"Lofting, Hugh - Story Of Doctor Dolittle - dolit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lofting Hugh)

The Story of Doctor Dolittle
"Yes, there ARE plenty," said Polynesia. "But none of them are any good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I'll
tell you something. Did you know that animals can talk?"
"I knew that parrots can talk," said the Doctor.
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"Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages-- people's language and bird-language," said Polynesia proudly.
"If I say, `Polly wants a cracker,' you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-ee, fee-fee?"
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"Good Gracious!" cried the Doctor. "What does that mean?"
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"That means, `Is the porridge hot yet?'--in bird-language."
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"My! You don't say so!" said the Doctor. "You never talked that way to me before."
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"What would have been the good?" said Polynesia, dusting some cracker-crumbs off her left wing. "You
wouldn't have understood me if I had."
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"Tell me some more," said the Doctor, all excited; and he rushed over to the dresser-drawer and came back
with the butcher's book and a pencil. "Now don't go too fast--and I'll write it down. This is interesting--very
interesting --something quite new. Give me the Birds' A.B.C. first--slowly now."
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So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals had a language of their own and could talk to one
another. And all that afternoon, while it was raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table giving him bird words
to put down in the book.
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At tea-time, when the dog, Jip, came in, the parrot said to the Doctor, "See, HE'S talking to you."
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"Looks to me as though he were scratching his ear," said the Doctor.
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"But animals don't always speak with their mouths," said the parrot in a high voice, raising her eyebrows.
"They talk with their ears, with their feet, with their tails--with everything. Sometimes they don't WANT to
make a noise. Do you see now the way he's twitching up one side of his nose?"
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"What's that mean?" asked the Doctor.
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"That means, `Can't you see that it has stopped raining?'" Polynesia answered. "He is asking you a question.
Dogs nearly always use their noses for asking questions."
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After a while, with the parrot's help, the Doctor got to learn the language of the animals so well that he could
talk to them himself and understand everything they said. Then he gave up being a people's doctor altogether.
As soon as the Cat's-meat-Man had told every one that John Dolittle was going to become an
animal-doctor, old ladies began to bring him their pet pugs and poodles who had eaten too much cake; and
farmers came many miles to show him sick cows and sheep.
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One day a plow-horse was brought to him; and the poor thing was terribly glad to find a man who could talk
in horse-language.
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"You know, Doctor," said the horse, "that vet over the hill knows nothing at all. He has been treating me six
weeks now--for spavins. What I need is SPECTACLES. I am going blind in one eye. There's no reason why
horses shouldn't wear glasses, the same as people. But that stupid man over the hill never even looked at my