nd I haven't the money to send
him back to Africa where he comes from. He minds his own business and
on the whole is very well behaved. Don't be so fussy."
"I tell you I WILL NOT have him around," said Sarah. "He eats the
linoleum. If you don't send him away this minute I'll--I'll go and get
married!"
"All right," said the Doctor, "go and get married. It can't be
helped." And he took down his hat and went out into the garden.
So Sarah Dolittle packed up her things and went off; and the Doctor was
left all alone with his animal family.
And very soon he was poorer than he had ever been before. With all
these mouths to fill, and the house to look after, and no one to do the
mending, and no money coming in to pay the butcher's bill, things began
to look very difficult. But the Doctor didn't worry at all.
"Money is a nuisance," he used to say. "We'd all be much better off if
it had never been invented. What does money matter, so long as we are
happy?"
But soon the animals themselves began to get worried. And one evening
when the Doctor was asleep in his chair before the kitchen-fire they
began talking it over among themselves in whispers. And the owl,
Too-Too, who was good at arithmetic, figured it out that there was only
money enough left to last another week--if they each had one meal a day
and no more.
Then the parrot said, "I think we all ought to do the housework
ourselves. At least we can do that much. After all, it is for our
sakes that the old man finds himself so lonely and so poor."
So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking and
mending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and make
the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep the accounts, and the pig was
to do the gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper and
laundress, because she was the oldest.
Of course at first they all found their new jobs very hard to do--all
except Chee-Chee, who had hands, and could do things like a man. But
they soon got used to it; and they used to think it great fun to watch
Jip, the dog, sweeping his tail over the floor with a rag tied onto it
for a broom. After a little they got to do the work so well that the
Doctor said that he had never had his house kept so tidy or so clean
before.
In this way things went along all right for a while; but without money
they found it very hard.
Then the animals made a vegetable and flower stall outside the
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