Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (version 3 Dramatic Reading) — Part 2 Chapters 9-12
THE PURPLE BIRD-OF-PARADISE
POLYNESIA was waiting for us in the front porch.
She looked full of some important news.
“Doctor,” said she, “the Purple Bird-of-Paradise has arrived!
” “At last!
” said the Doctor.
“I had begun to fear some accident had befallen her.
And how is Miranda?
” From the excited way in which the Doctor fumbled his key into the lock I guessed that we were not going to get our tea right away, even now.
“Oh, she seemed all right when she arrived,” said Polynesia—“tired from her long journey of course but otherwise all right.
But what _do_ you think?
That mischief-making sparrow, Cheapside, insulted her as soon as she came into the garden.
When I arrived on the scene she was in tears and was all for turning round and going straight back to Brazil to-night.
I had the hardest work persuading her to wait till you came.
She’s in the study.
I shut Cheapside in one of your book-cases and told him I’d tell you exactly what had happened the moment you got home.
” The Doctor frowned, then walked silently and quickly to the study.
Here we found the candles lit; for the daylight was nearly gone.
Dab-Dab was standing on the floor mounting guard over one of the glass-fronted book-cases in which Cheapside had been imprisoned.
The noisy little sparrow was still fluttering angrily behind the glass when we came in.
In the centre of the big table, perched on the ink-stand, stood the most beautiful bird I have ever seen.
She had a deep violet-colored breast, scarlet wings and a long, long sweeping tail of gold.
She was unimaginably beautiful but looked dreadfully tired.
Already she had her head under her wing; and she swayed gently from side to side on top of the ink-stand like a bird that has flown long and far.
“Sh!
” said Dab-Dab.
“Miranda is asleep.
I’ve got this little imp Cheapside in here.
Listen, Doctor: for Heaven’s sake send that sparrow away before he does any more mischief.
He’s nothing but a vulgar little nuisance.
We’ve had a perfectly awful time trying to get Miranda to stay.
Shall I serve your tea in here, or will you come into the kitchen when you’re ready?
” “We’ll come into the kitchen, Dab-Dab,” said the Doctor.
“Let Cheapside out before you go, please.
” Dab-Dab opened the bookcase-door and Cheapside strutted out trying hard not to look guilty.
“Cheapside,” said the Doctor sternly, “what did you say to Miranda when she arrived?
” “I didn’t say nothing, Doc, straight I didn’t. That is, nothing much.
I
was picking up crumbs off the gravel path when she comes swanking into the garden, turning up her nose in all directions, as though she owned the earth—just because she’s got a lot of colored plumage.
A London sparrow’s as good as her any day.
I don’t hold by these gawdy bedizened foreigners nohow.
Why don’t they stay in their own country?
” “But what did you say to her that got her so offended?
” “All I said was, ‘You don’t belong in an English garden; you ought to be in a milliner’s window.
’ That’s all.
” “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Cheapside.
Don’t you realize that this bird has come thousands of miles to see me—only to be insulted by your impertinent tongue as soon as she reaches my garden?
What do you mean by it?
—If she had gone away again before I got back to-night I would never have forgiven you—Leave the room.
” Sheepishly, but still trying to look as though he didn’t care, Cheapside hopped out into the passage and Dab-Dab closed the door.
The Doctor went up to the beautiful bird on the ink-stand and gently stroked its back.
Instantly its head popped out from under its wing.
_THE TENTH CHAPTER_
LONG ARROW, THE SON OF GOLDEN ARROW
“WELL, Miranda,” said the Doctor.
“I’m terribly sorry this has happened.
But you mustn’t mind Cheapside; he doesn’t know any better.
He’s a city bird; and all his life he has had to squabble for a living.
You must make allowances.
He doesn’t know any better.
” Miranda stretched her gorgeous wings wearily.
Now that I saw her awake and moving I noticed what a superior, well-bred manner she had.
There were tears in her eyes and her beak was trembling.
“I wouldn’t have minded so much,” she said in a high silvery voice, “if I hadn’t been so dreadfully worn out—That and something else,” she added beneath her breath.
“Did you have a hard time getting here?
” asked the Doctor.
“The worst passage I ever made,” said Miranda.
