The Story of Doctor Dolittle

by Hugh Lofting

  And many of the tales that Chee-Chee told were very interesting.Because although the monkeys had no history-books of their own beforeDoctor Dolittle came to write them for them, they remember everythingthat happens by telling stories to their children. And Chee-Chee spokeof many things his grandmother had told him—tales of long, long,long ago, before Noah and the Flood,—of the days when men dressed inbear-skins and lived in holes in the rock and ate their mutton raw,because they did not know what cooking was—having never seen a fire.And he told them of the Great Mammoths and Lizards, as long as a train,that wandered over the mountains in those times, nibbling from thetree-tops. And often they got so interested listening, that when hehad finished they found their fire had gone right out; and they had toscurry round to get more sticks and build a new one.

  Now when the King’s army had gone back and told the King that theycouldn’t find the Doctor, the King sent them out again and told themthey must stay in the jungle till they caught him. So all this time,while the Doctor and his animals were going along towards the Land ofthe Monkeys, thinking themselves quite safe, they were still beingfollowed by the King’s men. If Chee-Chee had known this, he would mostlikely have hidden them again. But he didn’t know it.

  One day Chee-Chee climbed up a high rock and looked out over thetree-tops. And when he came down he said they were now quite close tothe Land of the Monkeys and would soon be there.

  And that same evening, sure enough, they saw Chee-Chee’s cousin and alot of other monkeys, who had not yet got sick, sitting in the trees bythe edge of a swamp, looking and waiting for them. And when they sawthe famous doctor really come, these monkeys made a tremendous noise,cheering and waving leaves and swinging out of the branches to greethim.

  They wanted to carry his bag and his trunk and everything he had—andone of the bigger ones even carried Gub-Gub who had got tired again.Then two of them rushed on in front to tell the sick monkeys that thegreat doctor had come at last.

  But the King’s men, who were still following, had heard the noise ofthe monkeys cheering; and they at last knew where the Doctor was, andhastened on to catch him.

  The big monkey carrying Gub-Gub was coming along behind slowly, and hesaw the Captain of the army sneaking through the trees. So he hurriedafter the Doctor and told him to run.

  “Cheering and waving leaves and swinging out of thebranches to greet him”]

  Then they all ran harder than they had ever run in their lives; andthe King’s men, coming after them, began to run too; and the Captainran hardest of all.

  Then the Doctor tripped over his medicine-bag and fell down in the mud,and the Captain thought he would surely catch him this time.

  But the Captain had very long ears—though his hair was very short. Andas he sprang forward to take hold of the Doctor, one of his ears caughtfast in a tree; and the rest of the army had to stop and help him.

  By this time the Doctor had picked himself up, and on they went again,running and running. And Chee-Chee shouted,

  “It’s all right! We haven’t far to go now!”

  But before they could get into the Land of the Monkeys, they came to asteep cliff with a river flowing below. This was the end of the Kingdomof Jolliginki; and the Land of the Monkeys was on the other side—acrossthe river.

  And Jip, the dog, looked down over the edge of the steep, steep cliffand said,

  “Golly! How are we ever going to get across?”

  “Oh, dear!” said Gub-Gub. “The King’s men are quite close now—Look atthem! I am afraid we are going to be taken back to prison again.” Andhe began to weep.

  But the big monkey who was carrying the pig dropped him on the groundand cried out to the other monkeys,

  “Boys—a bridge! Quick!—Make a bridge! We’ve only a minute to do it.They’ve got the Captain loose, and he’s coming on like a deer. Getlively! A bridge! A bridge!”

  The Doctor began to wonder what they were going to make a bridge outof, and he gazed around to see if they had any boards hidden any place.

  But when he looked back at the cliff, there, hanging across the river,was a bridge all ready for him—made of living monkeys! For while hisback was turned, the monkeys—quick as a flash—had made themselves intoa bridge, just by holding hands and feet.

