Do you see now the way he's twitching up one side of his nose?" Sometimes they don't WANT to make a noise. "They talk with their ears, with their feet, with their tails-with everything. "But animals don't always speak with their mouths," said the parrot in a high voice, raising her eyebrows. "Looks to me as though he were scratching his ear," said the Doctor. And all that afternoon, while it was raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table giving him bird words to put down in the book.Īt tea–time, when the dog, Jip, came in, the parrot said to the Doctor, "See, HE'S talking to you." So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals had a language of their own and could talk to one another. This is interesting-very interesting-something quite new. "Now don't go too fast-and I'll write it down. "Tell me some more," said the Doctor, all excited and he rushed over to the dresser–drawer and came back with the butcher's book and a pencil. "You wouldn't have understood me if I had." "What would have been the good?" said Polynesia, dusting some cracker–crumbs off her left wing. "You never talked that way to me before." "That means, 'Is the porridge hot yet?'-in bird–language." "If I say, 'Polly wants a cracker,' you understand me. "Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages-people's language and bird–language," said Polynesia proudly. "I knew that parrots can talk," said the Doctor. Now listen, Doctor, and I'll tell you something. "Oh, there are plenty of animal–doctors," said John Dolittle, putting the flower–pots outside on the window–sill to get the rain. Take care of animals instead-THEY'll soon find it out. Give the silly people up-if they haven't brains enough to see you're the best doctor in the world. When the Cat's–meat–Man had gone the parrot flew off the window on to the Doctor's table and said, And look, all the farmers 'round about who had lame horses and weak lambs-they'd come. But they'll get sick anyway, because the old women always give 'em too much to eat. But as you say, maybe it ain't quite fair on the animals. "Just a little something to make them droopy–like was what I had reference to. "Oh, I didn't mean real sick," answered the Cat's–meat–Man. And if they didn't get sick fast enough, I could put something in the meat I sell 'em to make 'em sick, see?" Do you know that? You see, I'd send all the old women who had sick cats or dogs to you. And listen: you can make a lot of money doctoring animals. Well, it's wonderful-that's all can be said-wonderful. But my wife, Theodosia, she's a scholar, she is. That book you wrote-about cats, why, it's wonderful! I can't read or write myself-or maybe I'D write some books. "You see, Doctor," the Cat's–meat–Man went on, "you know all about animals-much more than what these here vets do. She stopped singing and started to listen. The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out at the rain and singing a sailor–song to herself. "Why don't you give up being a people's doctor, and be an animal–doctor?" asked the Cat's–meat–Man. It happened one day that the Doctor was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat's–meat–Man who had come to see him with a stomach–ache. You should visit Browse Happy and update your internet browser today! The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser.
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