! – Make a bridge! We only have a minute to do it. They’ve let go of the captain and he’s coming as fast as a deer. Get to work, get to work! A bridge! A bridge!”

The doctor began to wonder what they were going to make the bridge out of, and he looked around to see if there were any planks hidden somewhere.

But when he looked back at the cliff, there was a bridge hanging there on the other side of the river, ready for him. A bridge made of living apes! Because while he had his back turned, the apes had – very quickly – made a bridge, simply by holding onto each other’s hands and feet.

And the big ape shouted to the doctor, “Walk across it! Walk across it – all of you – hurry!”

Gub-Gub was a little afraid to walk on such a narrow bridge, at such a dizzy height above the river. But he made it across safely, and so did they all.

John Dolittle was the last to cross. And just as he reached the other side, the king’s men rushed to the edge of the cliff.

They shook their fists and screamed with anger. Because they saw that they were too late. The doctor and all his animals had arrived safely in the Land of the Apes, and the bridge was pulled across to the other side.

Then Chee-Chee turned to the doctor and said:

“Many great explorers and naturalists with grey beards have hidden in the jungle for weeks, waiting to see the apes do that trick. But we’ve never let them catch a glimpse of it before. You are the first to see the famous ‘Ape Bridge.'”

And the doctor was very pleased!

Chapter 8: The Leader of the Lions

John Dolittle was now terribly busy. He found hundreds, no, thousands of sick monkeys: gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, baboons, silk monkeys, gray monkeys, red monkeys, all kinds. And many had already died. The first thing he did was separate the sick monkeys from the healthy ones. Then he got Chee-Chee and his cousin to build a grass hut for him. The next thing he did was to have all the monkeys who were still healthy come to him for a shot against the disease. For three days and three nights, the monkeys from the jungle, the valleys, and the hills kept coming to the grass hut, where the doctor gave shots all day and all night. Then he had another house built, a big one with many beds in it, and he placed all the sick monkeys in this house.

But there were so many animals that there weren’t enough healthy monkeys to take care of them. So he sent messages to the other animals, such as the lions, leopards, and antelopes, asking them to come and help with the nursing. But the Leader of the Lions was a very proud creature. And when he arrived at the doctor’s big house, full of beds, he seemed angry and looked around contemptuously.

“How dare you ask me that?” he said, angry at the doctor. “Do you dare to ask me – ME, the King of the Beasts – to take care of a lot of dirty, sick monkeys? Well, I wouldn’t even want to eat them as a snack alongside my meals!”

Although the Lion looked terribly dangerous, the doctor did his best not to appear afraid of him.

“I didn’t ask you to eat them,” he said softly. “And besides, they’re not dirty. They’ve all had a bath this morning. Your coat looks like it needs brushing, you look really dusty. Listen, I’ll tell you something. There may come a day when the lions get sick. If you don’t help the other animals now, the lions may be left all alone when they are in trouble. That often happens to proud people too.”

“The lions are never in trouble, they only make trouble,” said the Leader, wrinkling his nose. And he sneaked away into the jungle, feeling that he had been smarter than smart.

Then the leopards also became proud and said they would not help either. And of course, the antelope – although they were too shy and timid to be as rude to the doctor as the lion – they scratched the ground with their feet and laughed foolishly, saying they had never been nurses before. And now the poor doctor was desperately worried, wondering where he could get enough help to take care of all those thousands of monkeys in bed. The Leader of the Lions saw, when he returned to his den, that his wife, the Lioness Queen, was running towards him in a hurry, with her mane in a mess.

“One of the cubs won’t eat,” she said. “I don’t know what to do with him. He hasn’t eaten anything since last night.”

And she began to cry and tremble with nerves because 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 ground. And one of them seemed to be very ill. Then the Lion told his wife, very proudly, what he had said to the doctor. And she got so angry that she almost drove him out of the den.

“You’ve never had an ounce of sense!” she shouted. “All the animals from here to the Indian Ocean talk about this wonderful man and how he can cure any kind of sickness. How kind he is, the only man in the whole world who can speak the language of the animals! And now, just when we have a sick baby, you have to insult him! You’re a great fool! No one but a fool is ever rude to a good doctor. You, grrr..” and she began pulling wildly at her husband’s mane.

“Go back to the doctor right away,” she yelled, “and tell him you’re sorry. And take all the other empty-headed Lions and those stupid Leopards and Antelopes with you. Then do everything the doctor tells you to do. Work as hard as you can! And maybe he’ll be kind enough to come and see the baby later. Now go! Hurry, I tell you! You’re really not fit to be a father!” And she went to the next den where another Lioness lived and told her the whole story.

So the Leader of the Lions went back to the doctor and said, “I happened to be coming this way and thought I’d just look in. Do you still need help?”

“Yes,” said the doctor. “I do. And I’m terribly worried.”

“It’s very hard to get help these days,” said the Lion. “Animals don’t seem to want to work anymore. You can’t blame them, in a way… Well, since you’re in trouble, I don’t mind doing what I can, just to ease your worries, as long as I don’t have to wash those creatures. And I’ve told all the other hunting animals to come and do their share too. The Leopards could be here any minute now… Oh, and by the way, we have a sick cub at home. I don’t think there’s much the matter with him myself. But my wife is very anxious. If you could come over and see him tonight, would you? “

Then the doctor was very glad, for all the Lions, the Leopards, the Antelopes, the Giraffes, and the Zebras – all the animals of the forests, the mountains, and the plains – came to help him with his work. There were so many that he had to send a few away, only keeping the cleverest! Very soon the monkeys began to get better. By the end of the first week, the beds in the big house were half empty. And at the end of the second week, the last monkey had become well. Then the doctor’s work was done; and he was so tired that when he finally went to bed, he slept for three days without even turning over.

Chapter 9: The Monkeys’ Council

Chee-Chee stood at the doctor’s door and kept everyone away until he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the Apes that he had to go back home now. They were very surprised about this; because they had thought he would stay with them forever. And that evening all the Apes gathered in the jungle to talk about it.

The head chimpanzee stood up and said, “Why is the good man leaving? Isn’t he happy here with us?”

But none of them could answer him. Then the Great Gorilla stood up and said, “I think we should all go to him and ask him to stay. Maybe if we make him a new home and a bigger bed, and promise him lots of help to make life pleasant for him, maybe he will want to stay.”

Then Chee-Chee stood up; and all the others whispered, “Shh, be quiet! Look! Chee-Chee, the great Traveler, is going to speak!” And Chee-Chee said to the other Apes, “My friends, I’m afraid it’s useless to ask the doctor to stay. He has debts in his city and he says he has to go back to pay them.”

And the Apes asked him, “What is money?”

Then Chee-Chee told them that in the land of humans, you couldn’t get anything without money; you couldn’t do anything without money and that it was almost impossible to live without money. And some of them asked, “But can’t you even eat and drink without paying?”

Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he told them that even he, when he was with the organ-grinder, had to ask children for money. The head chimpanzee turned to the oldest orangutan and said, “Dear aunt, these men are surely strange creatures! Who would want to live in such a land? My gracious, how pitiful!”

Then Chee-Chee said, “When we came to you, we had no boat to cross the sea and no money to buy food for the journey. So a man lent us some cookies. We said we would pay him back when we returned. And we borrowed a boat from a sailor, but it was smashed on the rocks when we reached the coast of Africa. Now the doctor says he has to go back to give the sailor another boat – because the man was poor and his ship was all he had.”

And the Apes all fell silent for a while, they sat quietly on the ground and thought deeply. Finally, the biggest baboon stood up and said, “I think we should not let this good man leave our country before we give him a nice present to take with him, so that he knows we are grateful for everything he has done for us.”

And a little red monkey sitting in a tree shouted down, “I think so too!”

And then they all shouted and made a lot of noise: “Yes, yes. Let’s give him the most beautiful present a human has ever had!”

