The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (7 page)

"Well, Stubbins," said he, "I'll come and talk it over with you and your
parents next Thursday. And—well, we'll see. We'll see. Give your mother
and father my compliments and thank them for their invitation, will
you?"

Then I tore home like the wind to tell my mother that the Doctor had
promised to come.

THE next day I was sitting on the wall of the Doctor's garden after
tea, talking to Dab-Dab. I had now learned so much from Polynesia that
I could talk to most birds and some animals without a great deal of
difficulty. I found Dab-Dab a very nice, old, motherly bird—though not
nearly so clever and interesting as Polynesia. She had been housekeeper
for the Doctor many years now.

Well, as I was saying, the old duck and I were sitting on the flat top
of the garden-wall that evening, looking down into the Oxenthorpe Road
below. We were watching some sheep being driven to market in Puddleby;
and Dab-Dab had just been telling me about the Doctor's adventures in
Africa. For she had gone on a voyage with him to that country long ago.

Suddenly I heard a curious distant noise down the road, towards the
town. It sounded like a lot of people cheering. I stood up on the wall
to see if I could make out what was coming. Presently there appeared
round a bend a great crowd of school-children following a very ragged,
curious-looking woman.

"What in the world can it be?" cried Dab-Dab.

The children were all laughing and shouting. And certainly the woman
they were following was most extraordinary. She had very long arms and
the most stooping shoulders I have ever seen. She wore a straw hat on
the side of her head with poppies on it; and her skirt was so long for
her it dragged on the ground like a ball-gown's train. I could not see
anything of her face because of the wide hat pulled over her eyes. But
as she got nearer to us and the laughing of the children grew louder,
I noticed that her hands were very dark in color, and hairy, like a
witch's.

Then all of a sudden Dab-Dab at my side startled me by crying out in a
loud voice,

"Why, it's Chee-Chee!—Chee-Chee come back at last! How dare those
children tease him! I'll give the little imps something to laugh at!"

And she flew right off the wall down into the road and made straight for
the children, squawking away in a most terrifying fashion and pecking at
their feet and legs. The children made off down the street back to the
town as hard as they could run.

The strange-looking figure in the straw hat stood gazing after them a
moment and then came wearily up to the gate. It didn't bother to
undo the latch but just climbed right over the gate as though it were
something in the way. And then I noticed that it took hold of the bars
with its feet, so that it really had four hands to climb with. But it
was only when I at last got a glimpse of the face under the hat that I
could be really sure it was a monkey.

Chee-Chee—for it was he—frowned at me suspiciously from the top of the
gate, as though he thought I was going to laugh at him like the other
boys and girls. Then he dropped into the garden on the inside and
immediately started taking off his clothes. He tore the straw hat in two
and threw it down into the road. Then he took off his bodice and skirt,
jumped on them savagely and began kicking them round the front garden.

Presently I heard a screech from the house, and out flew Polynesia,
followed by the Doctor and Jip.

"Chee-Chee!—Chee-Chee!" shouted the parrot. "You've come at last! I
always told the Doctor you'd find a way. How ever did you do it?"

They all gathered round him shaking him by his four hands, laughing and
asking him a million questions at once. Then they all started back for
the house.

"Run up to my bedroom, Stubbins," said the Doctor, turning to me.
"You'll find a bag of peanuts in the small left-hand drawer of the
bureau. I have always kept them there in case he might come back
unexpectedly some day. And wait a minute—see if Dab-Dab has any bananas
in the pan-try. Chee-Chee hasn't had a banana, he tells me, in two
months."

When I came down again to the kitchen I found everybody listening
attentively to the monkey who was telling the story of his journey from
Africa.

