and only kept the cleverest.
And now very soon the monkeys began to

get better. At the end of a week the big house
full of beds was half empty. And at the end

of the second week the last monkey had got well.
Then the Doctor's work was done; and he

was so tired he went to bed and slept for three
days without even turning over.

THE NINTH CHAPTER
THE MONKEYS' COUNCIL

CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor's door, keeping everybody
away till he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the

monkeys that he must now go back to Puddleby.
They were very surprised at this; for they

had thought that he was going to stay with them
forever. And that night all the monkeys got

together in the jungle to talk it over.
And the Chief Chimpanzee rose up and said,

"Why is it the good man is going away? Is
he not happy here with us?"

But none of them 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 plenty of
monkey-servants to work for him and to make

life pleasant for him--perhaps then he will
not wish to go."

Then Chee-Chee got up; and all the others
whispered, "Sh! Look! Chee-Chee, the great

Traveler, is about to speak!"
And Chee-Chee 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 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--that it was
almost impossible to LIVE without money.

And some of them asked, "But can you not
even eat and drink without paying?"

But Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he
told them that even he, when he was with the

organ-grinder, had been made to ask the
children for money.

And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest
Orangoutang and said, "Cousin, surely these Men

be strange creatures! Who would wish to live
in such a land? My gracious, how paltry!"

Then Chee-Chee said,
"When we were coming to you we had no

boat to cross the sea in and no money to buy
food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us

some biscuits; and we said we would pay him
when we came back. And we borrowed a boat

from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks
when we reached the shores of 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 he had."
And the monkeys were all silent for a while,

sitting quite still upon the ground and thinking
hard.

At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said,
"I do not think we ought to let this good man

leave our land till we have given him a fine
present to take with him, so that he may know

we are grateful for all that he has done for us."
And a little, tiny red monkey who was

sitting up in a tree shouted down,
"I think that too!"

And then they all cried out, making a great
noise, "Yes, yes. Let us give him the finest

present a White Man ever had!"
Now they began to wonder and ask one another

what would be the best thing to give him.
And one said, "Fifty bags of cocoanuts!"

And another--"A hundred bunches of bananas!--
At least he shall not have to buy his fruit in the

Land Where You Pay to Eat!"
But Chee-Chee told them that all these

things would be too heavy to carry so far and
would go bad before half was eaten.

"If you want to please him," he said, "give
him an animal. You may be sure he will be

kind to it. Give him some rare animal they
have not got in the menageries."

And the monkeys asked him, "What are
MENAGERIES?"

Then Chee-Chee explained to them that
menageries were places in the Land of the

White Men, where animals were put in cages
for people to come and look at. And the

monkeys were very shocked and said to one
another,

"These Men are like thoughtless young ones--stupid
and easily amused. Sh! It is a prison he means."

So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare
animal it could be that they should give the

Doctor--one the White Men had not seen before.
And the Major of the Marmosettes asked,

"Have they an iguana over there?"
But Chee-Chee said, "Yes, there is one in the

London Zoo."
And another asked, "Have they an okapi?"

But Chee-Chee said, "Yes. In Belgium,
where my organ-grinder took me five years ago,

they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp."
And another asked, "Have they 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, there aren't

any more. But long ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive,
there were some of them still left in the deepest jungles

of Africa; and even then they were very, very scarce.
They had no tail, *but a head at each end,

and sharp horns on each head. They were very
shy and terribly hard to catch. The black men

get most of their animals by sneaking up behind
them while they are not looking. But you could

not do this with the pushmi-pullyu--because,
no matter which way you came towards him, he

was always facing you. And besides, only one
half of him slept at a time. The other head

was always awake--and watching. This was
why they were never caught and never seen in

Zoos. Though many of the greatest huntsmen
and the cleverest menagerie-keepers spent years

of their lives searching through the jungles
in all weathers for pushmi-pullyus, not a single

one had ever been caught. Even then, years
ago, he was the only animal in the world with

two heads.
Well, the monkeys set out hunting for this

animal through the forest. And after they had
gone a good many miles, one of them found

peculiar footprints near the edge of a river;
and they knew that a pushmi-pullyu must be

very near that spot.
Then they went along the bank of the river

a little way and they saw a place where the
grass was high and thick; and they guessed that

he was in there.
So they all joined hands and made a great

circle round the high grass. The pushmi-
pullyu heard them coming; and he tried hard

to break through the ring of monkeys. But he
couldn't do it. When he saw that it was no

use trying to escape, he sat down and waited to
see what they wanted.

They asked him if he would go with Doctor Dolittle
and be put on show in the Land of the White Men.

But he shook both his heads hard and said,
"Certainly not!"

They explained to him that he would not be
shut up in a menagerie but would just be looked

at. They told him that the Doctor was a very
kind man but hadn't any money; and people

would pay to see a two-headed animal and the
Doctor would get rich and could pay for the

boat he had borrowed to come to Africa in.
But he answered, "No. You know how shy

I am--I hate being stared at." And he almost
began to cry.

Then for three days they tried to persuade
him.

And at the end of the third day he said he
would come with them and see what kind of a

man the Doctor was, first.
So the monkeys traveled back with the

pushmi-pullyu. And when they came to where
the Doctor's little house of grass was, they

knocked on the door.
The duck, who was packing the trunk, said,

"Come in!"
And Chee-Chee very proudly took the animal

inside and showed him to the Doctor.
"What in the world is it?" asked John

Dolittle, gazing at the strange creature.
"Lord save us!" cried the duck. "How does

it make up its mind?"
"It doesn't look to me as though it had any,"

said Jip, the dog.
"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 your
fortune's made. 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.
"Don't you remember how we had to pinch

and scrape to pay the butcher's bill in
Puddleby? And how are you going to get the

sailor the new boat you spoke of--unless we
have the money to buy it?"

"I was going to make him one," said the Doctor.

• monkey [´mʌŋki] n.猴子 v.乱弄；胡闹 (初中英语单词)
• useless [´ju:sləs] a.无用的，无价值的 (初中英语单词)
• gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
• grateful [´greitful] a.感谢的；令人愉快的 (初中英语单词)
• terribly [´terəbli] ad.可怕地 (初中英语单词)
• proudly [´praudli] ad.骄傲地；傲慢地 (初中英语单词)
• jungle [´dʒʌŋgəl] n.丛林；杂乱的东西 (高中英语单词)
• extinct [ik´stiŋkt] a.熄灭的；灭绝的 (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• traveled [´trævəld] a.见面广的；旅客多的 (英语四级单词)
• scrape [skreip] v.&n.刮，削，擦；搔 (英语四级单词)
• thoughtless [´θɔ:tləs] a.粗心的，轻率的 (英语六级单词)
• hunting [´hʌntiŋ] n.打猎 (英语六级单词)