  And the big one shouted to the Doctor, “Walk over! Walk over—all ofyou—hurry!”

  Gub-Gub was a bit scared, walking on such a narrow bridge at that dizzyheight above the river. But he got over all right; and so did all ofthem.

  John Dolittle was the last to cross. And just as he was getting to theother side, the King’s men came rushing up to the edge of the cliff.

  Then they shook their fists and yelled with rage. For they saw theywere too late. The Doctor and all his animals were safe in the Land ofthe Monkeys and the bridge was pulled across to the other side.

  Then Chee-Chee turned to the Doctor and said,

  “Many great explorers and gray-bearded naturalists have lain long weekshidden in the jungle waiting to see the monkeys do that trick. But wenever let a white man get a glimpse of it before. You are the first tosee the famous ‘Bridge of Apes.’”

  And the Doctor felt very pleased.

  “John Dolittle was the last to cross”]

  _THE EIGHTH CHAPTER_

  THE LEADER OF THE LIONS

  JOHN DOLITTLE now became dreadfully, awfully busy. He found hundredsand thousands of monkeys sick—gorillas, orang-outangs, chimpanzees,dog-faced baboons, marmosettes, gray monkeys, red ones—all kinds. Andmany had died.

  The first thing he did was to separate the sick ones from the wellones. Then he got Chee-Chee and his cousin to build him a little houseof grass. The next thing: he made all the monkeys who were still wellcome and be vaccinated.

  And for three days and three nights the monkeys kept coming fromthe jungles and the valleys and the hills to the little house ofgrass, where the Doctor sat all day and all night, vaccinating andvaccinating.

  “He made all the monkeys who were still well come and bevaccinated”]

  Then he had another house made—a big one, with a lot of beds in it; andhe put all the sick ones in this house.

  But so many were sick, there were not enough well ones to do thenursing. So he sent messages to the other animals, like the lions andthe leopards and the antelopes, to come and help with the nursing.

  But the Leader of the Lions was a very proud creature. And when he cameto the Doctor’s big house full of beds he seemed angry and scornful.

  “Do you dare to ask me, Sir?” he said, glaring at the Doctor. “Do youdare to ask me—_ME, the King of Beasts_, to wait on a lot of dirtymonkeys? Why, I wouldn’t even eat them between meals!”

  Although the lion looked very terrible, the Doctor tried hard not toseem afraid of him.

  “I didn’t ask you to eat them,” he said quietly. “And besides, they’renot dirty. They’ve all had a bath this morning. _Your_ coat looksas though it needed brushing—badly. Now listen, and I’ll tell yousomething: the day may come when the lions get sick. And if you don’thelp the other animals now, the lions may find themselves left allalone when _they_ are in trouble. That often happens to proud people.”

  “‘_ME, the King of Beasts_, to wait on a lot of dirtymonkeys?’”]

  “The lions are never _in_ trouble—they only _make_ trouble,” said theLeader, turning up his nose. And he stalked away into the jungle,feeling he had been rather smart and clever.

  Then the leopards got proud too and said they wouldn’t help. And thenof course the antelopes—although they were too shy and timid to berude to the Doctor like the lion—_they_ pawed the ground, and smiledfoolishly, and said they had never been nurses before.

  And now the poor Doctor was worried frantic, wondering where he couldget help enough to take care of all these thousands of monkeys in bed.

  But the Leader of the Lions, when he got back to his den, saw his wife,the Queen Lioness, come running out to meet him with her hair untidy.

  “O
ne of the cubs won’t eat,” she said. “I don’t know _what_ to do withhim. He hasn’t taken a thing since last night.”

  And she began to cry and shake with nervousness—for she was a goodmother, even though she was a lioness.

  So the Leader went into his den and looked at his children—two verycunning little cubs, lying on the floor. And one of them seemed quitepoorly.