Now they began to wonder what they could give him. One said, “Fifty bags of coconuts!” And another shouted, “One hundred bunches of bananas! At least he won’t 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 spoil before half of it was eaten. “If you want to please him,” he said, “give him an animal. You can be sure he will be kind to it. Give him a rare animal that he doesn’t have in his collection.”

And the Apes asked him, “What is a collection?”

Then Chee-Chee explained to them that humans collected animals and put them in cages so that people could come and look at them. And the Apes were very shocked and said to each other, “These people really don’t think, they’re foolish to be so easily amused. Shh! It’s a prison, that’s what he means.”

So then they asked Chee-Chee which rare animal they should give to the doctor, one that humans had not seen before. The head of the clawed monkeys asked, “Do they have an iguana?”

Chee-Chee said, “Yes, in the London Zoo.”

And another asked, “Do they have an okapi?”

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, “Do they have a pushing pullyu animal?”

Then Chee-Chee said, “No, no human has ever seen a Pushing Pullyu animal. Let’s give him that!”

Chapter 10: The Rarest Animal of All

Pushing Pullyu animals are now extinct. Extinct means they are no longer around. But long ago, when Dr. Dolittle was still alive, there were a few in the deepest jungles of Africa. 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 difficult to catch.

Strong men usually caught animals by sneaking up on them when they weren’t looking. But you couldn’t do this with the Pushing Pullyu animal because no matter which way you approached it, it always saw you. And furthermore, only half of it was asleep at any given time. The other head was always awake and watching. This was the reason why they were never caught and never seen in zoos.

Although many great hunters and clever animal keepers spent years of their lives, in all kinds of weather, searching the jungle for Pushing Pullyu animals, not one was ever caught. Even then, years ago, it was the only two-headed animal in the world. So the monkeys went on a hunt in the forest for the animal. And after they had traveled a considerable distance, one of them found peculiar footprints at the edge of a river; and they knew that a Pushing Pullyu animal had to be very close to that spot. Then they went along the riverbank for a while and saw a place where the grass was high and thick; and they suspected that he was there.

So they all joined hands and made a large circle around the tall grass. The Pushing Pullyu animal heard them coming and he did his best to break through the circle of monkeys. But he couldn’t. 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 wanted to go with Dr. Dolittle to be exhibited in the land of humans. But he vigorously shook his two heads and said, “Absolutely not!”

They explained to him that he would not be locked up in a cage, but only looked at. They told him that the doctor was a very kind man, but had no money. People would pay a lot to see a two-headed animal and the doctor would become rich and could then pay for the boat he had borrowed to come to Africa. But he replied, “No. You know how shy I am – I hate being stared at.” And he almost started crying.

Then they tried to convince him for three more days. And at the end of the third day, he said that he would first go with them to see what kind of man the doctor was. So the monkeys traveled back with the Pushing Pullyu animal. And when they arrived at the doctor’s grass hut, they knocked on the door. The duck, who was packing the suitcase, said, “Come in!” And Chee-Chee took the animal in, very proudly, and showed it to the doctor.

“What in the world is this?” asked John Dolittle, staring at the strange creature.

“This, doctor,” said Chee-Chee, “is the Pushing Pullyu animal, the rarest animal in the African jungle, the only two-headed beast in the world! Take him home. Your fortune is made. You can charge a lot of money to the people who want to see him.

“But I don’t want money,” said the doctor.

“Yes, you do,” said Dab-Dab, the duck. “Don’t you remember how we had to scrape everything together to pay the butcher’s bill in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh? And how will you give the sailor a new boat if we don’t have the money to buy one?”

“I was planning to make a boat for him,” said the doctor.

“Oh, be sensible!” exclaimed Dab-Dab. “Where will you get all the wood and nails to make a boat? And besides, how will we live? We’ll be poorer than ever when we come back. Chee-Chee is absolutely right: take this funny-looking thing with you and make money with it!”

“Well, maybe there’s something in what you say,” muttered the doctor. “It would certainly be a nice new kind of pet. But will the eh-how-do-you-call-it again, really go abroad?”

“Yes, I’ll go,” said the Pushing Pullyu animal, who immediately saw from the doctor’s face that the man was trustworthy. “You have been so kind to the animals here, and the monkeys told me that I am the only one who can do this. But you must promise me that if I don’t like it in the land of the humans, you will send me back.”

“Well, certainly – of course, of course,” said the doctor. “Excuse me, you are a relative of the Deer, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said the Pushing Pullyu animal, “I am a relative of the Abyssinian Gazelles and the Asian Chamois on my mother’s side. On my father’s side, my father’s great-grandfather was the last of the Unicorns.”

“That’s interesting,” muttered the doctor, and he took a book out of the trunk that Dab-Dab packed and began flipping through the pages. “Let’s see if the naturalist Buffon says anything about this…”

“I notice,” said the Duck, “that you only talk with one of your mouths. Can’t the other head talk too?”

“Oh yes,” said the Pushing Pullyu animal. “But I usually use the other mouth to eat. That way, I can talk while I eat without being rude. Our people have always been very polite.”

When the packing was done and everything was ready to leave, the monkeys threw a big party for the doctor. All the animals of the jungle came to feast. And they had pineapples and mangoes and honey and all sorts of other delicious things to eat and drink.

When they were all done eating, the doctor stood up and said, “My friends: I’m not good at speaking long words after eating, like some men can, and I’ve just eaten a lot of fruit and a lot of honey. But I do want to say that I’m very sorry to leave this beautiful land. But I have things to do in my own country, so I must go. When I’m gone, remember never to let flies sit on your food before you eat it, and don’t sleep on the ground when it rains. I – uh-uh – I hope further that you will all live long and happy lives.”

When the doctor stopped speaking and sat down, all the monkeys clapped their hands and said to each other, “Let there always be a memory among our people that the doctor sat and ate with us, here under the trees. The doctor is the greatest of men!”

And the Great Gorilla, whose hairy arms had the strength of seven horses, rolled a large stone to the head of the table and said, “This stone will forever mark the spot where the doctor was.”

And even to this day, in the heart of the jungle, that stone is still there. And mother apes, trekking through the forest with their families, still point to it from the branches and whisper to their children, “Shh! There it is – look – there sat the good doctor from the land of humans eating with us, in the Year of the Great Sickness!”

When the party was over, the doctor and his animals returned to the coast. And all the apes went with him to the edge of their land to bid farewell to the doctor, laden with bags and baggage.

Chapter 11: The Prince

At the edge of the river, they stopped and said goodbye. It took a while, because all the thousands of monkeys wanted to shake John Dolittle’s hand. Then, as the doctor and his pets continued on their way, Polynesia said, “We must walk carefully and speak softly as we go through the land of the Jolliginki. If the king hears us, he will send his soldiers to capture us again. He is surely still very angry about the trick I played on him.”

“What I wonder,” said the doctor, “is where we can find another boat to go home with. But oh well, maybe we’ll find one on the beach that no one is using.”

One day, while they were walking through a dense forest, Chee-Chee went ahead to search for coconuts. But while he was away, the doctor and the rest of the animals got lost. They didn’t know the jungle paths in the deep woods very well… They wandered around and around, but couldn’t find the way to the coast. Chee-Chee was terribly upset when he couldn’t see the others anymore. He climbed high trees and looked from the top branches to see if he could spot the doctor’s tall hat. He waved and shouted, calling all the animals by name. But it was no use. They seemed to have completely disappeared.

And indeed they were completely lost. They had strayed quite far from the path and the jungle was so overgrown with bushes and vines that they could barely move at times. The doctor had to take out his pocketknife to make his way. They stumbled through wet, marshy spots and got tangled up in the plants. They tore their skin on thorns and twice they nearly lost the medicine bag in the undergrowth. There seemed to be no end to their problems and there was no path to be found.

Then, after wandering for many days, they accidentally walked into the backyard of the king’s palace, their clothes torn and their faces covered in mud. The king’s men immediately ran over and grabbed them.

But Polynesia flew quickly into a tree in the palace garden without anyone noticing and hid among the leaves. The doctor and the other animals were brought to the king.

