AND soon now the Doctor began to make money again; and his sister,
Sarah, bought a new dress and was happy.
Some of the animals who came to see him were so sick that they had
to stay at the Doctor’s house for a week. And when they were getting
better they used to sit in chairs on the lawn.
[Illustration: “They used to sit in chairs on the lawn”]
And often even after they got well, they did not want to go away—they
liked the Doctor and his house so much. And he never had the heart to
refuse them when they asked if they could stay with him. So in this way
he went on getting more and more pets.
Once when he was sitting on his garden wall, smoking a pipe in the
evening, an Italian organ-grinder came round with a monkey on a string.
The Doctor saw at once that the monkey’s collar was too tight and
that he was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the
Italian, gave the man a shilling and told him to go. The organ-grinder
got awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the monkey. But the
Doctor told him that if he didn’t go away he would punch him on the
nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he wasn’t very tall. So
the Italian went away saying rude things and the monkey stayed with
Doctor Dolittle and had a good home. The other animals in the house
called him “Chee-Chee”—which is a common word in monkey-language,
meaning “ginger.”
And another time, when the circus came to Puddleby, the crocodile
who had a bad 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—with all the different places for the
different kinds of animals—he too wanted to live with the Doctor. He
asked couldn’t he sleep in the fish-pond at the bottom of the garden,
if he promised not to eat the fish. When the circus-men came to take
him back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away. But to
every one in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.
But now the old ladies grew afraid to send their lap-dogs to Doctor
Dolittle because of the crocodile; and the farmers wouldn’t believe
that he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to be
cured. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go back
to his circus. But he wept such big tears, and begged so hard to be
allowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn’t the heart to turn him out.
So then the Doctor’s sister came to him and said,
“John, you must send that creature away. Now the farmers and the
old ladies are afraid to send their animals to you—just as we were
beginning to be well off again. Now we shall be ruined entirely. This
is the last straw. I will no longer be housekeeper for you if you don’t
send away that alligator.”
“It isn’t an alligator,” said the Doctor—“it’s a crocodile.”
“I don’t care what you call it,” said his sister. “It’s a nasty thing
to find under the bed. I won’t have it in the house.”
“But he has promised me,” the Doctor answered, “that he will not bite
any one. He doesn’t like the circus; and I haven’t the money to send
him back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and
on the whole is very well behaved. Don’t be so fussy.”
“I tell you I _will not_ have him around,” said Sarah. “He eats the
linoleum. If you don’t send him away this minute I’ll—I’ll go and get
married!”
“All right,” said the Doctor, “go and get married. It can’t be
helped.” And he took down his hat and went out into the garden.
So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and went off; and the Doctor was
left all alone with his animal family.
[Illustration: “‘All right,’ said the Doctor, ‘go and get married’”]
And very soon he was poorer than he had ever been before. With all
these mouths to fill, and the house to look after, and no one to do the
mending, and no money coming in to pay the butcher’s bill, things began
to look very difficult. But the Doctor didn’t worry at all.
“Money is a nuisance,” he used to say. “We’d all be much better off if
it had never been invented. What does money matter, so long as we are
happy?”
[Illustration: “One evening when the Doctor was asleep in his chair”]
But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one evening
when the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire they
began talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl,
Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was only
money enough left to last another week—if they each had one meal a day
and no more.
Then the parrot said, “I think we all ought to do the housework
ourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is for our sakes
that the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor.”
So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking and
mending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and make
the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts, and the pig was
to do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper and
laundress, because she was the oldest.
Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do—all
except Chee-Chee, who had hands, and could do things like a man. But
they soon got used to it; and they used to think it great fun to watch
Jip, the dog, sweeping his tail over the floor with a rag tied onto it
for a broom. After a little they got to do the work so well that the
Doctor said that he had never had his house kept so tidy or so clean
before.
In this way things went along all right for a while; but without money
they found it very hard.
Then the animals made a vegetable and flower stall outside the
garden-gate and sold radishes and roses to the people that passed by
along the road.
But still they didn’t seem to make enough money to pay all the
bills—and still the Doctor wouldn’t worry. When the parrot came to him
and told him that the fishmonger wouldn’t give them any more fish, he
said,
“Never mind. So long as the hens lay eggs and the cow gives milk we can
have omelettes and junket. And there are plenty of vegetables left in
the garden. The Winter is still a long way off. Don’t fuss. That was
the trouble with Sarah—she would fuss. I wonder how Sarah’s getting
on—an excellent woman—in some ways—Well, well!”
But the snow came earlier than usual that year; and although the old
lame horse hauled in plenty of wood from the forest outside the town,
so they could have a big fire in the kitchen, most of the vegetables in
the garden were gone, and the rest were covered with snow; and many of
the animals were really hungry.
_THE FOURTH CHAPTER_