TEXT: Chapter 3 - More money trouble

THE THIRD CHAPTER

MORE MONEY TROUBLE

AND soon now the Doctor began to make money
again; and his sister, Sarah, bought a new
dress and was happy.  Some of the animals
who came to see 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 on the lawn.

And often even after they got well, they did
not want to go away--they liked the Doctor
and his house so much.  And he never had the
heart to refuse them when they asked if they
could stay with him.  So in this way he went
on getting more and more pets.

Once when he was sitting on his garden wall,
smoking a pipe in the evening, an Italian organ-
grinder came round with a monkey on a string.
The Doctor saw at once that the monkey's collar
was too tight and that he was dirty and
unhappy.  So he took the monkey away from the
Italian, gave the man a shilling and told him
to go.  The organ-grinder 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 and had a good home.  The other
animals in the house called him "Chee-Chee"--
which is a common word in monkey-language,
meaning "ginger."  

And another time, when the circus came to
Puddleby, the crocodile who had a bad tooth-
ache 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--with all the
different places for the different kinds of
animals--he too wanted to live with the Doctor.
He asked couldn't he sleep in the fish-pond at
the bottom of the garden, if he promised not
to eat the fish.  When the circus-men came to
take him back he got so wild and savage that
he frightened them away.  But to every one in
the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.

But now the old ladies grew afraid to send
their lap-dogs to Doctor Dolittle because of the
crocodile; and the farmers wouldn't believe that
he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they
brought to be cured.  So the Doctor went to
the crocodile and told him he must go back
to his circus.  But he wept such big tears, and
begged so hard to be allowed to stay, that the
Doctor hadn't the heart to turn him out.

So then the Doctor's sister came to him and said,
"John, you must send that creature away.
Now the farmers and the old ladies are afraid
to send their animals to you--just as we were
beginning to be well off again.  Now we shall
be ruined entirely.  This is the last straw.  I
will no longer be housekeeper for you if you
don't send away that alligator."  

"It isn't an alligator," said the Doctor--"it's
a crocodile."  

"I don't care what you call it," said his sister.
"It's a nasty thing to find under the bed.  I
won't have it in the house."  

"But he has promised me," the Doctor
answered, "that he will not bite any one.  He
doesn't like the circus; and I haven't the money
to send him back to Africa where he comes
from.  He minds his own business and on the
whole is very well behaved.  Don't be so fussy."  

"I tell you I WILL NOT have him around," said
Sarah.  "He eats the linoleum.  If you don't send
him away this minute I'll--I'll go and get married!"

"All right," said the Doctor, "go and get
married.  It can't be helped."   And he took
down his hat and went out into the garden.

So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and
went off; and the Doctor was left all alone with
his animal family.

And very soon he was poorer than he had
ever been before.  With all these mouths to fill,
and the house to look after, and no one to do
the mending, and no money coming in to pay
the butcher's bill, things began to look very
difficult.  But the Doctor didn't worry at all.

"Money is a nuisance," he used to say.
"We'd all be much better off if it had never
been invented.  What does money matter, so
long as we are happy?"

But soon the animals themselves began to get
worried.  And one evening when the Doctor
was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire
they began talking it over among themselves in
whispers.  And the owl, Too-Too, who was
good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was
only money enough left to last another week--
if they each had one meal a day and no more.

Then the parrot said, "I think we all ought
to do the housework ourselves.  At least we can
do that much.  After all, it is for our sakes that
the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor."  

So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee,
was to do the cooking and mending; the dog
was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust
and make the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to
keep the accounts, and the pig was to do the
gardening.  They made Polynesia, the parrot,
housekeeper and laundress, because she was the oldest.

Of course at first they all found their new
jobs very hard to do--all except Chee-Chee, who
had hands, and could do things like a man.  But
they soon got used to it; and they used to think
it great fun to watch Jip, the dog, sweeping
his tail over the floor with a rag tied onto it for
a broom.  After a little they got to do the work
so well that the Doctor said that he had never
had his house kept so tidy or so clean before.

In this way things went along all right for a
while; but without money they found it very hard.

"Never mind.  So long as the hens lay eggs
and the cow gives milk we can have omelettes
and junket.  And there are plenty of vegetables
left in the garden.  The Winter is still a long
way off.  Don't fuss.  That was the trouble
with Sarah--she would fuss.  I wonder how
Sarah's getting on--an excellent woman--in
some ways--Well, well!"

But the snow came earlier than usual that
year; and although the old lame horse hauled
in plenty of wood from the forest outside the
town, so they could have a big fire in the kitchen,
most of the vegetables in the garden were gone,
and the rest were covered with snow; and many
of the animals were really hungry.