The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (6 page)

And another asked, "Have they 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, there aren't
any more. But long ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive,
there were some of them still left in the deepest jungles
of Africa; and even then they were very, very scarce.
They had no tail, but a head at each end,
and sharp horns on each head. They were very
shy and terribly hard to catch. The black men
get most of their animals by sneaking up behind
them while they are not looking. But you could
not do this with the pushmi-pullyu—because,
no matter which way you came towards him, he
was always facing you. And besides, only one
half of him slept at a time. The other head
was always awake—and watching. This was
why they were never caught and never seen in
Zoos. Though many of the greatest huntsmen
and the cleverest menagerie-keepers spent years
of their lives searching through the jungles
in all weathers for pushmi-pullyus, not a single
one had ever been caught. Even then, years
ago, he was the only animal in the world with
two heads.

Well, the monkeys set out hunting for this
animal through the forest. And after they had
gone a good many miles, one of them found
peculiar footprints near the edge of a river;
and they knew that a pushmi-pullyu must be
very near that spot.

Then they went along the bank of the river
a little way and they saw a place where the
grass was high and thick; and they guessed that
he was in there.

So they all joined hands and made a great
circle round the high grass. The pushmi-
pullyu heard them coming; and he tried hard
to break through the ring of monkeys. But he
couldn't do it. When he saw that it was no
use trying to escape, he sat down and waited to
see what they wanted.

They asked him if he would go with Doctor Dolittle
and be put on show in the Land of the White Men.

But he shook both his heads hard and said,
"Certainly not!"

They explained to him that he would not be
shut up in a menagerie but would just be looked
at. They told him that the Doctor was a very
kind man but hadn't any money; and people
would pay to see a two-headed animal and the
Doctor would get rich and could pay for the
boat he had borrowed to come to Africa in.

But he answered, "No. You know how shy
I am—I hate being stared at." And he almost
began to cry.

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 see what kind of a
man the Doctor was, first.

So the monkeys traveled back with the
pushmi-pullyu. And when they came to where
the Doctor's little house of grass was, they
knocked on the door.

The duck, who was packing the trunk, said,
"Come in!"

And Chee-Chee very proudly took the animal
inside and showed him to the Doctor.

"What in the world is it?" asked John
Dolittle, gazing at the strange creature.

"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 animal of the African
jungles, the only two-headed beast in the
world! Take him home with you and your
fortune's made. 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.
"Don't you remember how we had to pinch
and scrape to pay the butcher's bill in
Puddleby? And how are you going to get the
sailor the new boat you spoke of—unless we
have the money to buy it?"

"I was going to make him one," said the Doctor.

"Oh, do be sensible!" cried Dab-Dab.
"Where would you get all the wood and the
nails to make one with?—And besides, what are
we going to live on? We shall be poorer than
ever when we get back. Chee-Chee's perfectly
right: take the funny-looking thing along, do!"

"Well, perhaps there is something in what you say,"
murmured the Doctor. "It certainly would make
a nice new kind of pet. But does the er—
what-do-you-call-it 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 man to be trusted. "You have been so kind
to the animals here—and the monkeys tell me
that I am the only one who will do. But you
must promise me that if I do not like it in the
Land of 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 the Asiatic Chamois
—on my mother's side. My father's great-
grandfather was the last of the Unicorns."

"Most interesting!" murmured the Doctor;
and he took a book out of the trunk which Dab-
Dab was packing and began turning the pages.
"Let us see 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 for eating—mostly. In
that way I can talk while I am eating without
being rude. Our people have always been very
polite."

When the packing was finished and everything
was ready to start, 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 they had all finished eating, the Doctor
got up and said,

"My friends: I am not clever at speaking
long words after dinner, like some men; and I
have just eaten many fruits and much honey.
But I wish to 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 food before you
eat it; and do not sleep on the ground when the
rains are coming. I—er—er—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, "Let it be
remembered always among our people that he
sat and ate with us, here, under the trees.
For surely he is the Greatest of Men!"

And the Grand Gorilla, who had the strength
of seven horses in his hairy 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 still is there. And monkey-
mothers, passing through the forest with their
families, still point down at it from the branches
and whisper to their children, "Sh! There it is—
look—where the Good White Man sat and ate food
with us in the Year of the Great Sickness!"

Then, when the party was over, the Doctor
and his pets started out to go back to the seashore.
And all the monkeys went with him as
far as the edge of their country, carrying his
trunk and bags, to see him off.

BY the edge of the river they stopped and said farewell.

This took a long time, because all those thousands
of monkeys wanted to shake John Dolittle by the hand.

