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.
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