The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (5 page)

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

They wanted to carry his bag and his trunk
and everything he had—and one 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 the great doctor had
come at last.

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

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

Then they all ran harder than they had ever
run in their lives; and the King's men, coming
after them, began to run too; and the Captain
ran 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. And as he sprang forward
to take hold of the Doctor, one of his ears
caught fast 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 a steep cliff with a
river flowing below. This was the end of the
Kingdom of Jolliginki; and the Land of the
Monkeys was on the other side—across the
river.

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

"Golly! How are we ever going to get across?"

"Oh, dear!" said Gub-Gub. "The King's
men are quite close now—Look at them! I am
afraid we are going to be taken back to prison
again." And he began to weep.

But the big monkey who was carrying the
pig dropped him on the ground and 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.
Get lively! A bridge! A bridge!"

The Doctor began to wonder what they were going
to make a bridge out of, 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
his back was turned, the monkeys—quick as a
flash—had made themselves into a bridge, just
by holding hands and feet.

And the big one shouted to the Doctor, "Walk
over! Walk over—all of you—hurry!"

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

John Dolittle was the last to cross. And just
as he was getting to the other 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 they were too late. The
Doctor and all his animals were safe in the Land
of the 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 weeks hidden in the
jungle waiting to see the monkeys do that trick.
But we never let a white man get a glimpse of it
before. You are the first to see the famous
'Bridge of Apes.'"

And the Doctor felt very pleased.

JOHN DOLITTLE now became dreadfully, awfully busy.
He found hundreds and thousands of monkeys sick—gorillas,
orangoutangs, chimpanzees, dog-faced baboons, marmosettes,
gray monkeys, red ones—all kinds. And many had died.

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

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

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

But so many were sick, there were not enough
well ones to do the nursing. So he sent
messages to the other animals, like the lions and the
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 came to 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 you dare to ask me—ME,
THE KING OF BEASTS, to wait on a lot of dirty
monkeys? Why, I wouldn't even eat them
between meals!"

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

"I didn't ask you to eat them," he said quietly.
"And besides, they're not dirty. They've all
had a bath this morning. YOUR coat looks as
though it needed brushing—badly. Now
listen, and I'll tell you something: the day may
come when the lions get sick. And if you don't
help the other animals now, the lions may
find themselves left all alone when THEY are
in trouble. That often happens to proud people."

"The lions are never IN trouble—they only
MAKE trouble," said the Leader, 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 then of course the
antelopes—although they were too shy and timid
to be rude to the Doctor like the lion—THEY
pawed the ground, and smiled foolishly, and said
they had never been nurses before.

And now the poor Doctor was worried frantic,
wondering where he could get 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.

"One of the cubs won't eat," she said. "I
don't know WHAT to do with him. He hasn't
taken a thing since last night."

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

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

Then the lion told his wife, quite proudly,
just what he had said to the 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 animals from 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 only man in the whole
world who can talk the language of the animals!
And now, NOW—when we have a sick baby on
our hands, you must go and offend 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're sorry. And take
all the other empty-headed lions with you—
and those stupid leopards and antelopes. Then
do everything the Doctor tells you. Work
hard! And perhaps he will be kind enough
to come and see the cub later. Now be off!—
HURRY, I tell you! You're not fit to be a father!"

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, "I happened to be passing this
way and thought I'd look in. Got any help yet?"

"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't seem 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 to oblige you—
so long as I don't have to wash the creatures.
And I have told all the other hunting animals
to come and do their share. The leopards
should be here any minute now.... Oh, and
by the way, we've got a sick cub at home. I
don't think there's much the matter with him
myself. But the wife is anxious. If you are
around that way this evening, you might take
a look at him, will you?"

Then the Doctor was very happy; for all the
lions and the leopards and the antelopes and
the giraffes and the zebras—all the animals of
the forests 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 kept the cleverest.

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

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

CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor's door, keeping everybody
away till he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the
monkeys that he must now go back to Puddleby.

They were very surprised at this; for they
had thought that he was going to stay with them
forever. And that night all the monkeys got
together 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 if we make him a new house
and a bigger bed, and promise him plenty of
monkey-servants to work for him and to make
life pleasant for him—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. He owes money in Puddleby;
and he says he must go back and pay it."

And the monkeys asked him, "What is MONEY?"

Then Chee-Chee told them that in the Land of the
White Men you could get nothing without money;
you could DO nothing without money—that it was
almost impossible to LIVE without money.

And some of them asked, "But can you not
even eat and drink without paying?"

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

And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest
Orangoutang and said, "Cousin, surely these Men
be strange creatures! Who would wish to live
in 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 and no money to buy
food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us
some biscuits; and we said we would pay him
when we came back. And we borrowed a boat
from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks
when we reached the shores of 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 he had."

And the monkeys were all silent for a while,
sitting quite still upon the 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 we have given him a fine
present to take with him, so that he may know
we are 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 us give him the finest
present a White Man ever had!"

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

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

"If you want to please him," he said, "give
him an animal. You may be sure he will be
kind to it. Give him some rare animal they
have not got in the menageries."

And the monkeys asked him, "What are
MENAGERIES?"

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

"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 they should give the
Doctor—one the White Men had not seen before.
And the Major 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 me five years ago,
they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp."