by Hugh Lofting
Then for three days they tried to persuade him.
And at the end of the third day he said he would come with them and seewhat kind of a man the Doctor was, first.
So the monkeys traveled back with the pushmi-pullyu. And when they cameto where the Doctor’s little house of grass was, they knocked on thedoor.
The duck, who was packing the trunk, said, “Come in!”
And Chee-Chee very proudly took the animal inside and showed him to theDoctor.
“What in the world is it?” asked John Dolittle, gazing at the strangecreature.
“Lord save us!” cried the duck. “How does it make up its mind?”
“It doesn’t look to me as though it had any,” said Jip, the dog.
“This, Doctor,” said Chee-Chee, “is the pushmi-pullyu—the rarest animalof the African jungles, the only two-headed beast in the world! Takehim home with you and your fortune’s made. People will pay any money tosee him.”
“But I don’t want any money,” said the Doctor.
“Yes, you do,” said Dab-Dab, the duck. “Don’t you remember how we hadto pinch and scrape to pay the butcher’s bill in Puddleby? And how areyou going to get the sailor the new boat you spoke of—unless we havethe money to buy it?”
“‘Lord save us!’ cried the duck. ‘How does it make upits mind?’”]
“I was going to make him one,” said the Doctor.
“Oh, do be sensible!” cried Dab-Dab. “Where would you get all the woodand the nails to make one with?—And besides, what are we going tolive on? We shall be poorer than ever when we get back. Chee-Chee’sperfectly right: take the funny-looking thing along, do!”
“Well, perhaps there is something in what you say,” murmured theDoctor. “It certainly would make a nice new kind of pet. But does theer—what-do-you-call-it really want to go abroad?”
“Yes, I’ll go,” said the pushmi-pullyu who saw at once, from theDoctor’s face, that he was a man to be trusted. “You have been so kindto the animals here—and the monkeys tell me that I am the only one whowill do. But you must promise me that if I do not like it in the Landof the White Men you will send me back.”
“Why, certainly—of course, of course,” said the Doctor. “Excuse me,surely you are related to the Deer Family, are you not?”
“Yes,” said the pushmi-pullyu—“to the Abyssinian Gazelles and theAsiatic Chamois—on my mother’s side. My father’s great-grandfather wasthe last of the Unicorns.”
“Most interesting!” murmured the Doctor; and he took a book out of thetrunk which Dab-Dab was packing and began turning the pages. “Let ussee if Buffon says anything—”
“I notice,” said the duck, “that you only talk with one of your mouths.Can’t the other head talk as well?”
“Oh, yes,” said the pushmi-pullyu. “But I keep the other mouth foreating—mostly. In that way I can talk while I am eating without beingrude. Our people have always been very polite.”
When the packing was finished and everything was ready to start, themonkeys gave a grand party for the Doctor, and all the animals of thejungle came. And they had pineapples and mangoes and honey and allsorts of good things to eat and drink.
After they had all finished eating, the Doctor got up and said,
“My friends: I am not clever at speaking long words after dinner, likesome men; and I have just eaten many fruits and much honey. But I wishto tell you that I am very sad at leaving your beautiful country.Because I have things to do in the Land of the White Men, I must go.After I have gone, remember never to let the flies settle on your foodbefore you eat it; and do not sleep on the ground when the rains arecoming. I—er—er—I hope you will all live happily ever after.”
When the Doctor stopped speaking and sat down, all the monkeys clappedtheir hands a long time and said to one another, “Let it be rememberedalways among our people that he sat and ate with us, here, under thetrees. For surely he is the Greatest of Men!”
And the Grand Gorilla, who had the strength of seven horses in hishairy arms, rolled a great rock up to the head of the table and said,
“This stone for all time shall mark the spot.”
And even to this day, in the heart of the jungle, that stone stillis there. And monkey-mothers, passing through the forest with theirfamilies, still point down at it from the branches and whisper to theirchildren, “Sh! There it is—look—where the Good White Man sat and atefood with us in the Year of the Great Sickness!”