IT seems that after Polynesia had left, Chee-Chee had grown more
homesick than ever for the Doctor and the little house in Puddleby. At
last he had made up his mind that by hook or crook he would follow her.
And one day, going down to the seashore, he saw a lot of people, black
and white, getting on to a ship that was coming to England. He tried to
get on too. But they turned him back and drove him away. And presently
he noticed a whole big family of funny people passing on to the ship.
And one of the children in this family reminded Chee-Chee of a cousin
of his with whom he had once been in love. So he said to himself, "That
girl looks just as much like a monkey as I look like a girl. If I could
only get some clothes to wear I might easily slip on to the ship amongst
these families, and people would take me for a girl. Good idea!"

So he went off to a town that was quite close, and hopping in through an
open window he found a skirt and bodice lying on a chair. They belonged
to a fashionable black lady who was taking a bath. Chee-Chee put them
on. Next he went back to the seashore, mingled with the crowd there and
at last sneaked safely on to the big ship. Then he thought he had better
hide, for fear people might look at him too closely. And he stayed
hidden all the time the ship was sailing to England—only coming out at
night, when everybody was asleep, to find food.

When he reached England and tried to get off the ship, the sailors saw
at last that he was only a monkey dressed up in girl's clothes; and they
wanted to keep him for a pet. But he managed to give them the slip; and
once he was on shore, he dived into the crowd and got away. But he was
still a long distance from Puddleby and had to come right across the
whole breadth of England.

He had a terrible time of it. Whenever he passed through a town all
the children ran after him in a crowd, laughing; and often silly people
caught hold of him and tried to stop him, so that he had to run up
lamp-posts and climb to chimney-pots to escape from them. At night he
used to sleep in ditches or barns or anywhere he could hide; and he
lived on the berries he picked from the hedges and the cob-nuts that
grew in the copses. At length, after many adventures and narrow squeaks,
he saw the tower of Puddleby Church and he knew that at last he was near
his old home. When Chee-Chee had finished his story he ate six bananas
without stopping and drank a whole bowlful of milk.

"My!" he said, "why wasn't I born with wings, like Polynesia, so I could
fly here? You've no idea how I grew to hate that hat and skirt. I've
never been so uncomfortable in my life. All the way from Bristol here,
if the wretched hat wasn't falling off my head or catching in the
trees, those beastly skirts were tripping me up and getting wound round
everything. What on earth do women wear those things for? Goodness, I
was glad to see old Puddleby this morning when I climbed over the hill
by Bellaby's farm!"

"Your bed on top of the plate-rack in the scullery is all ready for
you," said the Doctor. "We never had it disturbed in case you might come
back."

"Yes," said Dab-Dab, "and you can have the old smoking-jacket of the
Doctor's which you used to use as a blanket, in case it is cold in the
night."

"Thanks," said Chee-Chee. "It's good to be back in the old house again.
Everything's just the same as when I left—except the clean roller-towel
on the back of the door there—that's new—Well, I think I'll go to bed
now. I need sleep."

Then we all went out of the kitchen into the scullery and watched
Chee-Chee climb the plate-rack like a sailor going up a mast. On the
top, he curled himself up, pulled the old smoking-jacket over him, and
in a minute he was snoring peacefully.

"Good old Chee-Chee!" whispered the Doctor. "I'm glad he's back."

"Yes—good old Chee-Chee!" echoed Dab-Dab and Polynesia.

Then we all tip-toed out of the scullery and closed the door very gently
behind us.

WHEN Thursday evening came there was great excitement at our house, My
mother had asked me what were the Doctor's favorite dishes, and I
had told her: spare ribs, sliced beet-root, fried bread, shrimps and
treacle-tart. To-night she had them all on the table waiting for him;
and she was now fussing round the house to see if everything was tidy
and in readiness for his coming.

At last we heard a knock upon the door, and of course it was I who got
there first to let him in.

The Doctor had brought his own flute with him this time. And after
supper was over (which he enjoyed very much) the table was cleared away
and the washing-up left in the kitchen-sink till the next day. Then the
Doctor and my father started playing duets.

