Part II Chapter 5 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
THE PASSENGERS FROM PENCHURCH
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" said Sophie, after they had traveled for about an hour. This road is just as hard and knobby and scrapy as the other one. How far have we come now?"
"About another mile," said the Doctor.
Sophie began to weep big tears into the white dust of the road.
"Always 'about another mile!' I'm afraid I'm being a dreadful nuisance to you, Doctor."
"Oh, not at all," said John Dolittle. "Don't be downhearted. We'll do it yet. It'll be easy going, once we reach the river."
"Yes, but we are still thirty-nine miles from that," said Sophie. "And I'm so worn out."
The Doctor looked down at her and saw that, indeed, she was in a very exhausted state. There was nothing for it but to halt again.
"Come over here," he said--"off the road--so. Now, lie down in this ditch, where you won't be seen, and take a rest."
Poor Sophie did as she was told, and the Doctor sat down upon a milestone, thinking hard. Although he was doing his best to cheer Sophie along, it was beginning to look, at this rate, as though they could never get as far as the river.
While he was pondering drearily over the difficulties of the situation, Sophie suddenly said:
"What's that noise?"
The Doctor looked up and listened.
"Wagon wheels," he said. "You're quite safe where you are. Just keep still till it passes. You'll never be seen in the ditch."
The rumbling noise drew nearer, and presently, round a bend in the road, a light came in sight. Soon the Doctor could see that it was a closed carriage of some kind. As it drew level with him the driver stopped his horses and called out:
"Are you waiting for the coach?"
"Er--er," the Doctor stammered--"oh, are you the coach?"
"We're one of 'em," said the man.
"Where do you go to?" asked the Doctor.
"We are the local," said the driver; "Penchurch to Anglethorpe. D'yer want to get in?"
While he hesitated over an answer a wild idea came into the Doctor's head.
"Have you got many passengers?" he asked.
"No, only two--man and his wife--and they're asleep. Plenty o' room inside."
The carriage, lit within by a lamp which shone dimly through drawn curtains, had stopped a little beyond the Doctor's milestone. The driver, from where he sat, could see neither Sophie's hiding place, nor the back door of his own coach.
"Are your passengers from these parts?" asked the Doctor, lowering his voice.
"No, we come from Penchurch, I told you. What more would you like to know? If you want to get in, hurry! Can't stay talking all night."
"All right," said the Doctor. "Wait just a second till I get my luggage."
"Want any help?"
"No, no, no! Stay where you are. I can manage."
Then the Doctor slipped behind the end of the coach and opened the door. A man and a woman, with their heads sunk upon their chests, were dozing in the far corner. Leaving the door open, the Doctor ran to the ditch, put his arms around Sophie, and lifted her huge weight bodily in his arms.
"We'll cover part of the ground this way, anyhow," he whispered as he carried her to the coach.
"Keep as still and quiet as you can. I'm going to stow you under the seat."
For entering the carriage, whose floor stood high above the level of the road, there were two little iron steps hung below the door sill. As the Doctor looked in the second time the passengers were still apparently sleeping. But in trying to mount the steps with his tremendous burden he stumbled noisily. The woman in the corner woke up and raised her head. The Doctor, Sophie's flippers still clinging about his neck, stared, speechless.
"John!"
It was Sarah.
Mrs. Dingle fainted with a shriek into her husband's arms. The horses bolted. The Doctor lost his balance entirely. And the coach rattled off into the night, leaving him seated in the road, with Sophie on his lap.
"Heigh ho!" he sighed, picking himself up wearily. "Of course, it would be Sarah! It might have been anyone else in the world, but it had to be Sarah. Well, well!"
"But what did you mean to do?" asked Sophie. "You could never have got me under the seat. There wasn't room there to hide a dog."
"Oh, well, I just acted on the spur of the moment," said the Doctor. "I might have got you a few miles on your journey--if I hadn't stumbled and woken Sarah. Bother it! But, you know, Sophie, I think that the coach idea is our best scheme, anyhow. Only we must arrange it a little differently; we must lay our plans with care. In one way it was a good thing it was Sarah. If it had been anyone else who had seen me carrying a seal they might have talked and set people on our track. But Sarah and her husband are ashamed of my being in the circus business and they won't say anything, we may be sure.
"Now, listen: over in the east the sky is growing gray--look. It's no use our trying to get further to-day. So we'll hide you in those woods down there, and then I'll go on alone to the next village and find out a few things."
So they moved along the highway a short distance to where some pleasant woods bordered the road.
Entering the cover of these preserves, they found a nice place for Sophie to lie hidden. Then, when he had made her comfortable, the Doctor set out down the road just as the cocks in the nearby farms began crowing their first greeting to the morning sun.