Then, when the party was over, the Doctor and his pets started out togo back to the seashore. And all the monkeys went with him as far asthe edge of their country, carrying his trunk and bags, to see himoff.
_THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER_
THE BLACK PRINCE
BY the edge of the river they stopped and said farewell.
This took a long time, because all those thousands of monkeys wanted toshake John Dolittle by the hand.
Afterwards, when the Doctor and his pets were going on alone, Polynesiasaid,
“We must tread softly and talk low as we go through the land of theJolliginki. If the King should hear us, he will send his soldiers tocatch us again; for I am sure he is still very angry over the trick Iplayed on him.”
“What I am wondering,” said the Doctor, “is where we are going to getanother boat to go home in.... Oh well, perhaps we’ll find one lyingabout on the beach that nobody is using. ‘Never lift your foot till youcome to the stile.’”
One day, while they were passing through a very thick part of theforest, Chee-Chee went ahead of them to look for cocoanuts. And whilehe was away, the Doctor and the rest of the animals, who did not knowthe jungle-paths so well, got lost in the deep woods. They wanderedaround and around but could not find their way down to the seashore.
Chee-Chee, when he could not see them anywhere, was terribly upset.He climbed high trees and looked out from the top branches to try andsee the Doctor’s high hat; he waved and shouted; he called to all theanimals by name. But it was no use. They seemed to have disappearedaltogether.
Indeed they had lost their way very badly. They had strayed a long wayoff the path, and the jungle was so thick with bushes and creepersand vines that sometimes they could hardly move at all, and theDoctor had to take out his pocket-knife and cut his way along. Theystumbled into wet, boggy places; they got all tangled up in thickconvolvulus-runners; they scratched themselves on thorns, and twicethey nearly lost the medicine-bag in the under-brush. There seemed noend to their troubles; and nowhere could they come upon a path.
At last, after blundering about like this for many days, getting theirclothes torn and their faces covered with mud, they walked right intothe King’s back-garden by mistake. The King’s men came running up atonce and caught them.
But Polynesia flew into a tree in the garden, without anybody seeingher, and hid herself. The Doctor and the rest were taken before theKing.
“Ha, ha!” cried the King. “So you are caught again! This time you shallnot escape. Take them all back to prison and put double locks on thedoor. This White Man shall scrub my kitchen-floor for the rest of hislife!”
So the Doctor and his pets were led back to prison and locked up. Andthe Doctor was told that in the morning he must begin scrubbing thekitchen-floor.
They were all very unhappy.
“This is a great nuisance,” said the Doctor. “I really must get backto Puddleby. That poor sailor will think I’ve stolen his ship if Idon’t get home soon.... I wonder if those hinges are loose.”
But the door was very strong and firmly locked. There seemed no chanceof getting out. Then Gub-Gub began to cry again.
All this time Polynesia was still sitting in the tree in thepalace-garden. She was saying nothing and blinking her eyes.
This was always a very bad sign with Polynesia. Whenever she saidnothing and blinked her eyes, it meant that somebody had been makingtrouble, and she was thinking out some way to put things right. Peoplewho made trouble for Polynesia or her friends were nearly always s
orryfor it afterwards.
Presently she spied Chee-Chee swinging through the trees still lookingfor the Doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and askedher what had become of him.
“The Doctor and all the animals have been caught by the King’s men andlocked up again,” whispered Polynesia. “We lost our way in the jungleand blundered into the palace-garden by mistake.”
“But couldn’t you guide them?” asked Chee-Chee; and he began to scoldthe parrot for letting them get lost while he was away looking for thecocoanuts.
“It was all that stupid pig’s fault,” said Polynesia. “He would keeprunning off the path hunting for ginger-roots. And I was kept so busycatching him and bringing him back, that I turned to the left, insteadof the right, when we reached the swamp.—Sh!—Look! There’s Prince Bumpocoming into the garden! He must not see us.—Don’t move, whatever youdo!”