They got so interested in this that I began to be afraid that they would
never come to talking over my business. But at last the Doctor said,

"Your son tells me that he is anxious to become a naturalist."

And then began a long talk which lasted far into the night. At first
both my mother and father were rather against the idea—as they had
been from the beginning. They said it was only a boyish whim, and that
I would get tired of it very soon. But after the matter had been talked
over from every side, the Doctor turned to my father and said,

"Well now, supposing, Mr. Stubbins, that your son came to me for two
years—that is, until he is twelve years old. During those two years he
will have time to see if he is going to grow tired of it or not. Also
during that time, I will promise to teach him reading and writing and
perhaps a little arithmetic as well. What do you say to that?"

"I don't know," said my father, shaking his head. "You are very kind and
it is a handsome offer you make, Doctor. But I feel that Tommy ought to
be learning some trade by which he can earn his living later on."

Then my mother spoke up. Although she was nearly in tears at the
prospect of my leaving her house while I was still so young, she pointed
out to my father that this was a grand chance for me to get learning.

"Now Jacob," she said, "you know that many lads in the town have been to
the Grammar School till they were fourteen or fifteen years old. Tommy
can easily spare these two years for his education; and if he learns no
more than to read and write, the time will not be lost. Though goodness
knows," she added, getting out her handkerchief to cry, "the house will
seem terribly empty when he's gone."

"I will take care that he comes to see you, Mrs. Stubbins," said the
Doctor—"every day, if you like. After all, he will not be very far
away."

Well, at length my father gave in; and it was agreed that I was to live
with the Doctor and work for him for two years in exchange for learning
to read and write and for my board and lodging.

"Of course," added the Doctor, "while I have money I will keep Tommy in
clothes as well. But money is a very irregular thing with me; sometimes
I have some, and then sometimes I haven't."

"You are very good, Doctor," said my mother, drying her tears. "It seems
to me that Tommy is a very fortunate boy."

And then, thoughtless, selfish little imp that I was, I leaned over and
whispered in the Doctor's ear,

"Please don't forget to say something about the voyages."

"Oh, by the way," said John Dolittle, "of course occasionally my work
requires me to travel. You will have no objection, I take it, to your
son's coming with me?"

My poor mother looked up sharply, more unhappy and anxious than ever
at this new turn; while I stood behind the Doctor's chair, my heart
thumping with excitement, waiting for my father's answer.

"No," he said slowly after a while. "If we agree to the other
arrangement I don't see that we've the right to make any objection to
that."

Well, there surely was never a happier boy in the world than I was at
that moment. My head was in the clouds. I trod on air. I could scarcely
keep from dancing round the parlor. At last the dream of my life was
to come true! At last I was to be given a chance to seek my fortune, to
have adventures! For I knew perfectly well that it was now almost time
for the Doctor to start upon another voyage. Polynesia had told me that
he hardly ever stayed at home for more than six months at a stretch.
Therefore he would be surely going again within a fortnight. And I—I,
Tommy Stubbins, would go with him! Just to think of it!—to cross the
Sea, to walk on foreign shores, to roam the World!

FROM that time on of course my position in the town was very different.
I was no longer a poor cobbler's son. I carried my nose in the air as
I went down the High Street with Jip in his gold collar at my side; and
snobbish little boys who had despised me before because I was not
rich enough to go to school now pointed me out to their friends and
whispered, "You see him? He's a doctor's assistant—and only ten years
old!"

But their eyes would have opened still wider with wonder if they had but
known that I and the dog that was with me could talk to one another.

Two days after the Doctor had been to our house to dinner he told me
very sadly that he was afraid that he would have to give up trying to
learn the language of the shellfish—at all events for the present.

"I'm very discouraged, Stubbins, very. I've tried the mussels and the
clams, the oysters and the whelks, cockles and scallops; seven different
kinds of crabs and all the lobster family. I think I'll leave it for the
present and go at it again later on."