Part IV Chapter 8 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
THE RETIRED CAB AND WAGON HORSES' ASSOCIATION
Now, the farmer who owned the land which the Doctor wished to buy was, at the moment when John Dolittle knocked upon his door, sitting at his parlor table talking to Toggle's farmer. He was sorely in need of twenty pounds to buy seed potatoes with. But Toggle's farmer, with many apologies, had been compelled to refuse him because he himself was very short of money at this time. It was this conversation which the Doctor's call interrupted.
The farmer was very hospitable and invited John Dolittle to come in and sit down at the table with his other guest. Mugs of fragrant cider were brought in by the host's wife. Then the Doctor described the piece of ground which Toggle had shown him and asked if it was for sale. And as it was one which the farmer seldom used he immediately said yes, it was. For how much, the Doctor asked. For one hundred and twenty pounds, the farmer told him.
"Well," said the Doctor. "I only have twenty-six pounds at present. Suppose I gave you that down and promised to pay the rest in twenty-pound installments every six months: would you let me have it?"
The farmer, seeing a chance of getting his seed potatoes, was going to agree at once, but the other, Toggle's farmer, broke into the conversation.
"What be you going to use the land for, stranger?" he asked. "You ain't thinkin' of puttin' up no glue factory, I hope."
"Oh, no," said the Doctor. "I want to make it into a rest farm for old horses--just a grazing ground. Practically nothing will be altered."
The two farmers thought the stranger must be crazy. But, as he and the plan he proposed seemed harmless enough, they readily gave in.
"By the way," said the Doctor, still speaking to Toggle's owner, "you have a friend of mine at your farm, a plow horse; he wears spectacles which I gave him years ago when he lived in Puddleby."
"Oh, aye," said the farmer. "I know 'un--Toggle. A queer beast, that. 'E wouldn't be parted from them specs for anything. What about 'im?"
"He is too old to work, isn't he?" said the Doctor. "You let him graze now most of the time, I understand. He wishes to use this same pasture with the horse I have brought to-day. Will you let him?"
"That I will," said the farmer. "But how come you to know all this about my cattle?"
"Oh, well," said the Doctor, looking sort of embarrassed, "I have ways of my own knowing what horses want. I'm a naturalist."
"Sounds like you was an unnaturalist to me," said the farmer, winking at his neighbor.
After a little discussion on how the first money would be sent, the bargain was closed and the Doctor was told that now, so long as his part of the arrangement was fulfilled, the land belonged to him.
"Not to me," he said as he rose and bade the farmers farewell. "The land belongs to the Association. I am turning it over to the horses themselves."
Having inquired of his host where he could find a carpenter, the Doctor left. And when, a half hour later, the two farmers walked across the field together they saw the strange naturalist and the carpenter busily putting up a large signboard in the middle of the pasture. On it was written in big letters:
REST FARM
THIS LAND IS THE PROPERTY OF THE RETIRED
CAB AND WAGON HORSES' ASSOCIA TION.
TRESPASSERS AND VICIOUS DOGS
WILL BE KICKED.
BY ORDER,
( Signed, on behalf of the Committee.)
BEPPO, President.
TOGGLE, Vice-President.
NOTE--MEMBERSHIP FREE
FOR ADMISSION APPLY AT THE GATE
Well, after seeing the first two members of "The Association" enter into possession of their new quarters, John Dolittle bade Beppo and Toggle farewell and set off on his return journey.
As he passed down the road he looked back many times to watch the two old veterans prancing around their beautiful new home. The sight warmed his heart and he smiled as he hurried on.
"I'm not sure," he murmured to himself, "but I think that is almost the best job I ever did. Poor creatures! They are happy at last, growing young again after a life of hard work. I must establish some more institutions like that. I've one or two in mind. The Rat and Mouse Club, for instance. I'd like to see that started. Of course, I shall get in a frightful row over this from Dab-Dab when she finds out that I've spent all the money again. Oh, well, it's worth it. I'll send some London cab horses down to join them as soon as I get to the city again. Humph!"--(the Doctor paused and looked back)--"There they are--at it still--Beppo rolling down the hill and Toggle splashing through the brook.--Great heavens! I forgot all about the radishes. Why didn't Beppo remind me?"