And there, sure enough, was Prince Bumpo, the King’s son, opening thegarden-gate. He carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He camestrolling down the gravel-walk, humming a sad song, till he reacheda stone seat right under the tree where the parrot and the monkeywere hiding. Then he lay down on the seat and began reading thefairy-stories to himself.
Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him, keeping very quiet and still.
“He began reading the fairy-stories to himself”]
After a while the King’s son laid the book down and sighed a wearysigh.
“If I were only a _white_ prince!” said he, with a dreamy, far-awaylook in his eyes.
Then the parrot, talking in a small, high voice like a little girl,said aloud,
“Bumpo, some one might turn thee into a white prince perchance.”
The King’s son started up off the seat and looked all around.
“What is this I hear?” he cried. “Methought the sweet music of afairy’s silver voice rang from yonder bower! Strange!”
“Worthy Prince,” said Polynesia, keeping very still so Bumpo couldn’tsee her, “thou sayest winged words of truth. For ’tis I, Tripsitinka,the Queen of the Fairies, that speak to thee. I am hiding in arose-bud.”
“Oh tell me, Fairy-Queen,” cried Bumpo, clasping his hands in joy, “whois it can turn me white?”
“In thy father’s prison,” said the parrot, “there lies a famouswizard, John Dolittle by name. Many things he knows of medicine andmagic, and mighty deeds has he performed. Yet thy kingly father leaveshim languishing long and lingering hours. Go to him, brave Bumpo,secretly, when the sun has set; and behold, thou shalt be made thewhitest prince that ever won fair lady! I have said enough. I must nowgo back to Fairyland. Farewell!”
“Farewell!” cried the Prince. “A thousand thanks, good Tripsitinka!”
And he sat down on the seat again with a smile upon his face, waitingfor the sun to set.
_THE TWELFTH CHAPTER_
MEDICINE AND MAGIC
VERY, very quietly, making sure that no one should see her, Polynesiathen slipped out at the back of the tree and flew across to the prison.
She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through the bars of the window,trying to sniff the cooking-smells that came from the palace-kitchen.She told the pig to bring the Doctor to the window because she wantedto speak to him. So Gub-Gub went and woke the Doctor who was taking anap.
“Listen,” whispered the parrot, when John Dolittle’s face appeared:“Prince Bumpo is coming here to-night to see you. And you’ve got tofind some way to turn him white. But be sure to make him promise youfirst that he will open the prison-door and find a ship for you tocross the sea in.”
“This is all very well,” said the Doctor. “But it isn’t so easy to turna black man white. You speak as though he were a dress to be re-dyed.It’s not so simple. ‘Shall the leopard change his spots, or theEthiopian his skin,’ you know?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” said Polynesia impatiently. “Butyou _must_ turn this coon white. Think of a way—think hard. You’ve gotplenty of medicines left in the bag. He’ll do anything for you if youchange his color. It is your only chance to get out of prison.”
“Well, I suppose it _might_ be possible,” said the Doctor. “Let mesee—,” and he went over to his medicine-bag, murmuring something about“liberated chlorine on animal-pigment—perhaps zinc-ointment, as atemporary measure, spread thick—”
Well, that night Prince Bumpo came secretly to the Doctor in prison andsaid to him,
“White Man, I am an unhappy prince. Years ago I went in search of TheSleeping Beauty, whom I had read of in a book. And having traveledthrough the world many days, I at last found her and kissed the ladyvery gently to awaken her—as the book said I should. ’Tis true indeedthat she awoke. But when she saw my face she cried out, ‘Oh, he’sblack!’ And she ran away and wouldn’t marry me—but went to sleepagain somewhere else. So I came back, full of sadness, to my father’skingdom. Now I hear that you are a wonderful magician and have manypowerful potions. So I come to you for help. If you will turn me white,so that I may go back to The Sleeping Beauty, I will give you half mykingdom and anything besides you ask.”
“Prince Bumpo,” said the Doctor, looking thoughtfully at the bottles inhis medicine-bag, “supposing I made your hair a nice blonde color—wouldnot that do instead to make you happy?”
