ening, an Italian organ-grinder came round with a monkey on a string.
The Doctor saw at once that the monkey's collar was too tight and that
he was dirty and unhappy. So he took the monkey away from the Italian,
gave the man a shilling and told him to go. The organ-grinder got
awfully angry and said that he wanted to keep the monkey. But the
Doctor told him that if he didn't go away he would punch him on the
nose. John Dolittle was a strong man, though he wasn't very tall. So
the Italian went away saying rude things and the monkey stayed with
Doctor Dolittle and had a good home. 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. But when the crocodile saw
what a nice house it was--with all the different places for the
different kinds of animals--he too wanted to live with the Doctor. He
asked couldn't he sleep in the fish-pond at the bottom of the garden,
if he promised not to eat the fish. When the circus-men came to take
him back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away. But
to every one in the house he was always as gentle as a kitten.

But now the old ladies grew afraid to send their lap-dogs to Doctor
Dolittle because of the crocodile; and the farmers wouldn't believe
that he would not eat the lambs and sick calves they brought to be
cured. So the Doctor went to the crocodile and told him he must go
back to his circus. But he wept such big tears, and begged so hard to
be allowed to stay, that the Doctor hadn't the heart to turn him out.

So then the Doctor's sister came to him and said, "John, you must send
that creature away. Now the farmers and the old ladies are afraid to
send their animals to you--just as we were beginning to be well off
again. Now we shall be ruined entirely. This is the last straw. I
will no longer be housekeeper for you if you don't send away that
alligator."

"It isn't an alligator," said the Doctor--"it's a crocodile."

"I don't care what you call it," said his sister. "It's a nasty thing
to find under the bed. I won't have it in the house."

"But he has promised me," the Doctor answered, "that he will not bite
any one. He doesn't like the circus; a