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.”
The Tenth Chapter The Rarest Animal of All
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!”
“Well, perhaps you are right,” said the Doctor. “He will be a nice new kind of pet. But do you really want to go abroad?”
“Yes, I’ll go,” said the pushmi-pullyu who saw at once, from the Doctor’s face, that he was a good man. “But you must promise me that if I do not like it in the Land of the White Men, you will send me back.”
“Of course, of course,” said the Doctor.
“I notice,” said the duck, “that you only talk with one of your mouths. Can’t the other head talk as well?”
“Oh, yes,” said the pushmi-pullyu. “But I keep the other mouth for eating – mostly. So I can talk while I am eating and be polite.”
When the packing was finished, the monkeys gave a grand party for the Doctor, and all the animals of the jungle came. And they had pineapples and mangoes and honey and all sorts of good things to eat and drink. After the meal, the Doctor got up and said,
“My friends, I wish to tell you that I am very sad because I don’t want to leave your beautiful country. But I must go. I hope you will all live happily ever after.”
When the Doctor stopped speaking and sat down, all the monkeys clapped their hands a long time and said to one another, “He is the Greatest of Men!”
Then, when the party was over, the Doctor and his pets went back to the seashore.
The Eleventh Chapter The Black Prince
The doctor and his pets went through the jungle and talked, and Polynesia said, “We must tread softly and talk low because we are going through the land of the Jolliginki. If the King hears us, he will send his soldiers to catch us again; I am sure he is still very angry.”
One day, when they were in a very thick part of the forest, Chee-Chee went ahead of them to look for coconuts. And while he was away, the Doctor and the rest of the animals got lost in the deep woods. They could not find their way to the seashore. Chee-Chee, when he could not see them anywhere, was really upset. He climbed high trees and looked out from the top branches to see the Doctor’s high hat; he waved and shouted; he called to all the animals by name. But it was no use.
Indeed they lost their way very badly. The jungle was so thick with bushes and vines that sometimes they could hardly move at all, and then the Doctor used his pocket-knife and cut the way along. They scratched themselves on thorns, and twice they nearly lost the medicine-bag in the forest. At last, after many days, they walked right into the King’s back-garden by mistake. The King’s men caught them at once. But Polynesia flew into a tree in the garden and hid herself.
The King’s men brought The Doctor and the animals to the King. “Ha, ha!” cried the King. “So you are here again! This time you will not escape. Take them all back to prison and put double locks on the door. This White Man will scrub my kitchen-floor for the rest of his life!” So the Doctor and his pets were back in prison. They were all very unhappy.
Then Polynesia saw Chee-Chee who still looked for the Doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and asked her about the Doctor and his friends. “The Doctor and all the animals are in prison again,” whispered Polynesia. “We lost our way in the jungle and came into the palace-garden by mistake… Sh! – Look! There’s Prince Bumpo in the garden! He must not see us. – Don’t move!”
And there was Prince Bumpo, the King’s son. He opened the garden-gate. He carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He reached a stone seat right under the tree where the parrot and the monkey were. Then he lay down on the seat and began reading the fairy-stories to himself. Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him, and they were very quiet and still. After a while the King’s son laid the book down and sighed.
“I want to be a WHITE prince so much!” said he, with a dreamy look in his eyes.
Then the parrot, talking in a small, high voice like a little girl, said aloud, “Bumpo, someone can turn you into a white prince.”
The King’s son started up off the seat[20] and looked all around.
“What is this I hear?” he cried. “How strange!”
“Worthy Prince,” said Polynesia, “I am Tripsitinka, the Queen of the Fairies. I am hiding in a rose-bud.”
“Oh tell me, Fairy-Queen,” cried Bumpo, “who can make me white?”
“In your father’s prison,” said the parrot, “there lies a famous wizard, John Dolittle. Many things he knows of medicine and magic. Go to him, brave Bumpo, secretly, after the sunset; and he will make you the whitest prince! I must now go back to Fairyland. Farewell![21]”
“Farewell!” cried the Prince. “A thousand thanks, good Tripsitinka!” And he sat down on the seat again with a smile upon his face and started waiting for the sunset.
The Twelfth Chapter Medicine and Magic
Very, very quietly Polynesia then slipped out at the back of the tree and flew to the prison to talk to the Doctor.
