So they all got safely to the shore – some swimming, some flying; and those that climbed along the rope brought the Doctor’s trunk and handbag with them. Then they all took shelter in a nice dry cave that they found, high up in the cliffs, till the storm was over.
When the sun came out next morning they went down to the sandy beach to dry themselves. “Dear old Africa!” said Polynesia and sighed. “It’s good to get back. Just think – it’ll be a hundred and sixty-nine years tomorrow since I was here! And it hasn’t changed a bit! Same old palm-trees; same old red earth; same old black ants! There’s no place like home!”
Then the Doctor missed his hat. So Dab-Dab went out to look for it. And she saw it, in the distance, floating on the water like a toy-boat. When she flew down to get it, she found one of the white mice, very frightened, sitting inside it.
“What are you doing here?” asked the duck. “You were told to stay behind in Puddleby.”
“I didn’t want to stay there,” said the mouse. “I wanted to see what Africa was like – I have relatives there. So I hid in the baggage and was brought onto the ship.”
So the duck took the hat with the mouse in it and brought it to the Doctor on the shore.
When they were looking for a place in the trunk where the white mouse could travel comfortably, the monkey, Chee-Chee, suddenly said, “Sh! I hear footsteps in the jungle! “They all stopped talking and listened. And soon a black man came down out of the woods and asked them who they were.
“My name is John Dolittle – M. D.,” said the Doctor. “I have come to Africa to cure the monkeys who are sick.”
“You must all come before the King,” said the black man.
“What king?” asked the Doctor, who didn’t want to waste any time.
“The King of the Jolliginki,” the man answered. “All these lands belong to him; and all strangers must be brought before him. Follow me.”
So they gathered up their baggage and followed the man through the jungle.
The Sixth Chapter
Polynesia and The King
When they had gone a little way through the thick forest, they saw the King’s palace which was made of mud. The King lived there with his Queen, Ermintrude, and their son, Prince Bumpo. The Prince went fishing. But the King and Queen were under an umbrella before the palace door. And Queen Ermintrude was asleep.
When the Doctor came up to the palace, he told the King why he had come to Africa.
“You may not travel through my lands,” said the King. “Many years ago a white man came to these shores; and I was very kind to him. But he dug holes in the ground to get the gold, and killed all the elephants to get their ivory tusks. Then he went away secretly in his ship and he didn’t say ‘Thank you.’ So I will not let a white man travel through the lands of Jolliginki.” Then the King turned to some of the black men and said, “Take away this medicine-man – with all his animals, and lock them up in my prison.”
So the black men shut up the Doctor and all his pets in a stone prison. The prison had only one little window, high up in the wall, with bars in it. Then they all became very sad.
“Now listen,” said Polynesia, “tonight, as soon as it gets dark, I am going to creep through the bars of that window and fly to the palace. And then – you’ll see – I’ll soon find a way to make the King let us all out of prison.”
“Oh, what can YOU do?” said Gub-Gub, “You’re only a bird!”
“Quite true,” said the parrot. “But do not forget that although I am only a bird, I CAN TALK LIKE A MAN – and I know these people.”
So that night the parrot flew to the palace. She came to the King’s bedroom, opened the door quietly and peeped in. The Queen was away at a dance that night at her cousin’s; but the King was in bed fast asleep. Polynesia crept in, very softly, and got under the bed. Then she coughed. The King opened his eyes and said sleepily, “Is that you, Ermintrude?” Then the parrot coughed again – loudly, like a man. And the King sat up, wide awake, and said,
“Who’s that?”
“I am Doctor Dolittle,” said the parrot in the Doctor’s voice.[8]
“What are you doing in my bedroom?” cried the King. “Where are you? – I can’t see you.”
But the parrot just laughed.
“Stop laughing and come here at once. I want to see you,” said the King.
“Foolish King!” answered Polynesia. “Have you forgotten that you are talking to John Dolittle, M.D. – the most wonderful man on earth? Of course you cannot see me. I am invisible now. There is nothing I cannot do.[9] And if you don’t let me and my animals travel through your kingdom, I will make you and all your people sick like the monkeys. Send your soldiers at once to open the prison door, or you will have mumps.”
Then the King began to tremble and was very much afraid. “Doctor,” he cried, “I will do as you say!” And he jumped out of bed and ran to tell the soldiers to open the prison door.
As soon as he went away, Polynesia left the palace by the window. But the Queen, who returned from the dance, saw the parrot getting out through the window. And when the King came back to bed she told him about it. Then the King understood everything, and he was very angry. The parrot tricked him! So he ran back to the prison at once. But he was too late. The door stood open. The prison was empty. The Doctor and all his animals were gone.
The Seventh Chapter
The Bridge of Apes
Queen Ermintrude was shocked because her husband behaved so terrible. He called everybody a fool. He threw his tooth-brush at the palace cat. He rushed round in his night-shirt and woke up all his army and sent them into the jungle to catch the Doctor. Then all his servants, his cooks, his gardeners, his barber and even the Queen went to help the soldiers in their search.
The Doctor and his animals ran through the forest to the Land of the Monkeys as fast as they could go. The King of the Jolliginki thought that his army could easily find them, because the Doctor was in a strange land and did not know his way. But he was wrong; because the monkey, Chee-Chee, knew all the paths through the jungle. And he led the Doctor and his pets to the thickest part of the forest and hid them all in a big hollow tree between high rocks.
“We will wait here,” said Chee-Chee, “until the soldiers go back to bed. Then we can go on into the Land of the Monkeys.” So there they stayed the whole night through. At last, when daylight began to come through the thick leaves overhead, they heard Queen Ermintrude. She said in a very tired voice, “We can’t find them! Let’s go back and get some sleep.”
And then Chee-Chee brought the Doctor and his animals out of the hiding-place and they went to the Land of the Monkeys. It was a long, long way; and they often got very tired. They always had plenty to eat and drink because Chee-Chee and Polynesia knew all the different kinds of fruits and vegetables that grow in the jungle, and where to find them. They made their lemonade out of the juice of wild oranges, sweetened with honey which they got from the bees’ nests. At night they slept in tents made of palm leaves, on thick, soft beds of dried grass.
When the night came and they stopped for their resting-time, the Doctor made a little fire of sticks; and they sat round it in a ring. Polynesia started singing songs about the sea, and then Chee-Chee told stories of the jungle.
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.
The Eighth Chapter
The Leader of The Lions
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.
The Ninth Chapter
The Monkeys’ Council
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?!”