He hurried back. On the way he met a lad playing in the road. Questioning him, he found he was the son of a farmer who had sold the land.
"Would you like to earn a shilling a week?" asked the Doctor.
"I'd like to earn a shilling a month," said the boy. "I want to save up and buy some skates for next winter. I've only got ninepence so far."
"Do you know how to grow radishes?"
"Yes," answered the boy. "That's easy. They're about the only thing I can grow."
"Very good," said John Dolittle. "Now, you see that meadow where the horses are--and the shelter at the bottom? Well, I've just bought that land from your father. It's to be a home for horses. If you'll plant me a radish bed behind the shelter, the white kind, you know, I'll pay you a shilling a week for keeping it in order. Are you willing?"
"I should say I am, Sir!" cried the boy.
"All right. Here's your first shilling--and here's a penny to buy a packet of seed with. I appoint you head gardener to the Rest Farm. You're now on the payroll of the Retired Cab and Wagon Horses' Association. Make the radish bed fairly big, because I may be sending down some more horses later. When the radishes are ripe, you make them up into bunches and hand them out to the members twice a week. And don't forget to plant new seed every so often, to keep up the supply. Understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"Now give me your Christian name," said the Doctor, "and I'll send you your wages every week. And if you should have to leave your job--to go away or anything--get your father to write me a letter. He knows how to reach me."
The boy, pleased as Punch with his good luck, gave the Doctor his name, took his money and ran off to get a spade and fork and start his new work.
"Well, so that's that," the Doctor murmured as he hurried on toward Bridgeton. "Now, I must try to think out a way to break the news gently to Dab-Dab that our money-box is emptied again."
The Rest Farm which the Doctor established that day continued to flourish and grow for many years. And another worry was added to the many which harassed Dab-Dab, the careful housekeeper. For not only had the Doctor bound himself to send the farmer twenty pounds every six months, but he further reduced the Dolittle fortunes by buying, every once in a while, some specially old and weary horse which he would meet on the streets. He bought them from cab drivers, from rag-and-bone men, from all sorts of people. Poor Dab-Dab used to be terrified when she saw a gypsy wagon come in sight on the road. For gypsies' horses were always particularly thin and scrawny-looking, and it was almost certain that the Doctor would try to buy the poor creatures from men who were much better skilled than he in shrewd bargaining.
All these old waifs and wrecks of horses the Doctor would send down to the Rest Farm to be made free members of the Association. Beppo's and Toggle's partnership grew into quite a family circle of old cronies--horses from all walks of life. And many were the interesting tales of bygone days told beneath the big trees of an evening or around the post on top of the hill. Here the old fellows would stand in line, waiting to scratch their necks, watching the beauty of the peaceful landscape grow dim in the red glow of the setting sun.
And still the membership list grew longer and longer. The boy who kept the radish garden sent a letter to the Doctor, saying he had had to enlarge the bed and needed help. He had a school friend, he wrote, who was also saving up to buy skates. Would the Doctor employ him too?
The Doctor did; and the payroll of the Association advanced to two shillings a week. John Dolittle paid a visit to the farm after it had been going for about three months. On consulting with the committee (five of the oldest veterans), he found that money was required for repairing fences and keeping the ditches clear beneath the hedges. Some of the members needed their hoofs trimmed (they didn't bother to wear shoes, of course). So he arranged with the lad he had first appointed as gardener to extend the radish bed considerably, in order that quite a large crop of vegetables could be grown--more than was needed for the members.
The lad had a good head for business and this was done; and two more friends of his were employed for the extra work. Then the money that was made by selling the vegetables was used to form a "Fencing and Farriers' Fund,"--to hire hedgers and ditchers and blacksmiths every so often to keep the fences in repair and to trim the members' hoofs.
Paying the extra boys, of course, took still more from the Dolittle money box--and added still more to the worries of Dab-Dab the housekeeper.
"What's the use?" cried Too-Too one evening when they were discussing accounts--"what's the use of my doing all this double-entry bookkeeping--making my head fairly ache with arithmetic? It doesn't do any good to calculate how much the Doctor has--or to estimate how much he's going to have. No matter what it is, he spends it all!"