nd his dog over and over and over again, the great,
swift ship with the red sails was turned once more towards Puddleby and
they sailed out to sea, while the village-band played music on the
shore.

THE LAST CHAPTER

HOME AGAIN

MARCH winds had come and gone; April's showers were over; May's buds
had opened into flower; and the June sun was shining on the pleasant
fields, when John Dolittle at last got back to his own country.

But he did not yet go home to Puddleby. First he went traveling through
the land with the pushmi-pullyu in a gipsy-wagon, stopping at all the
country-fairs. And there, with the acrobats on one side of them and
the Punch-and-Judy show on the other, they would hang out a big sign
which read, "COME AND SEE THE MARVELOUS TWO-HEADED ANIMAL FROM THE
JUNGLES OF AFRICA. Admission SIXPENCE."

And the pushmi-pullyu would stay inside the wagon, while the other
animals would lie about underneath. The Doctor sat in a chair in front
taking the sixpences and smiling on the people as they went in; and
Dab-Dab was kept busy all the time scolding him because he would let
the children in for nothing when she wasn't looking.

And menagerie-keepers and circus-men came and asked the Doctor to sell
them the strange creature, saying they would pay a tremendous lot of
money for him. But the Doctor always shook his head and said.

"No. The pushmi-pullyu shall never be shut up in a cage. He shall be
free always to come and go, like you and me."

Many curious sights and happenings they saw in this wandering life; but
they all seemed quite ordinary after the great things they had seen and
done in foreign lands. It was very interesting at first, being sort of
part of a circus; but after a few weeks they all got dreadfully tired
of it and the Doctor and all of them were longing to go home.

But so many people came flocking to the little wagon and paid the
sixpence to go inside and see the pushmi-pullyu that very soon the
Doctor was able to give up being a showman.

And one fine day, when the hollyhocks were in full bloom, he came back
to Puddleby a rich man, to live in the little house with the big garden.

And the old lame horse in the stable was glad to see him; and so were
the swallows who had already built their nests under the eaves of his
roof and had young ones. And Dab-Dab was glad, too, to get back to the
house she knew so well--although there was a terrible lot of dusting to
be done, with cob