“Ha, ha!” cried the king. “So, you’re caught again, doctor! This time you won’t escape. Take them all back to the prison and put double locks on the door. This man can do chores for me for the rest of his life!”

So the doctor and his animals were locked up in prison again. And the doctor was told that he had to start scrubbing the kitchen floor every morning. They were all very unhappy.

“This is a really annoying delay,” said the doctor. “I really need to get back to Puddleby. That poor sailor will think I stole his ship if I don’t come back soon. Maybe we’re lucky and the prison door isn’t locked?”

But the thick door was firmly locked. There was no chance of getting out. Then Gub-Gub started crying again.

Meanwhile, Polynesia was still in the tree in the palace garden. She said nothing and blinked her eyes. This was always a very bad sign. Whenever the parrot didn’t say anything and blinked her eyes, it meant there were problems and she had found a way to solve them. People who caused problems for Polynesia or her friends always regretted it later. Soon she saw Chee-Chee swinging through the trees, still looking for the doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and asked what had happened.

“The doctor and all the animals have been captured by the king’s men and locked up again,” whispered Polynesia. “We got lost in the jungle and accidentally walked into the palace garden.”

“But couldn’t you have shown them the way?” asked Chee-Chee, and he began to scold the parrot for getting them lost while he himself was looking for coconuts.

“It was all that stupid pig’s fault,” said Polynesia. “He kept running off the path, chasing after ginger roots. I was so busy catching him and bringing him back that when we reached the swamp, I went left instead of right. Oh, but watch out, here comes Prince Bumpo into the garden! He mustn’t see us. Don’t move, stay where you are.”

Prince Bumpo opened the garden gate. Under his arm he carried a fairy tale book. He sauntered along the gravel path, humming a sad song, until he came to a stone bench right under the tree where the parrot and the ape were hiding. Then he lay down on the bench and began reading fairy tales to himself.

Chee-Chee and Polynesia sat very still and watched him. After a while, the prince put down the book and sighed. “If only I were a golden Prince!” he said, with a dreamy, faraway look in his eyes. Then the parrot, speaking in a high-pitched voice like a little girl, said aloud, “Bumpo, maybe someone can turn you into a golden Prince.”

The prince jumped up and looked around. “What do I hear?” he exclaimed. “I thought I heard the sweet sound of a silver fairy voice coming from the arbor! Strange!”

“Dear Prince,” said Polynesia, keeping very still so she wouldn’t be visible to Bumpo, “you speak words of honorable truth. For I, Tripsitinka, the Queen of the Fairies, sit in a rosebud and speak to you.”

“Oh tell me, Fairy Queen,” cried Bumpo, his hands clasped in joy, “who can turn me to gold?”

“In your father’s prison,” said the parrot, “there is a famous wizard named John Dolittle. He knows everything about medicine and magic, and he has performed many mighty and wonderful deeds. Yet your royal father has left him alone in the prison for hours. Go to him secretly, brave Bumpo, when the sun has set. You will see that then you will become the most beautiful golden prince any woman has ever had. I have said enough. I must now return to Fairyland. Farewell!”

“Farewell!” cried the prince. “A thousand thanks, good Tripsitinka!”

And he sat down again, with a big smile on his face, waiting for the sun to go down.

Chapter 12: Medicine and Magic

Very, very quietly, so that no one would see her, Polynesia slipped to the back of the tree and flew to the prison. She saw that Gub-Gub was sticking his nose through the bars of the window, trying to sniff the cooking smells coming from the palace kitchen. She asked the pig to bring the doctor to the window because she wanted to speak with him. So Gub-Gub went to wake up the doctor.

“Listen,” whispered the parrot when John Dolittle’s face appeared. “Prince Bumpo is coming here tonight to see you. You have to find a way to turn him into a golden prince. But make sure he promises to open the prison door and find a boat to cross the sea first.”

“Okay,” said the doctor. “But it’s not as simple as turning a human into gold. You talk as if he’s a dress that needs to be sewn again. It’s really not that easy.”

“I don’t know anything else,” Polynesia said impatiently. “Think of a way – think hard. You still have plenty of medicines in your bag. He’ll do anything for you if you just help him. It’s your only chance to get out of prison.”

“Well, maybe it’s possible,” said the doctor. “Let me see…” and he went to his medicine bag and muttered something about “mixing this with that and then spreading the magic salve over him….”

That night, Prince Bumpo came to the doctor in the prison, secretly, and said to him, “Dear doctor, I am an unhappy prince. Years ago, I went in search of Sleeping Beauty, whom I had read about in my fairy tale book. After many days of traveling through the world, I finally found her and kissed her very softly to wake her up – as the book said I should do. Indeed, she woke up. But when she saw my face, she screamed: Oh, this is just an ordinary prince but I want a golden prince.”

She ran away and didn’t want to marry me but went to sleep somewhere else. So I returned with sadness to my father’s kingdom. Now I hear that you are a great wizard and have many powerful potions. So I come to ask for your help. If you turn me into a golden prince, so that I can go back to Sleeping Beauty, I will give you half of my kingdom and everything you ask for.”

“Prince Bumpo,” said the doctor, looking at the bottles in his medicine bag, “suppose I can turn you into a funny prince, wouldn’t that make you happier?”

“No,” said Bumpo. “Nothing else will satisfy me. I want to be a golden prince.”

“You surely know it’s very difficult to change a prince,” said the doctor, “one of the hardest things a wizard can do. You just want a golden face, right?”

“Yes, that’s all,” said Bumpo.

“Does your face have to be entirely made of gold?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, entirely,” said Bumpo. “And I would also like to have blue eyes, a golden face with blue eyes, but that will be very difficult.”

“Yes, that will be very difficult,” said the doctor quickly. “Well, I’ll do what I can. You will have to be very patient. You know with some medicines you can never be entirely sure. Maybe I’ll have to try two or three times. But that’s okay. Come here to the light. Oh, but before I do anything, you must go to the beach and prepare a boat with food supplies so that I can sail over the sea. Don’t say a word about this to anyone. And when I have done what you ask, you must let me and all my animals out of prison. Promise me that, by the crown of Jolliginki!”

The Prince promised and went to the coast to prepare a boat. When he returned, the doctor asked Dab-Dab to bring a basin. In it, he mixed many kinds of medicines and told Bumpo to put his face in it. The Prince bent down and immersed his face in it, up to his ears. He held his face submerged for so long that the doctor became terribly nervous. He wobbled from one foot to the other, looking at all the bottles he had used for the mixture, reading the labels over and over again. A strong, peculiar smell filled the prison, like the smell of burning paper.

Finally, the Prince lifted his face and breathed deeply in and out. And all the animals shouted with amazement. Because the Prince’s face shone like gold, and his eyes, which had been muddy-colored, were now brilliantly blue! When John Dolittle lent him a small mirror to look at himself, the Prince sang with joy and began to dance. But the doctor asked him not to make so much noise; and when he hurriedly closed his medicine bag, he told him to open the prison door.

Bumpo begged to keep the mirror because there was no mirror in the kingdom of Jolliginki, and he wanted to look at himself all day. But the doctor said he needed the mirror for shaving. Then the Prince took a large bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked the big double locks. The doctor ran with all his animals as fast as they could to the coast. Bumpo leaned against the wall of the empty cell and smiled happily, with his face of shining gold, as bright as the light of the sun. When they reached the beach, they saw Polynesia and Chee-Chee waiting for them on the rocks by the ship.

“I feel sorry for Bumpo,” said the doctor. “I’m afraid the medicine I used won’t last long. Most likely, he won’t have a golden face anymore when he wakes up tomorrow morning. That’s why I didn’t leave the mirror with him. Honestly, I was surprised that it worked so well. But I had to do something, didn’t I? I also didn’t want to scrub the kitchen floor for the rest of my life. But still, poor Bumpo!”

“Oh, of course, he will know we played a joke on him,” said the parrot.

“They had no reason to lock us up,” said Dab-Dab, shaking her tail angrily. “We never did them any harm.”

