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

Now when the King’s army told the King that they couldn’t find the Doctor, the King sent them out again and told them they must stay in the jungle until they caught him. So all this time, while the Doctor and his animals were on the way to the Land of the Monkeys, the King’s men were after them.

One day Chee-Chee climbed up a high rock and looked out over the tree-tops. And when he came down he said they were now quite close to the Land of the Monkeys. And that evening they saw Chee-Chee’s cousin and a lot of other monkeys who were in the trees by a swamp, looking and waiting for them. And when they saw the famous doctor, these monkeys felt happy, made a tremendous noise and started waving leaves to greet him.

But the King’s men, who were still after them, heard the noise and they at last knew where the Doctor was, and wanted to catch him. A big monkey saw the Captain of the army among the trees. So he hurried after the Doctor and told him to run.

Then they all ran; and the King’s men began to run too; and the Captain ran hardest of all. Soon Chee-Chee shouted, “It’s all right! We are close to the Land of the Monkeys!” But before they could get into the Land of the Monkeys, they came to a steep cliff with a river 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,

“How can we get across?”

“Oh, dear!” [10]said Gub-Gub. “The King’s men are quite close now – Look at them! I am afraid they will take us back to prison again.” And he began to weep. But one of the monkeys cried out to the other monkeys, “Boys – a bridge! Quick! – Make a bridge!”

And very soon there was a bridge made of living monkeys across the river! And a big monkey shouted to the Doctor, “Walk over! Walk over – all of you – hurry!” So all of them crossed the river. The King’s men came to the edge of the cliff and saw they were too late. The Doctor and all his animals were safe in the Land of the Monkeys.

Then Chee-Chee turned to the Doctor and said, “Many great explorers wanted to see how the monkeys make a bridge. But we never let a white man look at it before. You are the first to see the famous ‘Bridge of Apes.’” And the Doctor felt very pleased.

John Dolittle now became very busy. He found a lot of sick monkeys – gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, gray monkeys, red ones – all kinds. And many died. The first thing he did was to separate the sick monkeys from the well ones. Then he asked Chee-Chee and his cousin to build him a little house of grass. The next thing: he told all the monkeys who were still well to come and be vaccinated. [11]Then he asked to build another house – a big one, with a lot of beds in it; and he put all the sick monkeys in this house. But there were not enough well monkeys to look after the sick ones. So he asked the other animals, like the lions and the leopards and the antelopes, to come and help.

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 looked angry.

“Do you dare to ask me, Sir?” he said and glared at the Doctor. “Do you dare to ask me – ME, THE KING OF BEASTS, to look after a lot of dirty monkeys?”

Although the lion looked very terrible, the Doctor was not afraid of him.

“They’re not dirty,” he said quietly. “They’ve all had a bath this morning. Now listen, and I’ll tell you something: the day may come [12]when the lions get sick. And if you don’t help the other animals now, the lions will be 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 walked away into the jungle.

Then the leopards became proud too and said they didn’t want to help. And then of course the antelopes said so. And now the poor Doctor was really worried because he didn’t know how to help poor sick monkeys.

But when the Leader of the Lions came back to his den, he saw his wife, the Queen Lioness, who said, “One of the cubs doesn’t want to eat. I don’t know WHAT to do with him. He hasn’t taken a thing since last night.” And she began to cry because 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 little cubs, lying on the floor. And one of them seemed quite poor. Then the lion told his wife, quite proudly, about his talk with the Doctor. And she got so angry that she nearly drove him out of the den.

“You are foolish!” 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! And now, NOW – when we have a sick baby on our hands, you offended him! Go back to that white man at once,” she yelled, “and tell him you’re sorry. And take all the other stupid leopards and antelopes with you. Then do everything that the Doctor tells you. Work hard! And perhaps he will be kind enough to come and see the cub later. HURRY, I tell you! You’re not a good 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 was near your house and decided to look in. Have you got any help yet?”

“No,” said the Doctor. “I haven’t. And I’m really worried.”

“It’s very hard to get help these days,” said the lion. “Animals don’t want to work any more…Well, I see you’re in difficulties [13]so I am ready to help you but only if I don’t have to [14]wash the creatures. And I have told all the other animals to come and help. The leopards will be here soon…. Oh, and by the way, [15]we’ve got a sick cub at home. I don’t think that the problem is serious. But my wife is anxious. So will you take a look at him?”

Then the Doctor was very happy because all the lions and the leopards and the antelopes and the giraffes and the zebras – all the animals came to help him in his work. And now very soon the monkeys began to get better. And two weeks later all the monkeys got well. Then the Doctor’s work was done; and he was so tired that he went to bed and slept for three days.

Chee-Chee stood outside the Doctor’s door and didn’t let anyone in until he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the monkeys that he must now go back to Puddleby. They were very surprised at this; they wanted the Doctor to stay with them forever. [16]And that night all the monkeys got together in the jungle to talk about it.

And the Chief Chimpanzee stood up and said, “Why is the good man going away? Is he not happy here with us?” But nobody 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 a lot of monkey-servants to work for him – perhaps then he will not wish to go.”

Then Chee-Chee got up and 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 that 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 and it was almost impossible to LIVE without money. And some of them asked, “But can you not even eat and drink without money?” And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest Orangutan and said, “Cousin, surely these Men are strange creatures! Who would like to live in such a land?!”

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!”