The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Author:Hugh Lofting
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

The Twelfth Chapter

MEDICINE AND MAGIC

VERY, VERY QUIETLY, MAKING SURE THAT NO ONE should see her, Polynesia then slipped out at the back of the tree and flew across to the prison.

She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through the bars of the window, trying to sniff the cooking smells that came from the palace kitchen. 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 tonight 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 redyed. 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. ‘Tis true indeed that she awoke. But when she saw my face she cried out, ‘Oh, he’s black!’ And she ran away and wouldn’t marry me—but went to sleep again somewhere else. So I came back, full of sadness, to my father’s kingdom. Now I hear that you are a wonderful magician and have many powerful potions. So I come to you for help. If you will turn me white, so that I may go back to The Sleeping Beauty, I will give you half my kingdom and anything besides you ask.”

“Prince Bumpo,” said the Doctor, looking thoughtfully at the bottles in his medicine bag, “supposing I made your hair a nice blonde color—would not that do instead to make you happy?”

“No,” said Bumpo. “Nothing else will satisfy me. I must be a white prince.”

“You know, it is very hard to change the color of a prince,” said the Doctor, “one of the hardest things a magician can do. You only want your face white, do you not?”

“Yes, that is all,” said Bumpo.

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