“But actually, the Prince had nothing to do with it,” said the doctor. “It was the king, his father, who had us imprisoned. It wasn’t Bumpo’s fault. I wonder if I should go back and apologize. Well, I’ll send him something nice when I’m in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. And who knows? Maybe he’ll turn into gold.”

“Sleeping Beauty would never want him, even if he was completely made of gold,” said Dab-Dab. “He looked better when he was himself, I thought.

“He has a good heart,” said the doctor, “a romantic heart, of course, but a good heart.”

“I don’t believe that poor, silly Prince really found Sleeping Beauty and kissed her,” said Jip the dog. “He probably kissed some other woman who was napping under an apple tree, and that woman was startled. I wonder who he’ll kiss next. It’s a crazy thing!”

Then the Pushmi-Pullyu, the white mouse, Gub-Gub, Dab-Dab, Jip, and the owl Too-Too went with the doctor to the ship. But Chee-Chee, Polynesia, and the Crocodile stayed behind because Africa was their true home, the land where they were born. But when the doctor stood on the boat and looked out over the sea, he remembered that they had no one with them to guide them back to Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. The vast sea looked terribly big and lonely in the moonlight. He began to wonder if they would get lost. But suddenly they heard a strange whispering sound, high in the sky, coming towards them through the night. The animals all became quiet and listened.

The sound grew louder and louder. It seemed to be getting closer, a sound like the autumn wind blowing through the leaves of a tree, or a heavy rainstorm beating down on the roof. And Jip, with his nose sniffing the air and his tail straight up, said, “Birds! Millions of birds, flying through the air, that’s it!”

Then they all looked up and saw, swarming over the surface of the moon, thousands and thousands of little birds. Soon the whole sky seemed full of them, and more and more were coming. There were so many that for a while they even covered the whole moon, so that it gave no light. And the sea became dark and black, as when a thundercloud comes over the sun.

Soon all these birds came closer and down, skimming over the water and the land. The night sky became bright again, and the moon shone as usual. But there was still no cry, no call, no song. No sound was heard except the loud rustling of feathers, which now grew louder than ever. Then they landed on the sand and sat on ropes of the ship. They sat everywhere except in 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, there was suddenly no more sound, everything was quiet.

And in the quiet moonlight, John Dolittle spoke, “I had no idea that we had been in Africa for so long. It will almost be summer when we get home. For these are the swallows going back. Swallows, I thank you for waiting for us. It’s very kind of you. Now we needn’t be afraid of getting lost on the sea! Heave up the anchor and hoist the sail!”

As the ship sailed away, those who were left behind, Chee-Chee, Polynesia, and the Crocodile, were terribly sad. For never in their lives had they known anyone as kind as Doctor John Dolittle from the City-by-the-Pool.

And after shouting goodbye many times, they still stood on the rocks, crying and waving until the ship was out of sight.

Chapter 13: Red Sails and Blue Wings

On their way home, Doctor Dolittle’s ship had to pass the coast of Barbary. This coast was the coast of the Great Desert. It is a wild and lonely place with lots of sand and stones. The Barbary pirates lived in this place.

These pirates chased sailors with their fast sailing ships with the aim of causing them to shipwreck. When they seized a boat, they captured the people, took everything that was on the ship, and then let the ship sink. On their way back to Barbary, they sang songs and were proud of the harm they had caused. They made the captured people write letters to their friends asking for money. If they did not send the money, they threw the prisoners into the sea.

On a sunny day, Doctor Dolittle and Dab-Dab were walking on the deck. A nice fresh wind blew the boat forward, and everyone was happy. Soon, Dab-Dab saw the sail of another ship far behind them at the edge of the sea. It was a red sail.

“I don’t like that sail,” said Dab-Dab. “I have a feeling it’s not a friendly ship. I’m afraid we’ll be in trouble.”

Jip, who was napping in the sun nearby, began to growl and talk in his sleep. “I smell roast beef,” he muttered, “but the roast beef isn’t done yet, it needs brown gravy.”

“My goodness!” exclaimed the doctor. “What’s wrong with that dog? Does he smell in his sleep and talk too?”

“I suppose so,” said Dab-Dab. “All dogs can smell in their sleep.”

“But what does he smell?” asked the doctor. “There’s no roast beef being cooked 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 possibly smell that far!”

“Oh, yes, he could,” said Dab-Dab. “Just ask him.”

Then Jip, still deeply asleep, began to growl again, and his lip curled angrily, showing his white teeth. “I smell bad men,” he growled. “The worst men I’ve ever smelled. I smell trouble. I smell a fight–six bad ruffians fighting one brave man, I want to help him. WOOF WOOF.” Then he barked loudly and woke up with a surprised look on his face.

“Look, the boat is getting closer,” cried Dab-Dab.

“They’re bad sailors,” said Jip, “and their ship is very fast. They must be the pirates of Barbary.”

“Well, we need to put up more sails on our boat,” said the doctor, “so we can go faster and sail away from them. Run downstairs, Jip, and bring up all the sails you can find.”

The dog hurried downstairs and dragged up all the sails he could find. But even when they had set all the sails, the boat did not go nearly as fast as the pirates, who were getting closer and closer. “This is a miserable ship the prince gave us,” said Gub-Gub the pig, “this old tub is the slowest ship he could find, I think. Look how close they are now! You can see the men’s mustaches, there are six of them. What should we do now?”

Then the doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows that pirates were chasing them in a fast ship, and ask them what they should do. When the swallows heard this, they all flew down and landed on the doctor’s ship. They told him to unravel a few long pieces of rope and make as many thin strings as he could, as quickly as possible. Then the ends of these strings were tied to the front of the ship. The swallows grabbed the strings with their feet and flew away, pulling the boat along.

A few swallows together aren’t strong, but it’s a different story when there are a lot of them. And there, tied to the doctor’s ship, were thousands of strings, with two thousand swallows pulling on each one, all incredibly fast fliers. Suddenly, the doctor noticed that the ship was moving so fast that he had to hold onto his hat with both hands. It was as if the ship was flying through the sea.

And all the animals on the ship began to laugh and dance, because when they looked back at the pirate ship, they could see that it was getting smaller and smaller instead of bigger and bigger. They left the red sails behind!

Chapter 14: The Rats’ Warning

Dragging a ship through the sea is hard work. And after three hours, the swallows started to get tired and short of breath. They sent a message to the doctor saying that they needed to rest quickly. They would pull the boat to an island not far away and hide in a deep bay until they had regained their strength.

And soon the doctor saw the island. It had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle.

After the ship had safely entered the bay where it was not visible from the open sea, the doctor said that he would go to the island to look for water because there was nothing left to drink on his ship. He told all the animals to go ashore as well to romp on the grass and stretch their legs.

As they left the ship, the doctor noticed that a lot of rats were coming up from below and also leaving the ship. Jip started running after them, because chasing rats had always been his favorite game. But the doctor told him to stop.

A large black rat, who seemed to want to say something to the doctor, shyly crawled along the railing to the front and looked at the dog from the corner of his eye. And after he had coughed nervously two or three times, cleaned his side-whiskers, and wiped his mouth, he said:

“Ahem – eh – you do know that all ships have rats, don’t you, doctor?”

“Yes,” answered the doctor.

“And have you heard that rats always leave a sinking ship?”

“Yes, I have been told that,” said the doctor.

“People,” said the rat, “always talk about it with a sneer – as if it were something shameful. But you can’t blame us, can you? After all, who would stay on a sinking ship if they could get off?”

“That is perfectly natural,” said the doctor, “really very natural. I understand it very well… Was there… Was there anything else you wanted to say?”

“Yes,” said the rat. “I came to tell you that we are leaving this ship. We wanted to warn you before we go. This is a bad ship. It’s not safe. The sides are not strong enough. The planks are rotten. By tomorrow night, it will sink to the bottom of the sea.”

“But how do you know that?” asked the doctor.