“Listen,” said the parrot to the Doctor, “Prince Bumpo is coming here tonight to see you. And you have to find some way to turn him white. But make him promise you first that he will open the prison-door and find a ship for you so that you could cross the sea.”
“This is all very well,” said the Doctor. “But it isn’t so easy to turn a black man white.
“I don’t know anything about that,” said Polynesia impatiently. “But you MUST turn this man white. Think of a way – think hard. You’ve got a lot of medicines in the bag. He’ll do anything for you if you change his color. It is your only chance to get out of prison.”
“Well, I think it MIGHT be possible,[22]” said the Doctor. “Let me see —,” and he took his medicine-bag…
That night Prince Bumpo came secretly to the Doctor in prison and said to him, “White Man, I am an unhappy prince. Years ago I went in search of The Sleeping Beauty.[23] I read about her in a book. And I traveled through the world many days and at last I found her and kissed the lady very gently to awaken her – as the book said I should. It is true indeed that she awoke. But when she saw my face she cried out, ‘Oh, he’s black!’ And she ran away and didn’t marry me – but went to sleep again somewhere else. So I came back to my father’s kingdom. Now I know that you are a wonderful magician. So please help me. If you turn me white, so that I may go back to The Sleeping Beauty, I will give you half my kingdom and anything you ask.”
“Prince Bumpo,” said the Doctor and looked thoughtfully at the bottles in his medicine-bag, “I could make your hair a nice blonde color – will you be happy then?”
“No,” said Bumpo. “Nothing else will satisfy me. I must be a white prince.”
“You know it is very hard to change the color of a prince,” said the Doctor – “one of the hardest things that a magician can do. You only want your face white, don’t you?”
“Yes, that is all,” said Bumpo. “Because I will wear shining armor, like the other white princes, and ride on a horse.”
“Must your face be white all over?” asked the Doctor.
“Yes, all over,” said Bumpo, “and I would like my eyes blue too, but I think that will be very hard to do.”
“Yes, it will,” said the Doctor quickly. “Well, I will do what I can for you. You must be very patient. Maybe I will try two or three times. Now come over here by the light – Oh, but before I do anything, you must first go to the beach and get a ship ready, with food in it, to take me across the sea. Do not speak a word about this to any one. And when I make your face white, you must let me and all my animals out of prison. Promise!”
So the Prince promised and went away to get a ship ready at the seashore. When he came back and said that it was ready, the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to bring a basin. Then he mixed a lot of medicines in the basin and told Bumpo to dip his face in it. The Prince leaned down and put his face in the basin. He held it there a long time. At last the Prince lifted his face up out of the basin. It was difficult for him to breathe. And all the animals cried out in surprise because the Prince’s face was as white as snow, and his eyes were gray, not mud-colored! When John Dolittle gave him a little looking-glass, he began dancing around the prison. But the Doctor asked him not to make so much noise about it; and then he told him to open the prison-door. So the Prince unlocked the door. And the Doctor with all his animals ran as fast as they could down to the seashore.
When they came to the beach they saw Polynesia and Chee-Chee – they were on the rocks near the ship.
“I feel sorry about Bumpo,” said the Doctor. “I am afraid that medicine which I used will never last. I think he will be black again when he wakes up in the morning. But he MIGHT stay white – that was a new mixture. Poor Bumpo! I think I will send him some candy when I get to Puddleby. And who knows? – he may stay white after all.”
Then the pushmi-pullyu, the white mouse, Gub-Gub, Dab-Dab, Jip and the owl, Too-Too, went onto the ship with the Doctor. But Chee-Chee, Polynesia and the crocodile stayed behind, because Africa was their home, the land where they were born. And when the Doctor stood upon the boat, he remembered that they had no one with them to guide them back to Puddleby. But then they heard a strange noise, high in the air. The noise became louder and bigger. And Jip said, “Birds! – millions of them!” And then they all looked up. And there they could see thousands and thousands of little birds. And soon all these birds came down. The Doctor could see that they had blue wings and white breasts. And then John Dolittle said, “These are the swallows. They are going back because it will be summer when we get home. Swallows, I thank you! Now we will not lose our way. Pull up the anchor and set the sail!”
