The Story of Dr Dolittle / История доктора Дулиттла. 5 класс - Лофтинг Хью Джон - Страница 5

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Then Chee-Chee said, “When we wanted to come to you, we had no boat to cross the sea and no money to buy food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us some biscuits; and we promised to pay him when we came back. And we borrowed a boat from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks when we reached Africa. Now the Doctor says he must go back and get the sailor another boat – because the man was poor and his ship was all that he had.” And the monkeys were all silent for a while.

At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said, “We should give this good man a fine present because we are grateful for all that he has done for us.” And a little, tiny red monkey shouted, “I think that too!”

And then they all cried out, “Yes, yes. Let us give him the best present that a White Man ever had!” Now they began to ask one another what to give him. And one said, “Fifty bags of coconuts!” And another – “A hundred bunches of bananas! – At least he will not have to buy his fruit in the Land Where You Pay to Eat!”

But Chee-Chee told them that all these things are too heavy to carry so far. “If you want to please him,” he said, “give him an animal. Give him some rare animal.” So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare animal they could give the Doctor. And a monkey asked, “Has a White Man ever seen a pushmi-pullyu?” Then Chee-Chee said, “No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu. Let us give him that.”

Pushmi-Pullyus are now extinct. That means that there aren’t any more. But long ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive, there were some of them in the deepest jungles of Africa. They had no tail, but a head at each end, and sharp horns on each head. They were very shy and very hard to catch.[17] Only one half of a pushmi-pullyu slept at a time. The other head was always awake – and watching. This was why[18] it was hard to catch it and people never saw it in a Zoo. Well, the monkeys started hunting for this animal through the forest. Then they went along the bank of the river and saw a place where the grass was high and thick; and they guessed that a pushmi-pullyu was in there. The pushmi-pullyu heard them coming; and he tried to escape. But he couldn’t do it. So he sat down and waited to see what they wanted.

They asked him to go with Doctor Dolittle. But he shook both his heads and said, “I don’t want to go!” Then they explained to him that the Doctor was a very kind man but didn’t have any money. They said, “People will pay to see an animal with two heads and the Doctor will get rich and will pay for the boat which he needed to borrow to come to Africa.” But he answered, “No. You know how shy I am – I hate it when somebody stares at me.” And he almost began to cry. Then for three days they tried to persuade him. And at the end of the third day he agreed to come with them and look at the Doctor.

So the monkeys traveled back with the pushmi-pullyu. And when they came to the Doctor’s little house of grass, they knocked on the door. The duck said, “Come in!” And Chee-Chee very proudly took the animal inside and showed him to the Doctor.

“What in the world is it?”[19] asked John Dolittle.

“This, Doctor,” said Chee-Chee, “is the pushmi-pullyu – the rarest animal of the African jungles, the only two-headed beast in the world! Take him home with you and you will be rich. People will pay any money to see him.”

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

“Yes, you do,” said Dab-Dab, the duck. “How are you going to get the sailor the new boat if we haven’t the money to buy it? And besides, what are we going to live on? Chee-Chee’s absolutely right: take the funny-looking thing with us!”

“Well, perhaps you are right,” said the Doctor. “He will be a nice new kind of pet. But do you really want to go abroad?”

“Yes, I’ll go,” said the pushmi-pullyu who saw at once, from the Doctor’s face, that he was a good man. “But you must promise me that if I do not like it in the Land of the White Men, you will send me back.”

“Of course, of course,” said the Doctor.

“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 for eating – mostly. So I can talk while I am eating and be polite.”

When the packing was finished, the monkeys gave a grand party for the Doctor, and all the animals of the jungle came. And they had pineapples and mangoes and honey and all sorts of good things to eat and drink. After the meal, the Doctor got up and said,

“My friends, I wish to tell you that I am very sad because I don’t want to leave your beautiful country. But I must go. I hope you will all live happily ever after.”

When the Doctor stopped speaking and sat down, all the monkeys clapped their hands a long time and said to one another, “He is the Greatest of Men!”

Then, when the party was over, the Doctor and his pets went back to the seashore.

The doctor and his pets went through the jungle and talked, and Polynesia said, “We must tread softly and talk low because we are going through the land of the Jolliginki. If the King hears us, he will send his soldiers to catch us again; I am sure he is still very angry.”

One day, when they were in a very thick part of the forest, Chee-Chee went ahead of them to look for coconuts. And while he was away, the Doctor and the rest of the animals got lost in the deep woods. They could not find their way to the seashore. Chee-Chee, when he could not see them anywhere, was really upset. He climbed high trees and looked out from the top branches to see the Doctor’s high hat; he waved and shouted; he called to all the animals by name. But it was no use.

Indeed they lost their way very badly. The jungle was so thick with bushes and vines that sometimes they could hardly move at all, and then the Doctor used his pocket-knife and cut the way along. They scratched themselves on thorns, and twice they nearly lost the medicine-bag in the forest. At last, after many days, they walked right into the King’s back-garden by mistake. The King’s men caught them at once. But Polynesia flew into a tree in the garden and hid herself.

The King’s men brought The Doctor and the animals to the King. “Ha, ha!” cried the King. “So you are here again! This time you will not escape. Take them all back to prison and put double locks on the door. This White Man will scrub my kitchen-floor for the rest of his life!” So the Doctor and his pets were back in prison. They were all very unhappy.

Then Polynesia saw Chee-Chee who still looked for the Doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and asked her about the Doctor and his friends. “The Doctor and all the animals are in prison again,” whispered Polynesia. “We lost our way in the jungle and came into the palace-garden by mistake… Sh! – Look! There’s Prince Bumpo in the garden! He must not see us. – Don’t move!”

And there was Prince Bumpo, the King’s son. He opened the garden-gate. He carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He reached a stone seat right under the tree where the parrot and the monkey were. Then he lay down on the seat and began reading the fairy-stories to himself. Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him, and they were very quiet and still. After a while the King’s son laid the book down and sighed.

“I want to be a WHITE prince so much!” said he, with a dreamy look in his eyes.

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