“No,” said Bumpo. “Nothing else will satisfy me. I must be a whiteprince.”
“You know it is very hard to change the color of a prince,” said theDoctor—“one of the hardest things a magician can do. You only want yourface white, do you not?”
“Yes, that is all,” said Bumpo. “Because I shall wear shining armor andgauntlets of steel, like the other white princes, and ride on a horse.”
“Must your face be white all over?” asked the Doctor.
“Yes, all over,” said Bumpo—“and I would like my eyes blue too, but Isuppose that would be very hard to do.”
“Yes, it would,” said the Doctor quickly. “Well, I will do what I canfor you. You will have to be very patient though—you know with somemedicines you can never be very sure. I might have to try two or threetimes. You have a strong skin—yes? Well that’s all right. Now comeover here by the light—Oh, but before I do anything, you must first godown to the beach and get a ship ready, with food in it, to take meacross the sea. Do not speak a word of this to any one. And when I havedone as you ask, you must let me and all my animals out of prison.Promise—by the crown of Jolliginki!”
So the Prince promised and went away to get a ship ready at theseashore.
When he came back and said that it was done, the Doctor asked Dab-Dabto bring a basin. Then he mixed a lot of medicines in the basin andtold Bumpo to dip his face in it.
The Prince leaned down and put his face in—right up to the ears.
He held it there a long time—so long that the Doctor seemed to getdreadfully anxious and fidgety, standing first on one leg and then onthe other, looking at all the bottles he had used for the mixture, andreading the labels on them again and again. A strong smell filled theprison, like the smell of brown paper burning.
At last the Prince lifted his face up out of the basin, breathing veryhard. And all the animals cried out in surprise.
For the Prince’s face had turned as white as snow, and his eyes, whichhad been mud-colored, were a manly gray!
When John Dolittle lent him a little looking-glass to see himself in,he sang for joy and began dancing around the prison. But the Doctorasked him not to make so much noise about it; and when he had closedhis medicine-bag in a hurry he told him to open the prison-door.
Bumpo begged that he might keep the looking-glass, as it was the onlyone in the Kingdom of Jolliginki, and he wanted to look at himself allday long. But the Doctor said he needed it to shave with.
Then the Prince, taking a bunch of copper keys from his pocket, undidthe great double locks. And the Doctor with all his animals ran as fastas they could down to the seashore; while Bumpo leaned against the wallof the empty dungeon, smiling afte
r them happily, his big face shininglike polished ivory in the light of the moon.
When they came to the beach they saw Polynesia and Chee-Chee waitingfor them on the rocks near the ship.
“I feel sorry about Bumpo,” said the Doctor. “I am afraid thatmedicine I used will never last. Most likely he will be as black asever when he wakes up in the morning—that’s one reason why I didn’tlike to leave the mirror with him. But then again, he _might_ staywhite—I had never used that mixture before. To tell the truth, I wassurprised, myself, that it worked so well. But I had to do something,didn’t I?—I couldn’t possibly scrub the King’s kitchen for the restof my life. It was such a dirty kitchen!—I could see it from theprison-window.—Well, well!—Poor Bumpo!”
“Oh, of course he will know we were just joking with him,” said theparrot.
“They had no business to lock us up,” said Dab-Dab, waggling her tailangrily. “We never did them any harm. Serve him right, if he does turnblack again! I hope it’s a dark black.”
“But _he_ didn’t have anything to do with it,” said the Doctor. “It wasthe King, his father, who had us locked up—it wasn’t Bumpo’s fault....I wonder if I ought to go back and apologize—Oh, well—I’ll send himsome candy when I get to Puddleby. And who knows?—he may stay whiteafter all.”
“The Sleeping Beauty would never have him, even if he did,” saidDab-Dab. “He looked better the way he was, I thought. But he’d never beanything but ugly, no matter what color he was made.”
“Still, he had a good heart,” said the Doctor—“romantic, of course—buta good heart. After all, ‘handsome is as handsome does.’”