  Then the lion told his wife, quite proudly, just what he had said tothe Doctor. And she got so angry she nearly drove him out of the den.

  “You never _did_ have a grain of sense!” she screamed. “All the animalsfrom here to the Indian Ocean are talking about this wonderful man,and how he can cure any kind of sickness, and how kind he is—the onlyman in the whole world who can talk the language of the animals! Andnow, _now_—when we have a sick baby on our hands, you must go andoffend him! You great booby! Nobody but a fool is ever rude to a _good_doctor. You—,” and she started pulling her husband’s hair.

  “Go back to that white man at once,” she yelled, “and tell him you’resorry. And take all the other empty-headed lions with you—and thosestupid leopards and antelopes. Then do everything the Doctor tells you.Work like niggers! And perhaps he will be kind enough to come and seethe cub later. Now be off!—_Hurry_, I tell you! You’re not fit to be afather!”

  And she went into the den next door, where another mother-lion lived,and told her all about it.

  So the Leader of the Lions went back to the Doctor and said, “Ihappened to be passing this way and thought I’d look in. Got any helpyet?”

  “No,” said the Doctor. “I haven’t. And I’m dreadfully worried.”

  “Help’s pretty hard to get these days,” said the lion. “Animals don’tseem to want to work any more. You can’t blame them—in a way.... Well,seeing you’re in difficulties, I don’t mind doing what I can—just tooblige you—so long as I don’t have to wash the creatures. And I havetold all the other hunting animals to come and do their share. Theleopards should be here any minute now.... Oh, and by the way, we’vegot a sick cub at home. I don’t think there’s much the matter withhim myself. But the wife is anxious. If you are around that way thisevening, you might take a look at him, will you?”

  Then the Doctor was very happy; for all the lions and the leopards andthe antelopes and the giraffes and the zebras—all the animals of theforests and the mountains and the plains—came to help him in his work.There were so many of them that he had to send some away, and only keptthe cleverest.

  And now very soon the monkeys began to get better. At the end of aweek the big house full of beds were half empty. And at the end of thesecond week the last monkey had got well.

  Then the Doctor’s work was done; and he was so tired he went to bed andslept for three days without even turning over.

  _THE NINTH CHAPTER_

  THE MONKEYS’ COUNCIL

  CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor’s door, keeping everybody away tillhe woke up. Then John Dolittle told the monkeys that he must now goback to Puddleby.

  They were very surprised at this; for they had thought that he wasgoing to stay with them forever. And that night all the monkeys gottogether in the jungle to talk it over.

  And the Chief Chimpanzee rose up and said,

  “Why is it the good man is going away? Is he not happy here with us?”

  But none of them could answer him.

  Then the Grand Gorilla got up and said,

  “I think we all should go to him and ask him to stay. Perhaps ifwe make him a new house and a bigger bed, and promise him plentyof monkey-servants to work for him and to make life pleasant forhim—perhaps then he will not wish to go.”

  Then Chee-Chee got up; and all the others whispered, “Sh! Look!Chee-Chee, the great Traveler, is about to speak!”

  And Chee-Chee said to the other monkeys,

  “My friends, I am afraid it is useless to ask the Doctor to stay. Heowes money in Puddleby; and he says he must go back and pay it.”

  And the monkeys asked him, “What is _money_?”

  “Then the Grand Gorilla got up”]

  Then Chee-Chee told them that in the Land of the White Men you couldget nothing without money; you could _do_ nothing without money—thatit was almost impossible to _live_ without money.

  And some of them asked, “But can you not even eat and drink withoutpaying?”

  But Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he told them that even he, whenhe was with the organ-grinder, had been made to ask the children formoney.

  And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest Orang-outang and said,“Cousin, surely these Men be strange creatures! Who would wish to livein such a land? My gracious, how paltry!”

