The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed by Hugh Lofting Read Free Book Online Page B

led back to
prison and locked up. And the Doctor was told
that in the morning he must begin scrubbing the
kitchen-floor.
    They were all very unhappy.
    "This is a great nuisance," said the Doctor.
"I really must get back to Puddleby. That
poor sailor will think I've stolen his ship if I
don't get home soon.... I wonder if those
hinges are loose."
    But the door was very strong and firmly
locked. There seemed no chance of getting out.
Then Gub-Gub began to cry again.
    All this time Polynesia was still sitting in the
tree in the palace-garden. She was saying nothing
and blinking her eyes.
    This was always a very bad sign with
Polynesia. Whenever she said nothing and blinked
her eyes, it meant that somebody had been making
trouble, and she was thinking out some way
to put things right. People who made trouble
for Polynesia or her friends were nearly always
sorry for it afterwards.
    Presently she spied Chee-Chee swinging
through the trees still looking for the Doctor.
When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her
tree and asked her what had become of him.
    "The Doctor and all the animals have been
caught by the King's men and locked up again,"
whispered Polynesia. "We lost our way in the
jungle and blundered into the palace-garden by
mistake."
    "But couldn't you guide them?" asked Chee-
Chee; and he began to scold the parrot for
letting them get lost while he was away looking
for the cocoanuts.
    "It was all that stupid pig's fault," said
Polynesia. "He would keep running off the
path hunting for ginger-roots. And I was kept
so busy catching him and bringing him back,
that I turned to the left, instead of the right,
when we reached the swamp.—Sh!—Look!
There's Prince Bumpo coming into the garden!
He must not see us.—Don't move, whatever you do!"
    And there, sure enough, was Prince Bumpo,
the King's son, opening the garden-gate. He
carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He
came strolling down the gravel-walk, humming
a sad song, till he reached a stone seat right
under the tree where the parrot and the monkey
were hiding. Then he lay down on the seat
and began reading the fairy-stories to himself.
    Chee-Chee and Polynesia watched him,
keeping very quiet and still.
    After a while the King's son laid the book
down and sighed a weary sigh.
    "If I were only a WHITE prince!" said he, with
a dreamy, far-away look in his eyes.
    Then the parrot, talking in a small, high
voice like a little girl, said aloud,
    "Bumpo, some one might turn thee into a
white prince perchance."
    The King's son started up off the seat and
looked all around.
    "What is this I hear?" he cried. "Methought
the sweet music of a fairy's silver voice rang
from yonder bower! Strange!"
    "Worthy Prince," said Polynesia, keeping
very still so Bumpo couldn't see her, "thou sayest
winged words of truth. For 'tis I, Tripsitinka,
the Queen of the Fairies, that speak to
thee. I am hiding in a rose-bud."
    "Oh tell me, Fairy-Queen," cried Bumpo,
clasping his hands in joy, "who is it can turn
me white?"
    "In thy father's prison," said the parrot,
"there lies a famous wizard, John Dolittle by
name. Many things he knows of medicine and
magic, and mighty deeds has he performed.
Yet thy kingly father leaves him languishing
long and lingering hours. Go to him, brave
Bumpo, secretly, when the sun has set; and
behold, thou shalt be made the whitest prince that
ever won fair lady! I have said enough. I
must now go back to Fairyland. Farewell!"
    "Farewell!" cried the Prince. "A thousand thanks,
good Tripsitinka!"
    And he sat down on the seat again with a
smile upon his face, waiting for the sun to set.

The Twelfth Chapter
— Medicine and Magic
*
    VERY, very quietly, making sure that no one should see
her, Polynesia then slipped out at the back of the tree
and flew across to the prison.
    She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through
the bars of the window, trying to sniff the
cooking-smells that came from the palace-
kitchen. She told the pig to bring the Doctor
to the window because she