doing all manner of odd jobs
about the place. So that although I enjoyed it all very much (it was
indeed like living in a new world) I really think the Doctor would have
missed me if I had not come so often.

And all this time Polynesia came with me wherever I went, teaching me
bird language and showing me how to understand the talking signs of the
animals. At first I thought I would never be able to learn at all--it
seemed so difficult. But the old parrot was wonderfully patient with
me--though I could see that occasionally she had hard work to keep her
temper.

Soon I began to pick up the strange chatter of the birds and to
understand the funny talking antics of the dogs. I used to practise
listening to the mice behind the wainscot after I went to bed, and
watching the cats on the roofs and pigeons in the market-square of
Puddleby.

And the days passed very quickly--as they always do when life is
pleasant; and the days turned into weeks, and weeks into months; and
soon the roses in the Doctor's garden were losing their petals and
yellow leaves lay upon the wide green lawn. For the summer was nearly
gone.

One day Polynesia and I were talking in the library. This was a fine
long room with a grand mantlepiece and the walls were covered from the
ceiling to the floor with shelves full of books: books of stories, books
on gardening, books about medicine, books of travel; these I loved--and
especially the Doctor's great atlas with all its maps of the different
countries of the world.

This afternoon Polynesia was showing me the books about animals which
John Dolittle had written himself.

"My!" I said, "what a lot of books the Doctor has--all the way around
the room! Goodness! I wish I could read! It must be tremendously
interesting. Can you read, Polynesia?"

"Only a little," said she. "Be careful how you turn those pages--don't
tear them. No, I really don't get time enough for reading--much. That
letter there is a K and this is a B."

"What does this word under the picture mean?" I asked.

"Let me see," she said, and started spelling it out.
"B-A-B-O-O-N--that's MONKEY. Reading isn't nearly as hard as it looks,
once you know the letters."

"Polynesia," I said, "I want to ask you something very important."

"What is it, my boy?" said she, smoothing down the feathers of her right
wing. Polynesia often spoke to me in a very patronizing way. But I did
not mind it from her. After all, she was nearly two hundred