“The weather—Well there.
What’s the use?
I’m here anyway.
” “Tell me,” said the Doctor as though he had been impatiently waiting to say something for a long time: “what did Long Arrow say when you gave him my message?
” The Purple Bird-of-Paradise hung her head.
“That’s the worst part of it,” she said.
“I might almost as well have not come at all.
I wasn’t able to deliver your message.
I couldn’t find him.
_Long Arrow, the son of Golden Arrow, has disappeared!
_” “Disappeared!
” cried the Doctor.
“Why, what’s become of him?
” “Nobody knows,” Miranda answered.
“He had often disappeared before, as I have told you—so that the Indians didn’t know where he was.
But it’s a mighty hard thing to hide away from the birds.
I had always been able to find some owl or martin who could tell me where he was—if I wanted to know.
But not this time.
That’s why I’m nearly a fortnight late in coming to you: I kept hunting and hunting, asking everywhere.
I went over the whole length and breadth of South America.
But there wasn’t a living thing could tell me where he was.
” There was a sad silence in the room after she had finished; the Doctor was frowning in a peculiar sort of way and Polynesia scratched her head.
“Did you ask the black parrots?
” asked Polynesia.
“They usually know everything.
” “Certainly I did,” said Miranda.
“And I was so upset at not being able to find out anything, that I forgot all about observing the weather-signs before I started my flight here.
I didn’t even bother to break my journey at the Azores, but cut right across, making for the Straits of Gibraltar—as though it were June or July.
And of course I ran into a perfectly frightful storm in mid-Atlantic.
I really thought I’d never come through it.
Luckily I found a piece of a wrecked vessel floating in the sea after the storm had partly died down; and I roosted on it and took some sleep.
If I hadn’t been able to take that rest I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.
” “Poor Miranda!
What a time you must have had!
” said the Doctor.
“But tell me, were you able to find out whereabouts Long Arrow was last seen?
” “Yes.
A young albatross told me he had seen him on Spidermonkey Island?
” “Spidermonkey Island?
That’s somewhere off the coast of Brazil, isn’t it?
” “Yes, that’s it.
Of course I flew there right away and asked every bird on the island—and it is a big island, a hundred miles long.
It seems that Long Arrow was visiting some peculiar Indians that live there;
and that when last seen he was going up into the mountains looking for rare medicine-plants.
I got that from a tame hawk, a pet, which the Chief of the Indians keeps for hunting partridges with.
I nearly got caught and put in a cage for my pains too.
That’s the worst of having beautiful feathers: it’s as much as your life is worth to go near most humans—They say, ‘oh how pretty!
’ and shoot an arrow or a bullet into you.
You and Long Arrow were the only two men that I would ever trust myself near—out of all the people in the world.
” “But was he never known to have returned from the mountains?
” “No. That was the last that was seen or heard of him.
I questioned the sea-birds around the shores to find out if he had left the island in a canoe.
But they could tell me nothing.
” “Do you think that some accident has happened to him?
” asked the Doctor in a fearful voice.
“I’m afraid it must have,” said Miranda shaking her head.
“Well,” said John Dolittle slowly, “if I could never meet Long Arrow face to face it would be the greatest disappointment in my whole life.
Not only that, but it would be a great loss to the knowledge of the human race.
For, from what you have told me of him, he knew more natural science than all the rest of us put together; and if he has gone without any one to write it down for him, so the world may be the better for it, it would be a terrible thing.
But you don’t really think that he is dead, do you?
” [Illustration: “‘What else can I think?
’”] “What else can I think?
” asked Miranda, bursting into tears, “when for six whole months he has not been seen by flesh, fish or fowl.
” _THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER_
BLIND TRAVEL
THIS news about Long Arrow made us all very sad.
And I could see from the silent dreamy way the Doctor took his tea that he was dreadfully upset.
Every once in a while he would stop eating altogether and sit staring at the spots on the kitchen table-cloth as though his thoughts were far away; till Dab-Dab, who was watching to see that he got a good meal, would cough or rattle the pots in the sink.
I did my best to cheer him up by reminding him of all he had done for Luke and his wife that afternoon.
And when that didn’t seem to work, I went on talking about our preparations for the voyage.