“We always know,” answered the rat. “The tips of our tails get a tingling feeling – like your foot falling asleep. This morning, at six o’clock, while I was having breakfast, my tail suddenly started to tingle. At first, I thought it was my rheumatism coming back. So I went to my aunt and asked her how she felt – do you remember her? – the long, spotted rat, quite thin, who came to you last spring in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh with jaundice?

Her tail was tingling too! Then we knew for sure that this boat would sink in less than two days. We all decided to leave the ship as soon as we were close enough to land. It’s really a bad ship, doctor. Don’t sail on it anymore or you will certainly drown… Goodbye! We are now looking for a good place to live on this island.”

“Goodbye!” said the doctor. “And thank you very much for coming to tell me. Very kind of you! Give my regards to your aunt. I certainly remember her… Leave that rat alone, Jip! Come here! Lie down!”

So the doctor and all his animals went off, with buckets and pans, to search for water on the island, while the swallows rested.

“I wonder what this island is called,” said the doctor as he climbed the mountain slope. “It seems like a cozy place. And there are so many birds here!”

“Well, these are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”

The doctor stopped and listened.

“Yes, of course!” he said. “How silly of me! I wonder if they can tell us where to find water.”

And soon the canaries came, who had heard everything about Doctor Dolittle from the migratory birds, and brought him to a spring with cool, clear water. This is where the canaries usually took their bath. They also showed him beautiful meadows where birdseed grew and showed him all the other attractions of their island.

And the Pushing Pullyu was happy that they had come because he found the green grass so much tastier than the dried apples he had eaten on the ship. And Gub-Gub, the pig, squeaked with joy when he found a whole valley full of wild sugarcane.

Later, when they had all had enough to eat and drink and were resting, while the canaries sang for them, two of the swallows came rushing in. They were very nervous and excited.

“Doctor!” they cried. “The pirates have entered the bay and they have all gone onto your ship. They are below deck looking for things to steal. They have left their own ship without anyone on it. If you hurry and come down quickly, you can take their ship. It’s a very fast ship and then we can escape, but you’ll have to hurry.”

“That’s a great idea,” said the doctor.

And he immediately called his animals together, said goodbye to the canaries, and ran to the beach.

When they reached the shore, they saw the pirate ship with three red sails. It was exactly as the swallows had said – there was no one on the ship. All the pirates were below deck in the doctor’s ship, looking for things to steal.

So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all crept onto the pirate ship.

Chapter 15: The Barbary Dragon

Everything would have gone well if the pig Gub-Gub hadn’t caught a cold while eating the damp sugarcane on the island.

This is what happened: After silently raising the anchor and very carefully maneuvering the ship out of the bay, Gub-Gub the pig suddenly sneezed so hard that the pirates came to investigate the noise. As soon as they saw that the doctor was trying to escape, they positioned their other boat in front of the entrance to the bay so the doctor couldn’t sail out to open sea.

Then the leader of the pirates, named Ben Ali the Barbary Dragon, shook his fist at the doctor and shouted over the water, “Ha ha, we’ve got you my friend. You wanted to steal my ship, didn’t you? But you’re not good enough to defeat Ben Ali the Barbary Dragon. And I want that duck and pig too. We’re going to have delicious pork chops and roasted duck tonight! But before I let you go home, you must make your friends send me a trunk full of gold.”

The poor Gub-Gub began to cry and Dab-Dab prepared to fly away to save her life. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the doctor, “Keep him talking, doctor. Be friendly to him. Our old ship will certainly sink soon. The rats predicted that it would be on the bottom of the sea tomorrow evening. The rats are always right. Be friendly to him until the ship sinks. Keep him talking.”

“What, until tomorrow evening?” asked the doctor. “Well, I’ll try my best… Let’s see… What shall I talk about?”

“Let them come here,” said Jip the dog. “We’ll fight them. There are only six of them. Let them come. I want to tell that Collie who lives next to me that I bit a real pirate. Let them come, I’m not afraid of them.”

“But they have pistols and swords,” said the doctor. “No, that will never work. I must talk to him… Listen, Ben Ali…”

But before the doctor could say anything else, the pirates sailed closer in their ship. They laughed with joy and said to each other, “Who will catch the pig first?”

The poor Gub-Gub became terribly afraid. The Pushmi-Pullyu animal began to sharpen its horns for a fight. Jip kept jumping and barking in the air and saying the most terrible things to Ben Ali in dog language. But suddenly something seemed to go wrong with the pirates. They stopped laughing and joking. They seemed worried about something. Then Ben Ali, who was looking down at his feet, suddenly roared, “Thunder and Lightning! Men, the boat is leaking!”

Then the other pirates looked over the edge and saw that the boat was indeed getting lower in the water. And one of them said to Ben Ali, “But if this old boat really sinks, we should see the rats leaving.”

And Jip shouted from the other ship, “You’re all big fools, there are no rats left to leave! They left two hours ago! Ha ha, have fun on that boat, my friends!”

The men didn’t believe it. But soon the front of the ship began to sink, faster and faster until it seemed like the boat was upside down. The pirates had to cling to the railing and masts to avoid falling into the water. Then the sea crashed through all the windows and doors. Finally, with a terrible sound, the ship dived straight to the bottom of the sea. And the six pirates floated around in the deep water of the bay.

Some of the pirates tried to swim to the shore. Others tried to reach the boat where the doctor was. But Jip growled and snarled, making them too scared to climb along the side of the ship.

Then suddenly they all cried out in fear: “The sharks! The sharks are coming! Let’s get to the boat before they eat us! Help, help! – The sharks! The sharks!”

And now the doctor could see the backs of big sharks swimming quickly through the water all around the bay. A large shark approached the boat and stuck its nose out of the water, saying to the doctor: “Are you John Dolittle, the famous animal doctor?”

“Yes,” said Doctor Dolittle. “That’s my name.”

The shark said: “We know these pirates are bad men, especially Ben Ali. If you want to get rid of them, we’ll gladly eat them for you, then you won’t have to deal with them anymore.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind. But I don’t think it’s necessary to eat them. Just make sure they don’t swim along the coast, but don’t eat them, okay? And make sure Ben Ali swims over here so I can talk to him,” said the doctor.

So the shark went away and drove Ben Ali towards the doctor.

“Listen, Ben Ali,” said John Dolittle, leaning over the railing, “you’ve been a very bad man and I’ve heard that you’ve killed many people. These good sharks have just offered to eat all of you. But if you promise to do what I say, I will let you go.”

“What do I have to do?” asked the pirate, looking sideways at the big shark that was sniffing at his leg underwater.

“You must not kill people anymore,” said the doctor. “You must stop stealing, never sink another ship, and completely give up your pirate life.”

“But what will I do then?” asked Ben Ali. “How will I live?”

“You and all your men must become birdseed farmers on this island,” replied the doctor. “You must grow birdseed for the canaries.”

Ben Ali, the Barbarian Dragon, turned pale with anger. “Grow birdseed,” he groaned in disgust. “Can’t I be a sailor?”

“No,” said the doctor. “You’ve been a sailor long enough, and you’ve sunk many ships and drowned good men. For the rest of your life, you must be a peaceful farmer. The shark is waiting. Don’t waste any more time. Make a decision.”

“Well, all Thunder and Lightning!” muttered Ben Ali. “Grow birdseed.” Then he looked back into the water and saw the big shark also sniffing at his other leg.

“Then we’ll be farmers,” he said sadly.

“And remember,” said the doctor, “if you don’t keep your promise, if you return to piracy, I will know it, because the canaries will come and tell me. And rest assured, I will find a way to punish you. Because although I can’t sail as well as you, I don’t have to be afraid of a pirate as long as the birds, fish, and other animals are my friends. Not even a pirate who calls himself ‘The Dragon of Barbary.’ Go now and be a good birdseed farmer and live in peace.”

Then the doctor turned to the big shark and waved his hand, saying, “Okay. Let them swim safely to the land.”