  Then Chee-Chee said,

  “When we were coming to you we had no boat to cross the sea in andno money to buy food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us somebiscuits; and we said we would pay him when we came back. And weborrowed a boat from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks when wereached the shores of Africa. Now the Doctor says he must go back andget the sailor another boat—because the man was poor and his ship wasall he had.”

  And the monkeys were all silent for a while, sitting quite still uponthe ground and thinking hard.

  At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said,

  “I do not think we ought to let this good man leave our land till wehave given him a fine present to take with him, so that he may know weare grateful for all that he has done for us.”

  And a little, tiny red monkey who was sitting up in a tree shouted down,

  “I think that too!”

  And then they all cried out, making a great noise, “Yes, yes. Let usgive him the finest present a White Man ever had!”

  Now they began to wonder and ask one another what would be the bestthing to give him. And one said, “Fifty bags of cocoanuts!” Andanother—“A hundred bunches of bananas!—At least he shall not have tobuy his fruit in the Land Where You Pay to Eat!”

  But Chee-Chee told them that all these things would be too heavy tocarry so far and would go bad before half was eaten.

  “If you want to please him,” he said, “give him an animal. You may besure he will be kind to it. Give him some rare animal they have not gotin the menageries.”

  And the monkeys asked him, “What are _menageries_?”

  Then Chee-Chee explained to them that menageries were places in theLand of the White Men, where animals were put in cages for people tocome and look at. And the monkeys were very shocked and said to oneanother,

  “These Men are like thoughtless young ones—stupid and easily amused.Sh! It is a prison he means.”

  So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare animal it could be that theyshould give the Doctor—one the White Men had not seen before. And theMajor of the Marmosettes asked,

  “Have they an iguana over there?”

  But Chee-Chee said, “Yes, there is one in the London Zoo.”

  And another asked, “Have they an okapi?”

  But Chee-Chee said, “Yes. In Belgium, where my organ-grinder took mefive years ago, they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp.”

  And another asked, “Have they a pushmi-pullyu?”

  Then Chee-Chee said, “No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu.Let us give him that.”

  _THE TENTH CHAPTER_

  THE RAREST ANIMAL OF ALL

  PUSHMI-PULLYUS are now extinct. That means, there aren’t any more. Butlong ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive, there were some of them stillleft in the deepest jungles of Africa; and even then they were very,very scarce. They had no tail, but a head at each end, and sharp hornson each head. They were very shy and terribly hard to catch. The blackmen get most of their animals by sneaking up behind them while they arenot looking. But you could not do this with the pushmi-pullyu—because,no matter which way you came towards him, he was always facing you.And besides, only one half of him slept at a time. The other headwas always awake—and watching. This was why they were never caughtand never seen in Z
oos. Though many of the greatest huntsmen andthe cleverest menagerie-keepers spent years of their lives searchingthrough the jungles in all weathers for pushmi-pullyus, not a singleone had ever been caught. Even then, years ago, he was the only animalin the world with two heads.

  Well, the monkeys set out hunting for this animal through the forest.And after they had gone a good many miles, one of them found peculiarfootprints near the edge of a river; and they knew that a pushmi-pullyumust be very near that spot.

  Then they went along the bank of the river a little way and they saw aplace where the grass was high and thick; and they guessed that he wasin there.

  So they all joined hands and made a great circle round the high grass.The pushmi-pullyu heard them coming; and he tried hard to break throughthe ring of monkeys. But he couldn’t do it. When he saw that it was nouse trying to escape, he sat down and waited to see what they wanted.

  They asked him if he would go with Doctor Dolittle and be put on showin the Land of the White Men.

  But he shook both his heads hard and said, “Certainly not!”

  They explained to him that he would not be shut up in a menagerie butwould just be looked at. They told him that the Doctor was a very kindman but hadn’t any money; and people would pay to see a two-headedanimal and the Doctor would get rich and could pay for the boat he hadborrowed to come to Africa in.

  But he answered, “No. You know how shy I am—I hate being stared at.”And he almost began to cry.