“But you see, Stubbins,” said he as we rose from the table and Dab-Dab and Chee-Chee began to clear away, “I don’t know where to go now.
I
feel sort of lost since Miranda brought me this news.
On this voyage I had planned going to see Long Arrow.
I had been looking forward to it for a whole year.
I felt he might help me in learning the language of the shellfish—and perhaps in finding some way of getting to the bottom of the sea.
But now?
—He’s gone!
And all his great knowledge has gone with him.
” Then he seemed to fall a-dreaming again.
“Just to think of it!
” he murmured.
“Long Arrow and I, two students—Although I’d never met him, I felt as though I knew him quite well.
For, in his way—without any schooling—he has, all his life, been trying to do the very things which I have tried to do in mine—And now he’s gone!
—A whole world lay between us—And only a bird knew us both!
” We went back into the study, where Jip brought the Doctor his slippers and his pipe.
And after the pipe was lit and the smoke began to fill the room the old man seemed to cheer up a little.
“But you will go on some voyage, Doctor, won’t you?
” I asked—“even if you can’t go to find Long Arrow.
” He looked up sharply into my face; and I suppose he saw how anxious I was.
Because he suddenly smiled his old, boyish smile and said, “Yes, Stubbins.
Don’t worry.
We’ll go.
We mustn’t stop working and learning, even if poor Long Arrow has disappeared—But where to go: that’s the question.
Where shall we go?
” There were so many places that I wanted to go that I couldn’t make up my mind right away.
And while I was still thinking, the Doctor sat up in his chair and said, “I tell you what we’ll do, Stubbins: it’s a game I used to play when I was young—before Sarah came to live with me.
I used to call it Blind Travel.
Whenever I wanted to go on a voyage, and I couldn’t make up my mind where to go, I would take the atlas and open it with my eyes shut.
Next, I’d wave a pencil, still without looking, and stick it down on whatever page had fallen open.
Then I’d open my eyes and look.
It’s a very exciting game, is Blind Travel.
Because you have to swear, before you begin, that you will go to the place the pencil touches, come what may.
Shall we play it?
” “Oh, let’s!
” I almost yelled.
“How thrilling!
I hope it’s China—or Borneo—or Bagdad.
” And in a moment I had scrambled up the bookcase, dragged the big atlas from the top shelf and laid it on the table before the Doctor.
I knew every page in that atlas by heart.
How many days and nights I had lingered over its old faded maps, following the blue rivers from the mountains to the sea; wondering what the little towns really looked like, and how wide were the sprawling lakes!
I had had a lot of fun with that atlas, traveling, in my mind, all over the world.
I can see it now: the first page had no map; it just told you that it was printed in Edinburgh in 1808, and a whole lot more about the book.
The next page was the Solar System, showing the sun and planets, the stars and the moon.
The third page was the chart of the North and South Poles.
Then came the hemispheres, the oceans, the continents and the countries.
As the Doctor began sharpening his pencil a thought came to me.
“What if the pencil falls upon the North Pole,” I asked, “will we have to go there?
” “No. The rules of the game say you don’t have to go any place you’ve been to before.
You are allowed another try.
I’ve been to the North Pole,” he ended quietly, “so we shan’t have to go there.
” I could hardly speak with astonishment.
“_You’ve been to the North pole!
_” I managed to gasp out at last.
“But I thought it was still undiscovered.
The map shows all the places explorers have reached to, _trying_ to get there.
Why isn’t your name down if you discovered it?
” “I promised to keep it a secret.
And you must promise me never to tell any one.
Yes, I discovered the North Pole in April, 1809. But shortly after I got there the polar bears came to me in a body and told me there was a great deal of coal there, buried beneath the snow.
They knew, they said, that human beings would do anything, and go anywhere, to get coal.
So would I please keep it a secret.
Because once people began coming up there to start coal-mines, their beautiful white country would be spoiled—and there was nowhere else in the world cold enough for polar bears to be comfortable.
So of course I had to promise them I would.
Ah, well, it will be discovered again some day, by somebody else.
But I want the polar bears to have their play-ground to themselves as long as possible.
And I daresay it will be a good while yet—for it certainly is a fiendish place to get to—Well now, are we ready?