Chapter 16: Too-Too, the Listener

After thanking the sharks again for their kindness, the doctor and his pets continued their journey back home on the fast ship with the three red sails. When they were out at sea, all the animals went down below to see what their new boat looked like inside. The doctor stood on the back of the ship’s railing with a pipe in his mouth and watched the Canary Islands fade into the blue twilight of the evening. He was just wondering how the monkeys were doing and what his garden would look like when he returned to Puddleby when Dab-Dab came waddling up the stairs.

“Doctor!” she called. “This pirate ship is amazing. There are silk beds with hundreds of pillows, soft carpets on the floor, and the dishes are made of silver. The food and drink are delicious. You’ve never seen anything like it! Come and take a look! We also saw a door with a padlock. We really want to know what’s inside. Jip says the pirates keep their treasure in there. Come with us, maybe you can open the door.”

The doctor went with them and saw that the ship was beautiful. All the animals were standing at the door, talking all at once. The doctor turned the handle, but the door wouldn’t open. Then everyone looked for the key. They searched everywhere: under the mat, under the carpet, in all the cabinets and storage chests. They discovered more beautiful things that the pirates must have stolen from other ships. Embroidered scarves, tobacco jars, ivory, tea, and an old violin with a broken string. There was also coral, a walking stick with a sword in it, and wine glasses. But they couldn’t find the key to the padlock.

So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the keyhole. But there was something blocking the door on the inside, and he couldn’t see anything. Nobody knew what to do. Suddenly, the owl Too-Too said, “Shh! Listen! I really think there’s someone in that room.”

They all stayed quiet for 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. “Shh! There it is again. Don’t you hear it?”

“I don’t hear anything. What kind of sound is it?” asked the doctor.

“I hear the sound of someone putting their hand in their pocket,” said the owl.

“But that makes hardly any noise,” said the doctor. “You wouldn’t hear that from here.”

“Excuse me, but I can hear it,” said Too-Too. “I’m sure there’s someone on the other side of the door putting their hand in their pocket. My ears are so sharp, they can pick up any sound. We owls can hear a kitten blink its eyes in the dark with just one ear.”

“Well, well,” said the doctor. “That surprises me. That’s very interesting. Listen again and tell me what he’s doing now.”

“I’m not sure if it’s a man or a woman. Pick me up and hold me to the keyhole, and I’ll tell you,” said the owl.

So the doctor lifted the owl and held him close to the lock on the door. A moment later, Too-Too said, “Now he’s rubbing his left hand over his face. It’s a small hand and a small face. It could be a woman. But now he’s pushing his hair back from his forehead, so it must be a man.”

“Women do that sometimes, too,” said the doctor.

“That’s true,” said the owl. “But when they do it, their long hair makes a very different sound… Shh! Make that restless pig be quiet. Everyone, hold your breath for a moment so I can listen well. This is very difficult, what I’m doing, that annoying door is so thick! Shh! Everyone be quiet, close your eyes, and don’t breathe.”

Too-Too leaned forward and listened again. Finally, he looked up and said, “The man inside is unhappy. He’s crying. He’s made sure not to sniff, otherwise we would hear that he’s crying. But I heard, very clearly, the sound of a tear falling on his sleeve.”

“How do you know it wasn’t a drop of water that fell on him from the ceiling?” asked Gub-Gub.

“Pfff, don’t be silly,” snorted Too-Too. “A drop of water that falls from the ceiling would have made ten times as much noise!”

“Well,” said the doctor, “if that poor man is unhappy, we should go inside to see what’s the matter with him. Find me an ax, and I’ll chop a hole in the door.”

Chapter 17: The Ocean Gossips

A hatchet was found, and the doctor quickly chopped a hole in the door big enough to climb through. At first, he saw nothing. It was very dark inside, so he struck a match. It was a small, low-ceilinged room without a window. There was only one stool in it. It smelled of wine. In the middle of the room, sitting on the floor, was a little boy of about eight, crying loudly.

“This must be the pirates’ rum room!” whispered Jip.

“Yes, it’s definitely rum,” said Gub-Gub. “The smell is making me dizzy.”

The little boy looked fearfully at the man and the animals peering in through the hole in the broken door. But when he saw John Dolittle’s face in the light of the match, he stopped crying and stood up.

“You’re not a pirate, are you?” he asked.

And when the doctor laughed out loud, the little boy smiled and took his hand.

“You laugh like a friend,” he said, “not like a pirate. Can you tell me where my uncle is?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” said the doctor. “When did you last see him?”

“It was the day before yesterday,” said the boy. “My uncle and I were fishing when the pirates captured us. They sank our fishing boat and brought us both aboard this ship. They wanted my uncle to be a pirate too because he was a good captain. But he said he didn’t want to be a pirate because pirates kill people and are thieves, and that it was not an honest living for a fisherman.

Then the leader, Ben Ali, got very angry and said they would throw my uncle overboard if he didn’t do what they said. They sent me below, but I heard the fight going on above. When they let me come up again the next day, my uncle was nowhere to be seen. The pirates wouldn’t tell me where he was. I’m very afraid they threw him into the sea and he drowned.” And the little boy started crying again.

“Don’t cry,” said the doctor. “Let’s go and have tea in the dining room and talk about it. Maybe your uncle has been safe all the time. You don’t know for sure if he drowned, do you? Maybe we can find him. But first let’s have tea and eat strawberry jam sandwiches, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

All the animals listened curiously. And when they had gone to the ship’s dining room and were drinking tea, Dab-Dab came and stood behind the doctor’s chair and whispered, “Ask the porpoises if the boy’s uncle drowned. They will surely know.”

“Good idea,” said the doctor, taking another jam sandwich.

“What are those funny clicking noises you’re making with your tongue?” asked the boy.

“Oh, I was just speaking a few words in duck language,” answered the doctor. “This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets.”

“I didn’t even know ducks had a language,” said the boy. “Are all these other animals your pets too? What is that strange-looking thing with two heads?”

“Sshh!” whispered the doctor. “That’s the Pushmi-Pullyu. Don’t let him hear us talking about him or he’ll get terribly embarrassed. Tell me, how did you come to be locked up in that little room?”

“The pirates locked me up in there when they went to steal things from another ship. When I heard someone hacking on the door, I didn’t know who it could be. I was very happy to discover that it was you. Do you think you can find my uncle for me?”

“Well, we will do our very best,” said the doctor. “What did your uncle look like?”

“He had bright red hair,” the boy answered, “and there was an anchor tattooed on his arm. He was a strong man, a kind uncle, and the best sailor in the southern Atlantic Ocean. His fishing boat was called the Tough Sally, it was a fishing sloop.”

“What is a fishing sloop?” whispered Gub-Gub, turning to Jip.

“Sssh, that’s the kind of ship the man had,” Jip said. “Can’t you be quiet for a minute?”

“Oh,” said the pig, “is that all? I thought it was something to drink.”

The doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining room and went upstairs to look for the porpoises. Soon a whole school of porpoises came, dancing and jumping through the water, on their way to Brazil. When they saw the doctor leaning on the railing of his ship, they came to see how he was doing. And the doctor asked them if they had seen a man, with red hair and an anchor tattoo on his arm.

“Do you mean the captain of the Tough Sally?” asked the porpoises.

“Yes, that’s the man. Is he drowned?”

“His fishing sloop sank,” the porpoises said, “because we saw it lying at the bottom of the sea, but the boat was empty.”

“His nephew is here with me on the ship,” said the doctor. “And he’s terribly afraid that the pirates threw his uncle overboard. Would you be so kind as to go and check if he really didn’t drown?”

“Oh, he didn’t drown,” the porpoises said. “If he had, we would have heard about it from the sea creatures. We hear all the saltwater news. The shellfish call us ‘the Gossips of the Ocean’.”

“Tell the little boy that we’re sorry we don’t know where his uncle is, but we’re pretty sure he didn’t drown.”

The doctor told the good news to the little boy, who clapped his hands in happiness. The Pushmi-Pullyu took the boy on his back and gave him a ride around the dining table. The other animals followed in a procession, happily drumming spoons on dish covers.