The Thirteenth Chapter Red Sails and Blue Wings
The Doctor’s ship had to pass the coast of Barbary. This coast is the seashore of the Great Desert. It is a wild, lonely place – all sand and stones. And the Barbary pirates lived there. And if they saw a boat, they came out in their fast ships and chased it. When they caught a boat like this at sea, they stole everything on it, took the people off, sank the boat and sailed back to Barbary. Then they made the people from the boat write home to their friends for money. And if the friends didn’t send any money, the pirates often threw the people into the sea.
Now one sunny day the Doctor and Dab-Dab were on the ship, walking up and down for exercise; there was a nice fresh wind, and everybody was happy. Soon Dab-Dab saw the sail of another ship a long way behind them. It was a red sail. “I don’t like that sail. I have a feeling it isn’t a friendly ship,” said Dab-Dab. Jip, who was near, began to growl. “I smell bad men,” he growled – “I smell trouble. I smell a fight – six bad men are fighting against one brave man. I want to help him. Woof – oo – WOOF!” Then he barked loudly.
“See!” cried Dab-Dab. “That boat is nearer now. You can count its three big sails – all red. They are coming after us…. Who are they?”
“They are bad sailors,” said Jip; “and their ship is very swift. They are the pirates of Barbary.”
Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows that pirates were after them in a swift ship. When the swallows heard this, they all came down onto the Doctor’s ship. They told him to separate a long thick rope into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he could. Then the Doctor and the animals tied the ends of these strings to the front of the ship; and the swallows took the strings with their feet and flew off, pulling the boat along. Altogether there were two thousand swallows. And then the Doctor’s ship traveled really fast. And all the animals on the ship began to laugh and dance, because the pirates’ ship was now far, far behind.
The Fourteenth Chapter The Rats’ War
After two or three hours the swallows began to get tired. And they needed to take a rest soon; so they pulled the boat to an island and hid it in a deep bay till they could continue the flight. The island had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it. The Doctor decided to look for water. And he told all the animals to walk on the grass.
Then the Doctor noticed a lot of rats leaving the ship. Jip started to run after them, but the Doctor told him to stop. And one big black rat said,
“Do you know, Doctor, that all ships have rats in them?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor.
“Do you know that rats always leave a sinking ship?” asked the rat.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, “I do.”
“So I want to tell you that we are leaving this ship. This ship isn’t safe. The sides aren’t strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Soon it will sink to the bottom of the sea.”
“But how do you know?” asked the Doctor.
“We always know,” answered the rat. “The tips of our tails start tingling then. It’s a bad ship, Doctor. Don’t sail in it any more. Good-bye! We are now going to look for a good place to live on this island.”
“Good-bye!” said the Doctor. “And thank you very much.”
So then the Doctor and all his animals went to look for water on the island, while the swallows took their rest.
“What is the name of this island?” said the Doctor, climbing up the mountainside. “It seems a pleasant place. What a lot of birds there are!”
“These are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”
The Doctor stopped and listened. “Of course!” he said. And soon the canaries came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, clear water and showed green meadows. And the pushmi-pullyu was glad because he liked the green grass very much. A little later, when they were full, they lay on their backs and the canaries started singing for them. Suddenly two of the swallows came to them.
“Doctor!” they cried, “the pirates are in the bay; and they are on your ship. They are looking for things to steal. There is nobody on their ship now. If you hurry and come down to the shore, you can get onto their ship and escape. But please hurry.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the Doctor – “splendid!” And he called his animals together at once, said Good-bye to the canaries and ran down to the beach. When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails, and there was nobody on it; all the pirates were downstairs in the Doctor’s ship, looking for things to steal. So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all crept onto the pirate-ship.
The Fifteenth Chapter The Barbary Dragon
They pulled up the anchor without a sound, and moved the ship very, very carefully out of the bay. But suddenly Gub-Gub sneezed so loudly that the pirates on the other ship rushed upstairs to see what the noise was. As soon as they saw that the Doctor was on their ship, they sailed the other boat and blocked the entrance to the bay so that the Doctor could not get out into the open sea. Then the leader of these bad men (who called himself “Ben Ali, The Dragon”) shook his fist at the Doctor[24] and shouted, “Ha! Ha! You are trapped,[25] my fine friend! You were going to run off in my ship, eh? But you are not a good enough sailor to beat Ben Ali, the Barbary Dragon. I want your duck and your pig too. We’ll have pork chops and roast duck for supper tonight. And before I let you go home, your friends must send me a trunk – full of gold.”
