She told the pig to bring the Doctor
to the window because she wanted to speak to
him. So Gub-Gub went and woke the Doctor
who was taking a nap.
"Listen," whispered the parrot, when John
Dolittle's face appeared: "Prince Bumpo is
coming here to-night to see you. And you've
got to find some way to turn him white. But
be sure to make him promise you first that he
will open the prison-door and find a ship for
you to cross the sea in."
"This is all very well," said the Doctor.
"But it isn't so easy to turn a black man white.
You speak as though he were a dress to be re-
dyed. It's not so simple. `Shall the leopard
change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin,' you
know?"
"I don't know anything about that," said
Polynesia impatiently. "But you MUST turn this
man white. Think of a way--think hard.
You've got plenty of medicines left in the bag.
He'll do anything for you if you change his
color. It is your only chance to get out of
prison."
"Well, I suppose it MIGHT be possible," said
the Doctor. "Let me see--," and he went over
to his medicine-bag, murmuring something
about "liberated chlorine on animal-pigment--
perhaps zinc-ointment, as a temporary measure,
spread thick--"
Well, that night Prince Bumpo came secretly
to the Doctor in prison and said to him,
"White Man, I am an unhappy prince.
Years ago I went in search of The Sleeping
Beauty, whom I had read of in a book. And
having traveled through the world many days,
I at last found her and kissed the lady very
gently to awaken her--as the book said I should.
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