Chapter 18: Smells

“Now,” said Dr. Dolittle, “the next thing is that we must find your uncle. At least we know he has not been thrown into the sea.”

Then Dab-Dab came up to him again and whispered, “Ask the eagles to look for the man. No living thing can see better than an eagle. When they are miles up in the sky, they can count the ants crawling on the ground. Ask the eagles.”

So the doctor sent a swallow to fetch the eagles. After an hour, the little bird returned with several kinds of eagles. They stood in a row on the ship’s rail like soldiers, and their great shiny black eyes saw everything. Gub-Gub was afraid of them and went and sat behind a barrel. He said he felt as though those terrible eyes were looking straight through him to see what he had stolen for lunch. And the doctor said to the eagles, “A man is missing, a fisherman with red hair and an anchor on his arm. Would you be so kind as to see if you can find him? This boy is the nephew of that man.”

Eagles do not talk much, and all they said in their husky voices was, “You can rely on us to do our best, Dr. Dolittle.”

Then they flew away, and Gub-Gub came out from behind his barrel again. They flew higher and higher and still higher. When the doctor could only just see them, they all went different ways. “Good gracious!” said Gub-Gub in a hushed voice. “How high they fly! I wonder they don’t scorch their feathers, being so close to the sun.”

When they returned, it was almost night. And the eagles said to the doctor, “We have searched all the seas, islands, cities, and villages in this half of the world. But it’s no use. We saw three red hairs on a wheelbarrow in Gibraltar, but they were not the hairs of the man we were looking for. There was no trace of him. We really did our best, Dr. Dolittle.” Then the birds flapped their great wings and flew back to their homes in the mountains and the rocks.

“What now?” said Dab-Dab. “We must find the boy’s uncle. He cannot be left alone in the world. Little boys must be taken care of. I wish Chee-Chee were here. He would be able to find the man, I’m sure. I wonder how Chee-Chee is getting on.”

“If only Polynesia were with us,” said the white mouse. “She would think of a way. Do you remember how she got us all out of jail? She was so clever.”

“I’m not impressed with those eagles,” said Jip. “They are just conceited. They may have sharp eyes, but if you ask them to find a man, they can’t even do it. I’m not impressed with the talk of those old porpoises, either. The only thing they could tell us was that the man was not in the sea. We don’t want to know where he isn’t, we want to know where he is.”

“Don’t talk so much nonsense,” said Gub-Gub. “It’s not easy to find someone who could be anywhere in the world. Maybe the fisherman’s hair has turned white with worry about the boy, and that’s why the eagles couldn’t find him. You’re just a stupid dog with a big mouth, and you can’t find the man either.”

“Can’t I do that?” said the dog. “What do you know about it, you stupid pig. I haven’t even tried yet. Just wait and see.”

Then Jip went to the doctor and said, “Please ask the boy if he has anything in his pockets that belonged to his uncle?” So the doctor asked him. And the boy showed them a gold ring that he wore on a 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 smelled the ring and said, “That’s not good. Ask him if he has anything else that belonged to his uncle.”

Then the boy took a large red handkerchief out of his pocket and said, “This was also from my uncle.” As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip exclaimed, “Snuff. Can’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.”

“Great!” said Jip. “The man is as good as found. That’s no problem for me. Tell the boy I’ll find his uncle for him in less than a week. Let’s go up and see which way the wind is blowing.”

“But it’s dark now,” said the doctor. “You can’t find him in the dark!”

“I don’t need light to look for a man who smells of snuff,” said Jip as he climbed the stairs. “If the man smelled of hot water, it would be different.”

“Does hot water have a smell?” asked the doctor.

“Of course,” said Jip. “Hot water smells very different from cold water. Ice and hot water are difficult smells. Let’s see which way the wind is blowing. Wind is very important for long-distance smelling. This wind is coming from the north.” Then Jip went to the front of the ship and sniffed the wind, muttering to himself, “Tar, Spanish onions, kerosene, wet raincoats, crushed bay leaves, rubber tires, washed curtains, or no, lace curtains drying and foxes with lots of cubs.”

“Can you really smell all those different things in this one wind?” asked the doctor.

“But of course!” said Jip. “And those are just a few of the easy smells. Any mongrel could smell them even if he were cold. Wait, there are a few more smells coming.”

Then the dog closed his eyes tightly, stuck his nose straight up in the air, and sniffed hard with his mouth half-open. For a long time, he said nothing. He remained as still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing. When he finally began to speak, it sounded almost as if he were speaking in a dream: “Old bricks crumbling in a garden wall, the sweet breath of young cows standing in a mountain stream, the roof of a granary with the afternoon sun on it, black velvet gloves in a drawer of walnut wood, a dusty road with a horse-trough and mushrooms under rotting leaves.”

“Do you smell parsnips too?” asked Gub-Gub.

“No,” said Jip. “You always think only of food. I don’t smell parsnips or snuff. We have to wait for the wind to change.”

“Yes, yes, a bad wind,” said Gub-Gub. “I don’t think you know anything, Jip. Who ever heard of finding a man in the ocean just by smelling?”

Now Jip was really angry: “If you keep being so rude, I’ll bite you on the nose.”

“Stop quarreling!” said the doctor. “Life is too short for quarreling. Tell me, Jip, where do you think those smells are coming from?”

“From Devon and Wales, the wind is coming from that direction,” said Jip.

“Well, well!” said the doctor. “This is really remarkable, I must note this in my new book. I wonder if I could learn this too. But no, perhaps I am better off as I am. They say, ‘Enough is as good as a feast.’ Let’s go down now to eat, I’m hungry.”

“I am too,” said Gub-Gub.

Chapter 19: The Rock

Every morning they woke up in their silk beds and then went up on deck. Jip would smell the wind for half an hour, and then he would go to the doctor and shake his head. “I don’t smell any snuff tobacco yet,” he would say. “We have to wait until the wind turns to the east.”

But even when the east wind came, the dog couldn’t pick up the scent of snuff tobacco. The little boy was terribly disappointed and started crying again because no one could find his uncle. But all Jip said to the doctor was, “Tell him that when the wind turns to the west, I’ll find his uncle, even if he’s in China, as long as he’s still taking snuff tobacco.”

On a Friday morning, the west wind came. A fine mist of rain lay on the sea like a thin fog, and the wind was warm and wet. As soon as Jip woke up, he ran up on deck and stuck his nose in the air. Then he got terribly excited and rushed back down to wake up the doctor.

“Doctor!” he cried. “I’ve got it! Doctor! Doctor! Wake up! Listen! I’ve got it! The wind is coming from the west, and I smell nothing but snuff tobacco. Come up and start the ship, quickly!”

The doctor tumbled out of bed and went to the helm. “I’ll stand at the front of the ship, and you follow my nose. The man can’t be far away with a scent as strong as this.”

So all morning, Jip stood at the front of the ship, sniffing the wind and pointing the way, while all the animals and the little boy watched in amazement. Around lunchtime, Jip asked Dab-Dab to tell the doctor that he was getting worried and wanted to speak to him. So Dab-Dab went to fetch the doctor from the other side of the ship, and Jip said to him, “The boy’s uncle is hungry. We need to get to him as soon as possible.”

“How do you know he’s hungry?” asked the doctor.

“Because I only smell snuff tobacco,” said Jip. “If the man was cooking or eating something, I would smell that too. He doesn’t even have fresh water to drink. We’re getting closer to him because the scent is getting stronger. Let’s sail as fast as we can. I’m really sure the man is hungry.”

“Very well,” said the doctor, and he sent Dab-Dab to ask the swallows to tow the ship, just as they had done when the pirates were chasing them. The brave swallows came down and pulled the ship along again. The boat now raced over the waves at great speed, so fast that the fish had to jump out of the way to save their lives.

All the animals stood excitedly along the railing, scanning the horizon for the starving man. Hour after hour went by, and the ship raced on over the sea, but no land came into view. The animals grew quiet now, because they were starting to worry. The little boy became sad again. And Jip was worried too. Finally, late in the afternoon, just as the sun was setting, everyone was startled by the hooting of the owl, Too-Too.

