The Story of Doctor Dolittle / История Доктора Дулиттла. Уровень 1

One afternoon when the Doctor was busy writing in a book, Polynesia sat in the window. She was looking out at the leaves blowing about in the garden. Then she laughed aloud.

“What is it, Polynesia?” asked the Doctor and looked up from his book.

“I was just thinking,” said the parrot. Then she went on looking at the leaves.

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about people,” said Polynesia. “People make me sick. They think they’re so smart. The world is thousands years old now, isn’t it? And the only thing in animal-language that people know is that when a dog wags his tail he means ‘I’m glad!’ You are the very first man to talk like us. Oh, sometimes people annoy me very much. And they think animals are dumb! I knew a bird once who could say ‘Good morning!’ in seven different ways. And this is without once opening his mouth. He could talk every language, even Greek. An old professor with a gray beard bought him. But he didn’t stay. He said the old man didn’t talk Greek right. He just couldn’t stand listening to him teach the language wrong. I often wonder what he does now. That bird knew more geography than people will ever know. People! If people ever learn to fly—like any common bird—they will never shut their mouth about that!”

“You’re a wise old bird,” said the Doctor. “How old are you really? I know that parrots and elephants sometimes live very, very long.”

“I don’t know exactly,” said Polynesia. “It’s either a hundred and eighty-three or a hundred and eighty-two. Truly, I saw a lot in my life-time!”

The Third Chapter
More Money Troubles

Soon the Doctor began to make money again. His sister, Sarah, bought a new dress and was happy.

Some of the animals who came to him were so sick that they had to stay at the Doctor’s house for a week. And when they were getting better they used to sit in chairs outside.

Often the animals liked the Doctor and his house so much that they did not want to go away. Even after they got well, they asked if they could stay with him. And he never had the heart to refuse them^[5]. So in this way he went on getting more and more pets.

Once in the evening he was sitting on his garden wall and smoked a pipe. An Italian street musician was passing by. A monkey on a string followed him. The Doctor saw at once that the monkey’s collar was too tight. The monkey was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the man, gave him some money and told him to go. The man got awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the monkey. But the Doctor told him that if he didn’t go away he would punch him on the nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he wasn’t very tall. So the Italian went away saying rude things, and the monkey stayed with Doctor Dolittle. The monkey had a good home now, and the other animals in the house called him “Chee-Chee”. That is a common word in monkey-language, meaning “ginger.”

And another time, the circus came to Puddleby. The crocodile who had a bad toothache escaped at night and came into the Doctor’s garden. The Doctor talked to him in crocodile-language and took him into the house and made his tooth better. But when the crocodile saw what a nice house it was he too wanted to live with the Doctor. When the circus-men came to take him back he got so wild and angry that he frightened them away. But to everyone in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.

But now the old ladies were afraid to send their small dogs to Doctor Dolittle because of the crocodile. And the farmers were afraid to send their sick lambs because of the crocodile. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go back to his circus. But he cried so much, and begged so hard to be allowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn’t the heart to turn him out.

So then the Doctor’s sister came to him and said,

“John, you must send that creature away. Now the farmers and the old ladies are afraid to send their animals to you. Just when we started to do so well, everything started to fall apart. This is the last straw^[6]. I will no longer be housekeeper for you if you don’t send away that alligator.”

“It isn’t an alligator,” said the Doctor, “it’s a crocodile.”

“I don’t care what you call it,” said his sister. “It’s a nasty thing to find under the bed. I won’t have it in the house.”

“But he promised me he will not bite anyone,” the Doctor answered. “He doesn’t like the circus. And I have no money to send him back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and on the whole is very well behaved. Don’t be so fussy.”

“I tell you I will not have him around,” said Sarah. “He eats the carpet. If you don’t send him away this minute I’ll—I’ll go and get married!”

“All right,” said the Doctor, “go and get married. It can’t be helped.” And he took down his hat and went out into the garden.

So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and went off. Now the Doctor was left all alone with his animal family.

Things became to look very difficult. The Doctor had no money to feed all these mouths and there was no one to look after the house. But the Doctor didn’t worry at all.

“Money is a nuisance^[7],” he used to say. “I wish they were never invented at all. What does money matter, so long as we are happy?”

But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one evening when the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire they began talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl, Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was only money enough left to last another week—if they each had one meal a day and no more.

Then the parrot said, “I think we all need to do the housework ourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is because of us that the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor.”

So they decided that Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking; the dog was to clean the floors; the duck was to dust and make the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts^[8], and the pig was to do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper and laundress, because she was the oldest.

Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do. But they soon got used to it. It was even fun to watch Jip, the dog, sweeping his tail over the floor with a rag onto it for a broom. After a little they got to do the work so well that house was always perfectly clean and tidy.

In this way things went along all right for a while; but without money they found it very hard.

Then the animals started selling vegetables and flowers to the people in town. But still they didn’t seem to make enough money to pay all the bills. And still the Doctor wouldn’t worry.

When the parrot came to him and told him that the fish-seller wouldn’t give them any more fish, he said,

“Never mind. So long as the hens lay eggs and the cow gives milk, we’ll be fine. And there are plenty of vegetables left in the garden. The Winter is still a long way off. Don’t fuss. That was the trouble with Sarah—she always fussed. I wonder how Sarah’s getting on—an excellent woman—in some ways—Well, well!”

But the snow came earlier than usual that year. And although they had enough woods from the forest outside the town to have a big fire in the kitchen, most of the vegetables in the garden were gone. And many of the animals were really hungry.