Читать книгу The Story of Doctor Dolittle / История Доктора Дулиттла. Уровень 1 - Хью Джон Лофтинг, Хью Лофтинг - Страница 4

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.