p
yet?"

"No," said the Doctor. "I haven't. And I'm dreadfully worried."

"Help's pretty hard to get these days," said the lion. "Animals don't
seem to want to work any more. You can't blame them--in a way....
Well, seeing you're in difficulties, I don't mind doing what I
can--just to oblige you--so long as I don't have to wash the creatures.
And I have told all the other hunting animals to come and do their
share. The leopards should be here any minute now.... Oh, and by the
way, we've got a sick cub at home. I don't think there's much the
matter with him myself. But the wife is anxious. If you are around
that way this evening, you might take a look at him, will you?"

Then the Doctor was very happy; for all the lions and the leopards and
the antelopes and the giraffes and the zebras--all the animals of the
forests and the mountains and the plains--came to help him in his work.
There were so many of them that he had to send some away, and only kept
the cleverest.

And now very soon the monkeys began to get better. At the end of a
week the big house full of beds was half empty. And at the end of the
second week the last monkey had got well.

Then the Doctor's work was done; and he was so tired he went to bed and
slept for three days without even turning over.

THE NINTH CHAPTER

THE MONKEYS' COUNCIL

CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor's door, keeping everybody away till
he woke up. Then John Dolittle told the monkeys that he must now go
back to Puddleby.

They were very surprised at this; for they had thought that he was
going to stay with them forever. And that night all the monkeys got
together in the jungle to talk it over.

And the Chief Chimpanzee rose up and said,

"Why is it the good man is going away? Is he not happy here with us?"

But none of them could answer him.

Then the Grand Gorilla got up and said,

"I think we all should go to him and ask him to stay. Perhaps if we
make him a new house and a bigger bed, and promise him plenty of
monkey-servants to work for him and to make life pleasant for
him--perhaps then he will not wish to go."

Then Chee-Chee got up; and all the others whispered, "Sh! Look!
Chee-Chee, the great Traveler, is about to speak!"

And Chee-Chee said to the other monkeys,

"My friends, I am afraid it is useless to ask the Doctor to stay. He
owes money in Puddleby; and he says he must go back and pay it."

And the monkeys asked him, "What is M