Poor Gub-Gub began to weep. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor, “Let him talk, Doctor. Be pleasant to him. Our old ship will sink soon – the rats said so – and the rats are never wrong. Let him talk.”
“Look here, Ben Ali —” But before the Doctor could say any more, the pirates began to sail the ship nearer and they laughed. Poor Gub-Gub was really frightened. But soon something went wrong with the pirates; they stopped laughing; they looked puzzled. Then Ben Ali suddenly shouted, “Thunder and Lightning! – Men, THE BOAT’S LEAKING!” And then the other pirates saw that the boat started getting lower and lower in the water.
Soon the front end of the ship began to go down and down, faster and faster; and the pirates clung to the rails and the masts and the ropes. And at last the ship plunged right down to the bottom of the sea; and the six bad men were in the deep water of the bay. Then suddenly they all cried out in great fear, “THE SHARKS! The sharks are coming! Let us get onto your ship before they eat us! Help, help! – The sharks! The sharks!”
And now the Doctor could see the backs of big fishes. And one great shark came near to the ship and said to the Doctor, “Are you John Dolittle, the famous animal-doctor?”
“Yes,” said Doctor Dolittle. “That is my name.”
“Well,” said the shark, “we know these pirates are very bad – especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will eat them up.”
“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “But I don’t think it will be necessary to eat them. Don’t let any of them reach the shore until I tell you. And please make Ben Ali swim over here. I want to talk to him.”
So the shark chased Ben Ali to the Doctor.
“Listen, Ben Ali,” said John Dolittle. “You are a very bad man; you killed many people. These good sharks want to eat you up. But promise to do as I tell you, and I will let you go in safety.”
“What must I do?” asked the pirate and looked at the big shark.
“You must kill no more people,” said the Doctor; “don’t steal anything; never sink ships; don’t be a pirate.”
“But what can I do then?” asked Ben Ali.
“Take all your men, go to this island and be bird-seed-farmers,” the Doctor answered. “You must grow bird-seed for the canaries.”
The Barbary Dragon was really angry. “GROW BIRD-SEED!” he groaned. “Can I be a sailor?”
“No,” said the Doctor, “you cannot. For the rest of your life you must be a peaceful farmer. The shark is waiting. Don’t waste his time. Make your decision now.”
“Thunder and Lightning!” Ben Ali cried. Then he looked down into the water again and saw the shark. “Very well,” he said sadly. “We’ll be farmers.”
“Now go and be a good farmer and live in peace.” Then the Doctor turned to the big shark and said, “All right. Let them swim safely to the land.”
The Sixteenth Chapter Too-Too, The Listener
So the Doctor and his pets continued their journey home in the swift ship with the three red sails. The animals went downstairs to see their new boat inside. Soon Dab-Dab came up the stairs and cried, “Doctor! This ship of the pirates is absolutely beautiful. The beds downstairs are made of silk; there are soft carpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there is a lot of food and drinks… Oh, and we found another little room but we can’t open the door. Come down and help us open it.”
The Doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautiful ship. He found the animals at a little door. The Doctor turned the handle but the door didn’t open. Then they all started to look for the key. But nowhere in the whole boat could they find a key to that lock. So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the key-hole. But he could see nothing.
Suddenly the owl, Too-Too, said, “Sh! – Listen! – I think there’s someone in there! I hear that someone is putting his hand in his pocket,” said the owl.
“But how can you hear that?” said the Doctor.
“Almost everything makes SOME noise. We owls are very good hearers.”
“Well, well!” said the Doctor. “You surprise me. That’s very interesting… Listen again and tell me what he’s doing now.”
“I’m not sure yet,” said Too-Too, “maybe it’s a woman. Lift me up and let me listen at the key-hole and I’ll soon tell you.”
So the Doctor lifted the owl up and held him close to the lock of the door. After a moment Too-Too said, “It’s a man. And he is unhappy. He is crying.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “if the poor fellow’s unhappy, let’s get in and see what the matter with him is. Find me an axe, and I’ll chop the door down.”
The Seventeenth Chapter The Ocean Gossips
Soon the Doctor chopped a hole in the door and got in. At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So he struck a match. The room was quite small; there was no window; the ceiling was low. There was only one little stool. And in the middle of the floor there was a little boy, crying bitterly. He was about eight years old.