“Jip! Jip! I see a big rock in the distance, look, the sun is shining on it like gold. Is the scent coming from there?” And Jip shouted back, “Yes, that’s where the man is. Finally, finally!”

As they got closer, they saw that the rock was very large and completely bare. It looked like the back of a turtle. The doctor sailed the ship around the rock, but there was no man to be seen. There was no living creature in sight, not even a seagull or a starfish or seaweed. Everyone was silent and listening intently, but the only sound they heard was the gentle lapping of the waves. Then they all called out, “Hello, hello,” but only an echo answered back.

And the little boy burst into tears again and said, “I’m afraid I’ll never see my uncle again! What should I tell them when I go back home?”

But Jip called out to the doctor, “He must be here, the scent doesn’t go any further. He must be here, I’m sure of it. Sail the ship close to the rock and let me jump on the rock.”

So the doctor brought the ship as close as he could and dropped anchor. Then he and Jip stepped out of the ship onto the rock. Jip ran with his nose to the ground in all directions, and the doctor ran after him until he was out of breath. Finally, Jip barked loudly and sat down. When the doctor ran over to him, he discovered that the dog was staring into a large, deep hole in the middle of the rock.

“The boy’s uncle is down there,” said Jip. “No wonder those stupid eagles couldn’t see him. It takes a dog to find a man.”

The hole turned out to be a kind of cave that went a long way underground. The doctor lit a match and made his way through the dark passage, with Jip following behind him. Finally, the doctor arrived in a kind of room. And there, in the middle of the room, was a man with red hair, fast asleep. Jip sniffed at something lying next to the man on the ground. The doctor picked it up, and it was a huge box of… snuff tobacco!

Chapter 20: The Fisherman’s Town

Then the doctor gently woke the man up. But just as he did, the match went out. The man thought Ben Ali had come back and in the darkness he began to hit the doctor. When the doctor told him who he was and that he had his little nephew on the ship, the man was very happy and said he was sorry for hitting the doctor. Then he gave the doctor some snuff.

The man told how the Barbary Dragon Ben Ali had put him on the rock and left him there because he did not want to become a pirate. He had slept in the cave every night to keep warm. And then he said, “For four days I had nothing to eat or drink. I lived on snuff.”

“Well, what did I tell you?” exclaimed Jip.

When they came out into the passage again, the doctor hurried to the boat to get some soup. As soon as the animals and the boy saw the doctor and Jip with the red-haired man, they began to cheer and dance. The swallows began to whistle loudly to show that they too were happy. The noise that these thousands of swallows made was so loud that sailors far out at sea thought a storm was coming.

And Jip was very proud of himself, but he tried not to look conceited. Dab-Dab said, “Jip, I had no idea you were so clever!” but Jip just shook his head and replied, “Oh, it was nothing special. But it takes a dog to find a man. Birds can’t do that.”

The doctor asked the red-haired fisherman where his house was. And when he told him, the doctor asked the swallows to lead the ship there first. They came to a rocky mountain and the man pointed to the house where he lived.

When they were in the harbor, the mother of the little boy ran to the shore laughing and crying at the same time. She had sat on the shore for twenty days, looking out to sea and waiting for them to return. She gave the doctor so many kisses that he blushed like a schoolboy. She also tried to kiss Jip but he quickly ran away and hid in the ship.

“It’s a silly thing, that kissing,” said Jip. “I want nothing to do with it. Let her kiss Gub-Gub if she has to kiss something.”

The fisherman and his wife asked the doctor to spend a few days with them. So John Dolittle and all his animals stayed for a few days. All the little boys in the fishing village went to the beach and pointed to the big ship that was anchored there, whispering to each other, “Look! That was a pirate ship, belonging to Ben Ali, the most terrible pirate that ever sailed the sea! The old gentleman staying in the village stole the ship from the pirates and turned the pirate into a farmer. Who would have thought it! He seems like such a nice man. Look, the ship has red sails and can sail very fast.”

During the days they stayed in the fishing village, the doctor was invited everywhere and all the ladies sent him boxes of flowers and candy and the village band played tunes under his window every night. Finally the doctor said, “Dear people, I must go home now. You have been so very kind. I shall always remember it. But I must go home because there are things I must do there.”

Just as the doctor was about to leave, the mayor came down the street with a procession and stopped at the house where the doctor was staying. After six boys had blown shiny trumpets to make people stop talking, the mayor spoke: “Doctor Dolittle, it gives me great pleasure to offer a small token of gratitude to the man who freed the sea from the Barbary Dragon.” And the mayor gave the doctor a beautiful watch with real diamonds. Then the mayor pulled out an even bigger package from his pocket and said, “Where is the dog?”

Everyone began to search for Jip. And finally, Dab-Dab found him on the other side of the village in a stable, where all the dogs from the countryside stood around him in speechless admiration and respect. When Jip was brought to the doctor, the mayor opened the larger package. Inside was a gold collar! On the collar were large letters that read: “Jip, the smartest dog in the world.”

Then all the people in the village went to the beach to bid farewell to the doctor and his animals. The red-haired fisherman and his sister and the little boy thanked the doctor and his dog over and over again. Then the big, fast ship with the red sails sailed towards the City-by-the-Pond while the village band played music on the shore.

Chapter 21: Home Again

North winds had come and gone. The April showers were over. May buds had bloomed and the June sun was shining pleasantly when Dr. Dolittle finally returned to his own land.

He didn’t go straight to Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. First, he traveled through the country in a gypsy wagon with the Pushmi-Pullyu and stopped at all the circuses. They hung up a big sign that read, “Come and see the miraculous two-headed creature from Africa. Admission: sixty cents.”

The animals stayed inside until the doctor received sixty cents and let the people in with a smile. Dab-Dab grumbled at the doctor because he let the children in secretly for free. The circus people asked the doctor to sell them the strange creature; they would pay a lot of money for it. But the doctor always shook his head and said, “No. The Pushmi-Pullyu will never be locked up in a cage. He will always be free to come and go, just like you and me.”

They had many adventures during this wandering life, but the doctor and the animals found it very ordinary after everything they had seen and done in distant lands. At first, it was fun to be part of a circus, but after a few weeks, they became terribly tired of it and longed to go home. But many people came to the wagon and all paid sixty cents admission, so the doctor and his animals kept going for a while.

And one fine day, when the hollyhocks were in full bloom, the doctor gave up the gypsy life and returned to Puddleby-on-the-Marsh as a wealthy man, to live in the small house with the big garden.

The old lame horse in the stable was happy to see him. The swallows, who now had nests with young ones, were also glad they were back. And Dab-Dab was happy to go back to the house she knew so well, although it needed a good cleaning. Spider webs hung everywhere. And after Jip showed off his golden collar to the haughty collie who lived nearby, he came back and started running through the garden like crazy, looking for bones he had buried long ago. Gub-Gub started digging for a horseradish that was a meter tall.

The doctor went to the sailor who had lent him the boat, and he bought two new ships for him and a rubber doll for his baby.

He also paid the grocer’s bill for the food he had borrowed for the trip to Africa. He bought another piano and let the white mice live in it because they found the desk drawer too drafty. Even when the doctor had filled the old piggy bank, he still had money for three more large piggy banks.

“Money,” he said, “is terribly annoying. But it’s nice not to have to worry about it.”

“Yes, that’s true,” said Dab-Dab, who was roasting muffins for tea.

When winter came and the snow flew against the kitchen window, the doctor and his animals, after dinner, sat around a big warm fire. The doctor read to them from his books.

Far away in Africa, the monkeys in the palm trees said to each other, “I wonder what the good man is doing now, there in that distant land. Do you think he’ll ever come back?”

And Polynesia called from the vines, “I think he will and I hope he will!”

And then the crocodile growled at them from the black mud of the river, “I’m sure he’ll come back, but now you must go to sleep.”