Afterwards, when the Doctor and his pets
were going on alone, Polynesia said,

"We must tread softly and talk low as we
go through the land of the Jolliginki. If the
King should hear us, he will send his soldiers
to catch us again; for I am sure he is still very
angry over the trick I played on him."

"What I am wondering," said the Doctor,
"is where we are going to get another boat to
go home in.... Oh well, perhaps we'll find
one lying about on the beach that nobody is
using. 'Never lift your foot till you come to
the stile.'"

One day, while they were passing through
a very thick part of the forest, Chee-Chee went
ahead of them to look for cocoanuts. And
while he was away, the Doctor and the rest of
the animals, who did not know the jungle-paths
so well, got lost in the deep woods. They wandered
around 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 and see the Doctor's high hat; he waved and
shouted; he called to all the animals by name.
But it was no use. They seemed to have
disappeared altogether.

Indeed they had lost their way very badly.
They had strayed a long way off the path, and
the jungle was so thick with bushes and
creepers and vines that sometimes they could hardly
move at all, and the Doctor had to take out
his pocket-knife and cut his way along. They
stumbled into wet, boggy places; they got all
tangled up in thick convolvulus-runners; they
scratched themselves on thorns, and twice they
nearly lost the medicine-bag in the under-brush.
There seemed no end to their troubles; and
nowhere could they come upon a path.

At last, after blundering about like this for
many days, getting their clothes torn and their
faces covered with mud, they walked right into
the King's back-garden by mistake. The King's
men came running up at once and caught them.

But Polynesia flew into a tree in the garden,
without anybody seeing her, and hid herself.
The Doctor and the rest were taken before the King.

"Ha, ha!" cried the King. "So you are
caught again! This time you shall not escape.
Take them all back to prison and put double
locks on the door. This White Man shall scrub
my kitchen-floor for the rest of his life!"

So the Doctor and his pets were led back to
prison and locked up. And the Doctor was told
that in the morning he must begin scrubbing the
kitchen-floor.

They were all very unhappy.

"This is a great nuisance," said the Doctor.
"I really must get back to Puddleby. That
poor sailor will think I've stolen his ship if I
don't get home soon.... I wonder if those
hinges are loose."

But the door was very strong and firmly
locked. There seemed no chance of getting out.
Then Gub-Gub began to cry again.

All this time Polynesia was still sitting in the
tree in the palace-garden. She was saying nothing
and blinking her eyes.

This was always a very bad sign with
Polynesia. Whenever she said nothing and blinked
her eyes, it meant that somebody had been making
trouble, and she was thinking out some way
to put things right. People who made trouble
for Polynesia or her friends were nearly always
sorry for it afterwards.

Presently she spied Chee-Chee swinging
through the trees still looking for the Doctor.
When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her
tree and asked her what had become of him.

"The Doctor and all the animals have been
caught by the King's men and locked up again,"
whispered Polynesia. "We lost our way in the
jungle and blundered into the palace-garden by
mistake."

"But couldn't you guide them?" asked Chee-
Chee; and he began to scold the parrot for
letting them get lost while he was away looking
for the cocoanuts.

"It was all that stupid pig's fault," said
Polynesia. "He would keep running off the
path hunting for ginger-roots. And I was kept
so busy catching him and bringing him back,
that I turned to the left, instead of the right,
when we reached the swamp.—Sh!—Look!
There's Prince Bumpo coming into the garden!
He must not see us.—Don't move, whatever you do!"

And there, sure enough, was Prince Bumpo,
the King's son, opening the garden-gate. He
carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He
came strolling down the gravel-walk, humming
a sad song, till he reached a stone seat right
under the tree where the parrot and the monkey
were hiding. Then he lay down on the seat
and began reading the fairy-stories to himself.

Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him,
keeping very quiet and still.

After a while the King's son laid the book
down and sighed a weary sigh.

"If I were only a WHITE prince!" said he, with
a dreamy, far-away look 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 a fairy's silver voice rang
from yonder bower! Strange!"

"Worthy Prince," said Polynesia, keeping
very still so Bumpo couldn't see her, "thou sayest
winged words of truth. For 'tis I, Tripsitinka,
the Queen of the Fairies, that speak to
thee. I am hiding in a rose-bud."

"Oh tell me, Fairy-Queen," cried Bumpo,
clasping his hands in joy, "who is it can turn
me white?"

"In thy father's prison," said the parrot,
"there lies a famous wizard, John Dolittle by
name. Many things he knows of medicine and
magic, and mighty deeds has he performed.
Yet thy kingly father leaves him languishing
long and lingering hours. Go to him, brave
Bumpo, secretly, when the sun has set; and
behold, thou shalt be made the whitest prince that
ever won fair lady! I have said enough. I
must now go 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, waiting for the sun to set.