—Good!
Take the pencil and stand here close to the table.
When the book falls open, wave the pencil round three times and jab it down.
Ready?
—All right.
Shut your eyes.
” It was a tense and fearful moment—but very thrilling.
We both had our eyes shut tight.
I heard the atlas fall open with a bang.
I wondered what page it was: England or Asia.
If it should be the map of Asia, so much would depend on where that pencil would land.
I waved three times in a circle.
I began to lower my hand.
The pencil-point touched the page.
“All right,” I called out, “it’s done.
” _THE TWELFTH CHAPTER_
DESTINY AND DESTINATION
WE both opened our eyes; then bumped our heads together with a crack in our eagerness to lean over and see where we were to go.
The atlas lay open at a map called, _Chart of the South Atlantic Ocean_.
My pencil-point was resting right in the center of a tiny island.
The name of it was printed so small that the Doctor had to get out his strong spectacles to read it.
I was trembling with excitement.
“_Spidermonkey Island_,” he read out slowly.
Then he whistled softly beneath his breath.
“Of all the extraordinary things!
You’ve hit upon the very island where Long Arrow was last seen on earth—I wonder—Well, well!
How very singular!
” “We’ll go there, Doctor, won’t we?
” I asked.
“Of course we will.
The rules of the game say we’ve got to.
” “I’m so glad it wasn’t Oxenthorpe or Bristol,” I said.
“It’ll be a grand voyage, this.
Look at all the sea we’ve got to cross.
Will it take us long?
” “Oh, no,” said the Doctor—“not very.
With a good boat and a good wind we should make it easily in four weeks.
But isn’t it extraordinary?
Of all the places in the world you picked out that one with your eyes shut.
Spidermonkey Island after all!
—Well, there’s one good thing about it: I shall be able to get some Jabizri beetles.
” “What are Jabizri beetles?
” “They are a very rare kind of beetles with peculiar habits.
I want to study them.
There are only three countries in the world where they are to be found.
Spidermonkey Island is one of them.
But even there they are very scarce.
” “What is this little question-mark after the name of the island for?
” I asked, pointing to the map.
“That means that the island’s position in the ocean is not known very exactly—that it is somewhere _about_ there.
Ships have probably seen it in that neighborhood, that is all, most likely.
It is quite possible we shall be the first white men to land there.
But I daresay we shall have some difficulty in finding it first.
” How like a dream it all sounded!
The two of us sitting there at the big study-table; the candles lit; the smoke curling towards the dim ceiling from the Doctor’s pipe—the two of us sitting there, talking about finding an island in the ocean and being the first white men to land upon it!
“I’ll bet it will be a great voyage,” I said.
“It looks a lovely island on the map.
Will there be black men there?
” “No. A peculiar tribe of Red Indians lives on it, Miranda tells me.
” At this point the poor Bird-of-Paradise stirred and woke up.
In our excitement we had forgotten to speak low.
“We are going to Spidermonkey Island, Miranda,” said the Doctor.
“You know where it is, do you not?
” “I know where it was the last time I saw it,” said the bird.
“But whether it will be there still, I can’t say.
” “What do you mean?
” asked the Doctor.
“It is always in the same place surely?
” “Not by any means,” said Miranda.
“Why, didn’t you know?
—Spidermonkey Island is a _floating_ island.
It moves around all over the place—usually somewhere near southern South America.
But of course I could surely find it for you if you want to go there.
” At this fresh piece of news I could contain myself no longer.
I was bursting to tell some one.
I ran dancing and singing from the room to find Chee-Chee.
At the door I tripped over Dab-Dab, who was just coming in with her wings full of plates, and fell headlong on my nose.
“Has the boy gone crazy?
” cried the duck.
“Where do you think you’re going, ninny?
” “To Spidermonkey Island!
” I shouted, picking myself up and doing cart-wheels down the hall—“Spidermonkey Island!
Hooray!
—And it’s a _floating_ island!
” “You’re going to Bedlam, I should say,” snorted the housekeeper.
“Look what you’ve done to my best china!
” But I was far too happy to listen to her scolding; and I ran on, singing, into the kitchen to find Chee-Chee.
[Illustration] PART THREE
