Doctor Dolittle's Circus (Musaicum Children's Classics). Hugh Lofting

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      Chapter 2

       The Doctor Meets a Friend – and a Relative

       Table of Contents

      Now, Matthew Mugg was a peculiar man. He loved trying new jobs – which was one reason, perhaps, that he never made much money. But his attempts to get into some new kind of work usually ended in his coming back to selling cat’s meat and rat-catching for farmers and millers around Puddleby.

      Matthew had already at Grimbledon Fair tried to get a job with the circus and been refused. But now that he found the Doctor was going into the business – and with such a wonderful exhibition as a pushmi-pullyu – his hopes rose again. And as he went home that night he already in imagination saw himself in partnership with his beloved Doctor, running the biggest circus on earth.

      Next day he called at the little house early. After Dab-Dab had made them up some sardine sandwiches to take with them for lunch, they set out.

      It was a long walk from Puddleby to Grimbledon. But after the Doctor and the Cat’s-Meat-Man had been trudging down the road a while they heard a sound of hoofs behind them. They turned round; and there was a farmer coming toward them in a trap. Seeing the two travellers upon the road, the farmer was going to offer them a ride. But his wife did not like the ragged looks of the Cat’s-Meat-Man, and she forbade her husband to stop for them.

      “What d’yer think of that for Christian charity?” said the Cat’s-Meat-Man as the cart went spinning by them. “Sit comfortable in their seats and leave us to walk! That’s Isidore Stiles, the biggest potato-grower in these parts. I often catches rats for him. And his wife, the snobby old scarecrow! Did yer see that look she gives me? A rat-catcher ain’t good enough company for her!”

      “But look,” said the Doctor. “They’re stopping and turning the trap around.”

      Now this farmer’s horse knew the Doctor very well both by sight and reputation. And as he had trotted by he had recognized the little man tramping along the road as none other than the famous John Dolittle. Delighted to find that his friend had returned to these parts, the horse had then turned around of his own accord, and was now trotting back – in spite of his driver’s pulling – to greet the Doctor and inquire for his health.

      “Where are you going?” asked the horse as he came up.

      “We’re going to Grimbledon Fair,” said the Doctor.

      “So are we,” said the horse. “Why don’t you get into the back of the trap beside the old woman?”

      “They haven’t invited me,” said the Doctor. “See, your farmer is trying to turn you around again toward Grimbledon. Better not anger him. Run along. Don’t bother about us. We’ll be all right.”

      Very unwillingly the horse finally obeyed the driver, turned about and set off once more for the fair. But he hadn’t gone more than half a mile before he said to himself, “It’s a shame the great man should have to walk, while these bumpkins ride. I’m hanged if I’ll leave him behind!”

      Then he pretended to shy at something in the road, swung the trap around again suddenly and raced back toward the Doctor at full gallop. The farmer’s wife screamed and her husband threw all his weight on the reins. But the horse took not the slightest notice. Reaching the Doctor he started rearing and bucking and carrying on like a wild colt.

      “Get into the trap, Doctor,” he whispered. “Get in, or I’ll spill these boobies into the ditch.”