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

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СКАЧАТЬ You don’t know anything about this game – nothing, see? I’ve given in to you in all you asked. I’m letting you run your part of the show your own way. But I’m going to run the rest of it my way. Understand? I don’t want no interference. It’s bad enough to have the strong man on the sick list. I ain’t going to go broke just to please your Sunday school ideas. And that’s flat.”

      Sad at heart, the Doctor left the manager’s quarters and made his way across to his own caravan. On the steps of his wagon, he found the Cat’s-Meat-Man smoking his evening pipe. Close by, Beppo, the old horse, was cropping the scrubby grass of the enclosure by the light of the moon.

      “Nice night,” said Matthew. “You look kind of worried, Doctor. Anything wrong?”

      “Yes,” said John Dolittle, sitting down miserably on the steps beside him. “Everything’s wrong. I’ve just been talking to Blossom about improving conditions in the menagerie. He won’t do a single thing I ask. I think I’ll leave the circus.”

      “Oh, come now,” said Matthew. ‘Why, you ain’t hardly begun, Doctor! Blossom doesn’t know yet that you can talk animal language even! Circuses don’t have to be bad. You could run one that would be a new kind; clean, honest, special – one that everybody in the world come to see. But you got to get money first. Don’t give up so easy.”

      “No, it’s no use, Matthew. I’m doing no good here and I can’t stay and see animals unhappy. I never should have gone into the business.”

      At this moment the old horse, Beppo, hearing his friend’s voice, drew near and pushed his muzzle affectionately into the Doctor’s ear.

      “Hulloa,” said John Dolittle. “Beppo, I’m afraid I can be of no help to you. I’m sorry – but I am going to leave the circus.”

      “But, Doctor,” said the old horse, “you’re our one hope. Why, only today I heard the elephant and the Talking Horse – the cob who performs in the big show – they were saying how glad they were that you had come. Be patient. You can’t change everything in a minute. If you go, then we’ll never get anything we want. But we know that if you stay, before long you will be running the whole show the way it should be run. We’re not worried as long as you’re with us. Only stay. And mark my words, the day will come when the new circus, ‘The Dolittle Circus,’ will be the greatest on earth.”

      For a moment the Doctor was silent. And Matthew, who had not understood the conversation with the horse, waited impatiently for him to speak.

      At last he arose and turned to go into the caravan.

      “Well,” said the Cat’s-Meat-Man anxiously, “are you going to stay?”

      “Yes, Matthew,” said the Doctor. “It seems I’ve got to. Good night.”

      At the end of that week the Grimbledon Fair was over and the circus had to move on to the next town. It was a big job, this packing up a large show for a long journey by road. And all day Sunday the enclosure was a very busy place. Men ran around everywhere shouting orders. The big tent and the little tents were pulled down and rolled up. The stands were taken apart and piled into wagons. The large space that had looked so gay was quickly changed into a drab, untidy mess. It was all very new to the Doctor’s pets; and though Dab-Dab joined in the general hustle of packing, the rest of them enjoyed the excitement and the newness of it no end.

      One thing that amused them very much was the change in the appearance of the performers when they got out of their circus dress to travel. Gub-Gub was very confused, because he couldn’t recognize anybody any more. The clown took the white paint off his face. The Princess Fatima laid aside her gorgeous garments and appeared like a respectable charwoman ready for a holiday. The Wild Man of Borneo put on a collar and tie and talked quite naturally. And the Bearded Lady took off her beard, folded it up and packed it in a trunk.

      Then in a long procession of caravans the circus set out upon the road. The next town to be visited was fifty miles off. This journey could not, of course, be covered in a single day, going at a walk. The nights were to be spent camping out by the roadside or in whatever convenient clear spaces could be found. So, beside the new amusement of seeing the country by day from a home on wheels, the animals had the thrill of spending the nights gypsy-fashion, wherever darkness found them.

      On the scent of a fox

      Jip got lots of fun chasing the rats out of the ditches along the road and often going off across a meadow on the scent of a fox. The slowness of the circus’s pace gave him time for all sorts of small adventures; and he could always catch up. But Gub-Gub’s chief delight was guessing where they would spend the night.

      This part of the life, the halting for sleep, seemed to be enjoyed by all. When the kettle was put on to boil over the roadside fire everyone cheered up and got talkative. Jip’s two friends, the clown’s dog and Toby, the Punch-and-Judy dog, always came around as soon as the procession stopped for the night, and joined the Doctor’s party. They, too, seemed to be much in favour of John Dolittle’s taking charge of the show or running a circus of his own. And when they weren’t amusing the family circle with wonderful stories of a show-dog’s life they kept telling the Doctor that a real Dolittle Circus would, to their way of thinking, be a perfect institution.

      John Dolittle had always said that there were just as many different characters and types among dogs as there were among people – in fact, more. He had written a book to prove this. He called it Dog Psychology. Most metaphysicians had pooh-poohed it, saying that no one but a hair-brain would write on such a subject. But this was only to hide the fact that they couldn’t understand it.

      Certainly these two, Swizzle, the clown’s dog, and Toby, the Punch-and-Judy dog, had very different personalities. Swizzle (to look at, he was nothing but a common mongrel) had a great sense of humour. He made a joke out of everything. This may have been partly on account of his profession – helping a clown make people laugh. But it was also part of his philosophy. He told both the Doctor and Jip more than once that when he was still a puppy he had decided that nothing in this world was worth taking seriously. He was a great artist, nevertheless, and could always see the most difficult jokes – even when they were made at his own expense.

      It was Swizzle’s sense of humour that gave the Doctor the idea for the first comic papers printed for animals – when later he founded the Rat-and-Mouse Club. They were called Cellar Life and Basement Humour and were intended to bring light entertainment to those who live in dark places.

      Toby, the other, was as different from his friend Swizzle as it is possible to be. He was a small dog, a dwarf white poodle. And he took himself and life quite seriously. The most noticeable thing about his character was his determination to get everything which he thought he ought to get. Yet he was not selfish, not at all. The Doctor always said that this shrewd business-like quality was to be found in most little dogs – who had to make up for their small size by an extra share of cheek. The very first time Toby came visiting to John Dolittle’s caravan he got on the Doctor’s bed and made himself comfortable. Dab-Dab, highly scandalized, tried to put him off. But he wouldn’t move. He said the Doctor didn’t seem to mind and he was the owner of the bed. And from that time on he always occupied this place in the caravan’s evening circle when he came to visit. He had won a special privilege for himself by sheer cheek. He was always demanding privileges, and he usually got them.

      Toby and Swizzle

      But СКАЧАТЬ