The little boy was frightened when he saw a man before him. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle’s face by the light of the match, he got up. “You aren’t one of the pirates, are you?” he asked. And when the Doctor laughed loudly, the little boy smiled too and came and took his hand.
“You laugh like a friend,” he said – “not like a pirate. Could you tell me where my uncle is?”
“I am afraid I can’t,” said the Doctor. “When did you see him last?”
“It was the day before yesterday,” said the boy. “I and my uncle went fishing in our little boat, and the pirates came and caught us. They sank our fishing-boat and brought us both onto this ship. They told my uncle that they wanted to make him a pirate because he knew how to sail a ship in any weather. But my uncle said that he didn’t want to be a pirate because he didn’t want to kill people and steal things. Then the leader, Ben Ali, became very angry and said, ‘We will throw you into the sea then!’ They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of a fight. And I never saw my uncle again after that. I am very much afraid they threw him into the sea and drowned him.”
And the little boy began to cry again. “Well now – wait a minute,” said the Doctor. “Don’t cry. Let’s go and have tea in the dining-room, and we’ll talk about it. Maybe your uncle is quite safe all the time. You don’t KNOW that they drowned him, do you? Perhaps we can find him for you. First we’ll go and have tea – with strawberry jam; and then we will see what we can do.”
All the animals heard the boy’s story. So after tea Dab-Dab whispered to the Doctor, “Ask the dolphins about the boy’s uncle.”
“All right,” said the Doctor.
“What are those funny noises which you are making with your tongue?” asked the boy.
“Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck language,” the Doctor answered. “This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets.”
“I didn’t even know that ducks had a language,” said the boy. “Are all these other animals your pets, too? What is that strange animal with two heads?”
“Sh!” the Doctor whispered. “That is the pushmi-pullyu. Don’t let him see that we’re talking about him – he becomes really embarrassed… Tell me about your uncle now. “
“He had red hair,” the boy said – “very red hair, and he had the picture of an anchor on his arm, a tattoo. He was a strong man, a kind uncle and the best sailor in the South Atlantic.”
Then the Doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining-room and went upstairs. Soon he saw a school of dolphins near the ship. They were on their way to Brazil. And the Doctor asked them, “Have you seen a man with red hair and the tattoo of an anchor on his arm?”
“We saw his boat on the bottom of the sea. But we know that there was nobody inside it, because we went and looked.”
“His little nephew is on the ship with me here,” said the Doctor. “And he is afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea.”
“No – tell the little boy we are sure that the pirates didn’t drown him in the sea.”
So the Doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew, who clapped his hands with happiness. And the pushmi-pullyu took the little boy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining-room table.
The Eighteenth Chapter Smells
“Your uncle didn’t drown. We must find him,” said the Doctor. Then Dab-Dab came up to him again and whispered, “Ask the eagles to look for the man.” So the Doctor sent one of the swallows off to call some eagles. And in an hour the little bird came back with six eagles. And they stood on the rail of the ship, like soldiers. Gub-Gub was very scared of them. And the Doctor said to the eagles, “Please help us find a fisherman. He has red hair and the tattoo of an anchor on his arm. This boy is the man’s nephew.” Eagles do not talk very much. And they answered, “You may be sure that we will do everything for John Dolittle.” Then they flew off. When they came back, it was almost night. And the eagles said to the Doctor, “We have searched all the seas and all the countries and all the islands and all the cities and all the villages. But we couldn’t find the man anywhere.” Then the six great birds flew back to their homes in the mountains and the rocks.
“Well,” said Dab-Dab, “what are we going to do now? We MUST find the boy’s uncle.” Then Jip went to the Doctor and said, “Ask the boy to bring me something that belonged to his uncle, please.” So the boy took from his pocket a big red handkerchief and said, “This was my uncle’s.” As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip shouted, “I’ll find his uncle for him in less than a week. Let us go upstairs and see which way the wind is blowing.” Then Jip went up to the front of the ship and smelt the wind. “It’s blowing from the North,” said the dog. Then he shut his eyes tight and sniffed hard with his mouth half-open. For a long time he said nothing. At last he said, “I can’t smell his uncle. We must wait until the wind changes to the South.” And the Doctor said, “Well, let’s go down to supper then. I’m quite hungry.” “So am I,” said Gub-Gub.