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Updated: September 24, 2025
At that moment we heard a crying sound at the door. And turning round, we saw a weeping Indian mother with a baby in her arms. She said something to the Indians which we could not understand; and Long Arrow told us the baby was sick and she wanted the white doctor to try and cure it. "Oh Lord!" groaned Polynesia in my ear "Just like Puddleby: patients arriving in the middle of dinner.
"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.
"Yes," sighed Polynesia, shaking the rain oft her feathers, "this is England all right You can tell it by the beastly climate." "Oh, but fellows," cried Jip, as he sniffed up the air in great gulps, "it has a SMELL a good and glorious smell! Excuse me a minute: I see a water-rat." "Sh! Listen!" said Chee-Chee through teeth that chattered with the cold. "There's Puddleby church-clock striking four.
And soon it became a common sight to see farm-animals wearing glasses in the country round Puddleby; and a blind horse was a thing unknown. And so it was with all the other animals that were brought to him. As soon as they found that he could talk their language, they told him where the pain was and how they felt, and of course it was easy for him to cure them.
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.
I knew that he often still thought of his house and garden in Puddleby and of his old plans and ambitions; because once in a while we would notice his face grow thoughtful and a little sad, when something reminded him of England or his old life. But he never spoke of these things.
And anybody in Puddleby who had nothing special to do used to come to the Court-house to hear the trials. But to-day it was different. The crowd was not made up of just a few idle people. It was enormous. The news had run through the countryside that Luke the Hermit was to be tried for killing a man and that the great mystery which had hung over him so long was to be cleared up at last.
When he reached England and tried to get off the ship, the sailors saw at last that he was only a monkey dressed up in girl's clothes; and they wanted to keep him for a pet. But he managed to give them the slip; and once he was on shore, he dived into the crowd and got away. But he was still a long distance from Puddleby and had to come right across the whole breadth of England.
"I'm sick of these beastly tropics they make you feel so lazy and good-for-nothing. And there are no rats or anything here not that a fellow would have the energy to chase 'em even if there were. My, wouldn't I be glad to see old Puddleby and the garden again! And won't Dab-Dab be glad to have us back!"
Soon I began to pick up the strange chatter of the birds and to understand the funny talking antics of the dogs. I used to practise listening to the mice behind the wainscot after I went to bed, and watching the cats on the roofs and pigeons in the market-square of Puddleby.
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