After a walk of about two miles he came to a village with a pretty little ivy-covered inn, called "The Three Huntsmen." Going in he ordered breakfast. He had not had anything to eat since he had left the deserted garden. A very old waiter served him some bacon and eggs in the tap-room.
As soon as the Doctor had eaten he lit his pipe and began chatting to the waiter. He found out a whole lot of things about the coaches that ran up and down the Grantchester Road--what the different ones were like to look at, at what hour they were to be expected, which of them were usually crowded, and much more.
Then he left the inn and walked down the street till he came to the few shops the village had. One of these was a general clothier's and haberdasher's. The Doctor entered and asked the price of a lady's cloak which was hanging in the window.
"Fifteen shillings and sixpence," said the woman in charge of the shop. "Is your wife tall?"
"My wife?" asked the Doctor, entirely bewildered. "Oh, ah, yes, of course. Well--er--I want it long, anyway. And I'll take a bonnet, too."
"Is she fair or dark?" asked the woman.
"Er--she's sort of medium," said the Doctor.
"There's a nice one here, with red poppies on it," said the woman. "How would she like that?"
"No, that's too showy," said the Doctor.
"Well, they do say them flowery ones is right fashionable up to London just now. How would this do?"
And the woman brought forward a large, plain, black bonnet. "This is very genteel. I wear this kind myself."
"Yes, I'll take that one," said the Doctor. "And now I want a lady's veil--a heavy one, please."
"Oh, mourning in the family?"
"Er--not exactly. But I want it pretty thick--a traveling veil."
Then the woman added a veil to the Doctor's purchases. And with a large parcel under his arm he presently left the shop. Next, he went to a grocery and bought some dried herrings for Sophie --the only kind of fish he could obtain in the village. And about noon he started back down the road.
"Sophie," said John Dolittle, when he reached the seal's hiding place in the woods, "I have a whole lot of information for you, some food and some clothes."
"Some clothes!" said Sophie. "What would I do with clothes?"
"Wear them," said the Doctor. "You've got to be a lady--for a while, anyhow."
"Great heavens!" grunted Sophie, wiping her whiskers with the back of her flipper. "What for?"
"So as you can travel by coach," said the Doctor.
"But I can't walk upright," cried Sophie, "like a lady."
"I know. But you can sit upright--like a sick lady. You'll have to be a little lame. Any walking there is to be done, I'll carry you."
"But what about my face? It isn't the right shape."
"We'll cover that up with a veil." said the Doctor. "And your hat will disguise the rest of your head. Now, eat this fish I've brought you and then we will rehearse dressing you up. I hear that the Grantchester coach passes by here about eight o'clock--that is, the night one does; and we'll take that, because it's less crowded. Now, it's about a four hours' ride to Talbot's Bridge. During all that time you'll have to sit up on your tail and keep still. Do you think you can manage that?"
"I'll try," said Sophie.
"Perhaps you'll have a chance to lie down for a spell if we have the carriage to ourselves part of the way. Much will depend upon how crowded the coach is. It makes three stops between here and Talbot's Bridge. But being a night coach, I don't suppose it will take on many passengers--if we're lucky. Now, let me try these clothes on you and we'll see how you look."
Then the Doctor dressed up Sophie, the performing seal, like a lady. He seated her on a log, put the bonnet on her head, the veil across her face and the cloak over the rest of her.
After he had got her into a human sitting position on the log it was surprising how natural she looked. In the deep hood of the bonnet her long nose was entirely concealed; and with the veil hung over the front of it, her head looked extraordinarily like a woman's.
"You must be careful to keep your whiskers inside," he said. "That's very important. The cloak is quite long, you see--comes right down to the ground--and while you are seated and it's kept closed in the front it will look quite all right in a dim light. You can keep it drawn together with your flippers--so. Now, you look just as though you had your hands folded in your lap-- that's the idea, splendid! So long as you can stay that way no one would take you for anything but a lady passenger.--Oh, look out! Don't wiggle your head or the bonnet will fall off. Wait till I tie the ribbons under your chin."
"How am I supposed to breathe?" asked Sophie, blowing out the veil in front like a balloon.
"Don't do that," said the Doctor. "You're not swimming or coming up for air. You'll get used to it after a while."
"I can't keep very steady this way, Doctor. I'm sitting on the back of my spine, you know. It's an awfully hard position for balancing--much worse than walking on a ladder. What if I should slip down on to the floor of the coach?"
"The seat will be wider than this log and more comfortable. Besides, I'll try to get you into a corner and I'll sit close beside you--so you'll be sort of wedged in. If you feel yourself slipping just whisper to me and I'll hitch you up into a safer position. You look splendid--really, you do."
Well, after a little more practice and rehearsing the Doctor felt that Sophie could now pass as a lady passenger. And when evening came it found him by the edge of the road, with a heavily-veiled woman seated at his side, waiting for the Grantchester coach.