The Story of Doctor Dolittle | Page 8

monkey away from
the Italian, gave the man a shilling and told him to go. The
organ-grinder got awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the
monkey. But the Doctor told him that if he didn't go away he would
punch him on the nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he
wasn't very tall. So the Italian went away saying rude things and the
monkey stayed with Doctor Dolittle and had a good home. The other
animals in the house called him "Chee-Chee"-- which is a common
word in monkey-language, meaning "ginger."
And another time, when the circus came to Puddleby, the crocodile
who had a bad tooth- ache escaped at night and came into the Doctor's
garden. The Doctor talked to him in crocodile-language and took him
into the house and made his tooth better. But when the crocodile saw
what a nice house it was--with all the different places for the different
kinds of animals--he too wanted to live with the Doctor. He asked
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 take him
back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away. But to
every 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 Doctor
Dolittle because of the crocodile; and the farmers wouldn't believe that
he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to be cured. So
the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go back to his
circus. But he wept such big tears, and begged so hard to be allowed 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 the old ladies are afraid to
send their animals to you--just as we were beginning to be well off
again. Now we shall be ruined entirely. This is the last straw. I will no
longer be housekeeper for you if you don't send 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 thing to find
under the bed. I won't have it in the house."
"But he has promised me," the Doctor answered, "that he will not bite
any one. He doesn't like the circus; and I haven't the money to send him
back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and
on the whole is very well behaved. Don't be so fussy."
"I tell you I WILL NOT have him around," said Sarah. "He eats the
linoleum. If you don't send him away this minute I'll--I'll go and get
married!"
"All right," said the Doctor, "go and get married. It can't be helped."
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
was left all alone with his animal family.
And very soon he was poorer than he had ever been before. With all
these mouths to fill, and the house to look after, and no one to do the
mending, and no money coming in to pay the butcher's bill, things
began to 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 if it
had never been invented. What does money matter, so long as we are
happy?"
But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one
evening when the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire
they began talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl,

Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was only
money enough left to last another week-- if they each had one meal a
day and no more.
Then the parrot said, "I think we all ought to do the housework
ourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is for our sakes
that the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor."
So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking
and mending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and
make the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts, and the pig
was to do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper
and laundress, because she was the oldest.
Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do--all
except Chee-Chee, who had hands, and could