_THE NINTH CHAPTER_
THE MONKEYS’ COUNCIL
CHEE-CHEE stood outside the Doctor’s door, keeping everybody away tillhe woke up. Then John Dolittle told the monkeys that he must now goback to Puddleby.
They were very surprised at this; for they had thought that he wasgoing to stay with them forever. And that night all the monkeys gottogether 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 ifwe make him a new house and a bigger bed, and promise him plentyof monkey-servants to work for him and to make life pleasant forhim—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. Heowes money in Puddleby; and he says he must go back and pay it.”
And the monkeys asked him, “What is _money_?”
“Then the Grand Gorilla got up”]
Then Chee-Chee told them that in the Land of the White Men you couldget nothing without money; you could _do_ nothing without money—thatit was almost impossible to _live_ without money.
And some of them asked, “But can you not even eat and drink withoutpaying?”
But Chee-Chee shook his head. And then he told them that even he, whenhe was with the organ-grinder, had been made to ask the children formoney.
And the Chief Chimpanzee turned to the Oldest Orang-outang and said,“Cousin, surely these Men be strange creatures! Who would wish to livein such a land? My gracious, how paltry!”
Then Chee-Chee said,
“When we were coming to you we had no boat to cross the sea in andno money to buy food to eat on our journey. So a man lent us somebiscuits; and we said we would pay him when we came back. And weborrowed a boat from a sailor; but it was broken on the rocks when wereached the shores of Africa. Now the Doctor says he must go back andget the sailor another boat—because the man was poor and his ship wasall he had.”
And the monkeys were all silent for a while, sitting quite still uponthe ground and thinking hard.
At last the Biggest Baboon got up and said,
“I do not think we ought to let this good man leave our land till wehave given him a fine present to take with him, so that he may know weare grateful for all that he has done for us.”
And a little, tiny red monkey who was sitting up in a tree shouted down,
“I think that too!”
And then they all cried out, making a great noise, “Yes, yes. Let usgive him the finest present a White Man ever had!”
Now they began to wonder and ask one another what would be the bestthing to give him. And one said, “Fifty bags of cocoanuts!” Andanother—“A hundred bunches of bananas!—At least he shall not have tobuy his fruit in the Land Where You Pay to Eat!”
But Chee-Chee told them that all these things would be too heavy tocarry so far and would go bad before half was eaten.
“If you want to please him,” he said, “give him an animal. You may besure he will be kind to it. Give him some rare animal they have not gotin the menageries.”
And the monkeys asked him, “What are _menageries_?”
Then Chee-Chee explained to them that menageries were places in theLand of the White Men, where animals were put in cages for people tocome and look at. And the monkeys were very shocked and said to oneanother,
“These Men are like thoughtless young ones—stupid and easily amused.Sh! It is a prison he means.”
So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare animal it could be that theyshould give the Doctor—one the White Men had not seen before. And theMajor of the Marmosettes asked,
“Have they an iguana over there?”
But Chee-Chee said, “Yes, there is one in the London Zoo.”
And another asked, “Have they an okapi?”
But Chee-Chee said, “Yes. In Belgium, where my organ-grinder took mefive years ago, they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp.”
And another asked, “Have they a pushmi-pullyu?”
Then Chee-Chee said, “No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu.Let us give him that.”