AND soon now the Doctor began to make money again; and his sister,Sarah, bought a new dress and was happy.
Some of the animals who came to see him were so sick that they hadto stay at the Doctor’s house for a week. And when they were gettingbetter they used to sit in chairs on the lawn.
“They used to sit in chairs on the lawn”]
And often even after they got well, they did not want to go away—theyliked the Doctor and his house so much. And he never had the heart torefuse them when they asked if they could stay with him. So in this wayhe went on getting more and more pets.
Once when he was sitting on his garden wall, smoking a pipe in theevening, an Italian organ-grinder came round with a monkey on a string.The Doctor saw at once that the monkey’s collar was too tight andthat he was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from theItalian, gave the man a shilling and told him to go. The organ-grindergot awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the monkey. But theDoctor told him that if he didn’t go away he would punch him on thenose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he wasn’t very tall. Sothe Italian went away saying rude things and the monkey stayed withDoctor Dolittle and had a good home. The other animals in the housecalled him “Chee-Chee”—which is a common word in monkey-language,meaning “ginger.”
And another time, when the circus came to Puddleby, the crocodilewho had a bad toothache escaped at night and came into the Doctor’sgarden. The Doctor talked to him in crocodile-language and took himinto the house and made his tooth better. But when the crocodilesaw what a nice house it was—with all the different places for thedifferent kinds of animals—he too wanted to live with the Doctor. Heasked couldn’t he sleep in the fish-pond at the bottom of the garden,if he promised not to eat the fish. When the circus-men came to takehim back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away. But toevery one in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.
But now the old ladies grew afraid to send their lap-dogs to DoctorDolittle because of the crocodile; and the farmers wouldn’t believethat he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to becured. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go backto his circus. But he wept such big tears, and begged so hard to beallowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn’t the heart to turn him out.
So then the Doctor’s sister came to him and said,
“John, you must send that creature away. Now the farmers and theold ladies are afraid to send their animals to you—just as we werebeginning to be well off again. Now we shall be ruined entirely. Thisis the last straw. I will no longer be housekeeper for you if you don’tsend away that alligator.”
“It isn’t an alligator,” said the Doctor—“it’s a crocodile.”
“I don’t care what you call it,” said his sister. “It’s a nasty thingto find under the bed. I won’t have it in the house.”
“But he has promised me,” the Doctor answered, “that he will not biteany one. He doesn’t like the circus; and I haven’t the money to sendhim back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business andon the whole is very well behaved. Don’t be so fussy.”
“I tell you I _will not_ have him around,” said Sarah. “He eats thelinoleum. If you don’t send him away this minute I’ll—I’ll go and getmarried!”
“All right,” said the Doctor, “go and get married. It can’t behelped.” And he took down his hat and went out into the garden.
So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and went off; and the Doctor wasleft all alone with his animal family.
“‘All right,’ said the Doctor, ‘go and get married’”]
And very soon he was poorer than he had ever been before. With allthese mouths to fill, and the house to look after, and no one to do themending, and no money coming in to pay the butcher’s bill, things beganto look very difficult. But the Doctor didn’t worry at all.
“Money is a nuisance,” he used to say. “We’d all be much better off ifit had never been invented. What does money matter, so long as we arehappy?”
“One evening when the Doctor was asleep in his chair”]
But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one eveningwhen the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire theybegan talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl,Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was onlymoney enough left to last another week—if they each had one meal a dayand no more.
Then the parrot said, “I think we all ought to do the houseworkourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is for our sakesthat the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor.”
So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking andmending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and makethe beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts, and the pig wasto do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper andlaundress, because she was the oldest.
Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do—allexcept Chee-Chee, who had hands, and could do things like a man. Butthey soon got used to it; and they used to think it great fun to watchJip, the dog, sweeping his tail over the floor with a rag tied onto itfor a broom. After a little they got to do the work so well that theDoctor said that he had never had his house kept so tidy or so cleanbefore.
In this way things went along all right for a while; but without moneythey found it very hard.
Then the animals made a vegetable and flower stall outside thegarden-gate and sold radishes and roses to the people that passed byalong the road.
But still they didn’t seem to make enough money to pay all thebills—and still the Doctor wouldn’t worry. When the parrot came to himand told him that the fishmonger wouldn’t give them any more fish, hesaid,
“Never mind. So long as the hens lay eggs and the cow gives milk we canhave omelettes and junket. And there are plenty of vegetables left inthe garden. The Winter is still a long way off. Don’t fuss. That wasthe trouble with Sarah—she would fuss. I wonder how Sarah’s gettingon—an excellent woman—in some ways—Well, well!”
But the snow came earlier than usual that year; and although the oldlame horse hauled in plenty of wood from the forest outside the town,so they could have a big fire in the kitchen, most of the vegetables inthe garden were gone, and the rest were covered with snow; and many ofthe animals were really hungry.