would like a pair like yours,” said the horse, “only green. They’ll keep the sun out of my eyes while I’m working in the field.”
“Okay,” said the Doctor. “I’ll get you green ones.”
“You know, Sir, sadly everyone thinks”, said the horse before he left, “everyone thinks he can doctor animals—just because the animals don’t complain. Actually, it takes a much cleverer man to be a really good animal-doctor than it does to be a good people’s doctor. My farmer’s boy thinks he knows all about horses. If only you saw him! His face is so fat that he looks as though he has no eyes. And he has as much brain as a potato-bug. He tried to put a mustard-plaster on me last week.”
“Where did he put it?” asked the Doctor.
“Oh, he didn’t put it anywhere on me,” said the horse. “He only tried to. I kicked him into the duck-pond.”
“Well, well!” said the Doctor.
“I’m usually pretty quiet,” said the horse, “and very patient with people. It was bad enough to have that vet giving me the wrong medicine. But when that red-faced idiot tried to put that mustard-plaster on me, I just couldn’t bear it anymore.”
“Did you hurt the boy much?” asked the Doctor.
“Oh, no,” said the horse. “I kicked him in the right place. The vet’s looking after him now. When will my glasses be ready?”
“I’ll have them for you next week,” said the Doctor. “Come in again Tuesday—Good morning!”
Then John Dolittle got a fine, big pair of green glasses. Now the horse stopped going blind in one eye and could see as well as ever.
And soon it became a common sight[4] to see farm-animals who wore glasses in the country round Puddleby. And a blind horse was a thing unknown.
Soon, all the other animals started to come to see him. When they found out he could talk their language, they told him where the pain was and how they felt. And of course it was easy for him to cure them. Now whenever any creatures got sick—even the little things like field-mice and bats—came at once to his house on the edge of the town. His big garden was nearly always crowded with animals trying to get in to see him.
There were so many that came that he had to have special doors made for the different kinds. He wrote “HORSES” over the front door, “COWS” over the side door, and “SHEEP” on the kitchen door. Even the mice had a tiny tunnel made for them into the cellar. There they waited patiently in rows for the Doctor to come round to them.
And so, in a few years, every living thing for miles and miles got to know about John Dolittle. And the birds who flew to other countries in the winter told the animals there of the wonderful doctor who could understand their talk. In this way he became famous among the animals all over the world. And he was happy and liked his life very much.
One afternoon when the Doctor was busy writing in a book, Polynesia sat in the window. She was looking out at the leaves blowing about in the garden. Then she laughed aloud.
“What is it, Polynesia?” asked the Doctor and looked up from his book.
“I was just thinking,” said the parrot. Then she went on looking at the leaves.
“What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about people,” said Polynesia. “People make me sick. They think they’re so smart. The world is thousands years old now, isn’t it? And the only thing in animal-language that people know is that when a dog wags his tail he means ‘I’m glad!’ You are the very first man to talk like us. Oh, sometimes people annoy me very much. And they think animals are dumb! I knew a bird once who could say ‘Good morning!’ in seven different ways. And this is without once opening his mouth. He could talk every language, even Greek. An old professor with a gray beard bought him. But he didn’t stay. He said the old man didn’t talk Greek right. He just couldn’t stand listening to him teach the language wrong. I often wonder what he does now. That bird knew more geography than people will ever know. People! If people ever learn to fly—like any common bird—they will never shut their mouth about that!”
“You’re a wise old bird,” said the Doctor. “How old are you really? I know that parrots and elephants sometimes live very, very long.”
“I don’t know exactly,” said Polynesia. “It’s either a hundred and eighty-three or a hundred and eighty-two. Truly, I saw a lot in my life-time!”
The Third Chapter
More Money Troubles
Soon the Doctor began to make money again. His sister, Sarah, bought a new dress and was happy.
Some of the animals who came to him were so sick that they had to stay at the Doctor’s house for a week. And when they were getting better they used to sit in chairs outside.
Often the animals liked the Doctor and his house so much that they did not want to go away. Even after they got well, they asked if they could stay with him. And he never had the heart to refuse them[5]. So in this way he went on getting more and more pets.
Once in the evening he was sitting on his garden wall and smoked a pipe. An Italian street musician was passing by. A monkey on a string followed him. The Doctor saw at once that the monkey’s collar was too tight. The monkey was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the man, gave him some money and told him to go. The man 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. The monkey had a good home now, and the other animals in the house called him “Chee-Chee”. That is a common word in monkey-language, meaning “ginger.”
And another time, the circus came to Puddleby. The crocodile who had a bad toothache 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 he too wanted to live with the Doctor. When the circus-men came to take him back he got so wild and angry that he frightened them away. But to everyone in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.
But now the old ladies were afraid to send their small dogs to Doctor Dolittle because of the crocodile. And the farmers were afraid to send their sick lambs because of the crocodile. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go back to his circus. But he cried so much, and begged so hard to be allowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn’t the heart to turn him out.
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