The Story of Dr Dolittle / История доктора Дулиттла. 5 класс
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When they came to the beach they saw Polynesia and Chee-Chee – they were on the rocks near the ship.
“I feel sorry about Bumpo,” said the Doctor. “I am afraid that medicine which I used will never last. I think he will be black again when he wakes up in the morning. But he MIGHT stay white – that was a new mixture. Poor Bumpo! I think I will send him some candy when I get to Puddleby. And who knows? – he may stay white after all.”
Then the pushmi-pullyu, the white mouse, Gub-Gub, Dab-Dab, Jip and the owl, Too-Too, went onto the ship with the Doctor. But Chee-Chee, Polynesia and the crocodile stayed behind, because Africa was their home, the land where they were born. And when the Doctor stood upon the boat, he remembered that they had no one with them to guide them back to Puddleby. But then they heard a strange noise, high in the air. The noise became louder and bigger. And Jip said, “Birds! – millions of them!” And then they all looked up. And there they could see thousands and thousands of little birds. And soon all these birds came down. The Doctor could see that they had blue wings and white breasts. And then John Dolittle said, “These are the swallows. They are going back because it will be summer when we get home. Swallows, I thank you! Now we will not lose our way. Pull up the anchor and set the sail!”
The Thirteenth Chapter
Red Sails and Blue Wings
The Doctor’s ship had to pass the coast of Barbary. This coast is the seashore of the Great Desert. It is a wild, lonely place – all sand and stones. And the Barbary pirates lived there. And if they saw a boat, they came out in their fast ships and chased it. When they caught a boat like this at sea, they stole everything on it, took the people off, sank the boat and sailed back to Barbary. Then they made the people from the boat write home to their friends for money. And if the friends didn’t send any money, the pirates often threw the people into the sea.
Now one sunny day the Doctor and Dab-Dab were on the ship, walking up and down for exercise; there was a nice fresh wind, and everybody was happy. Soon Dab-Dab saw the sail of another ship a long way behind them. It was a red sail. “I don’t like that sail. I have a feeling it isn’t a friendly ship,” said Dab-Dab. Jip, who was near, began to growl. “I smell bad men,” he growled – “I smell trouble. I smell a fight – six bad men are fighting against one brave man. I want to help him. Woof – oo – WOOF!” Then he barked loudly.
“See!” cried Dab-Dab. “That boat is nearer now. You can count its three big sails – all red. They are coming after us…. Who are they?”
“They are bad sailors,” said Jip; “and their ship is very swift. They are the pirates of Barbary.”
Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows that pirates were after them in a swift ship. When the swallows heard this, they all came down onto the Doctor’s ship. They told him to separate a long thick rope into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he could. Then the Doctor and the animals tied the ends of these strings to the front of the ship; and the swallows took the strings with their feet and flew off, pulling the boat along. Altogether there were two thousand swallows. And then the Doctor’s ship traveled really fast. And all the animals on the ship began to laugh and dance, because the pirates’ ship was now far, far behind.
The Fourteenth Chapter
The Rats’ War
After two or three hours the swallows began to get tired. And they needed to take a rest soon; so they pulled the boat to an island and hid it in a deep bay till they could continue the flight. The island had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it. The Doctor decided to look for water. And he told all the animals to walk on the grass.
Then the Doctor noticed a lot of rats leaving the ship. Jip started to run after them, but the Doctor told him to stop. And one big black rat said,
“Do you know, Doctor, that all ships have rats in them?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor.
“Do you know that rats always leave a sinking ship?” asked the rat.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, “I do.”
“So I want to tell you that we are leaving this ship. This ship isn’t safe. The sides aren’t strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Soon it will sink to the bottom of the sea.”
“But how do you know?” asked the Doctor.
“We always know,” answered the rat. “The tips of our tails start tingling then. It’s a bad ship, Doctor. Don’t sail in it any more. Good-bye! We are now going to look for a good place to live on this island.”
“Good-bye!” said the Doctor. “And thank you very much.”
So then the Doctor and all his animals went to look for water on the island, while the swallows took their rest.
“What is the name of this island?” said the Doctor, climbing up the mountainside. “It seems a pleasant place. What a lot of birds there are!”
“These are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”
The Doctor stopped and listened. “Of course!” he said. And soon the canaries came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, clear water and showed green meadows. And the pushmi-pullyu was glad because he liked the green grass very much. A little later, when they were full, they lay on their backs and the canaries started singing for them. Suddenly two of the swallows came to them.
“Doctor!” they cried, “the pirates are in the bay; and they are on your ship. They are looking for things to steal. There is nobody on their ship now. If you hurry and come down to the shore, you can get onto their ship and escape. But please hurry.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the Doctor – “splendid!” And he called his animals together at once, said Good-bye to the canaries and ran down to the beach. When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails, and there was nobody on it; all the pirates were downstairs in the Doctor’s ship, looking for things to steal. So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all crept onto the pirate-ship.
The Fifteenth Chapter
The Barbary Dragon
They pulled up the anchor without a sound, and moved the ship very, very carefully out of the bay. But suddenly Gub-Gub sneezed so loudly that the pirates on the other ship rushed upstairs to see what the noise was. As soon as they saw that the Doctor was on their ship, they sailed the other boat and blocked the entrance to the bay so that the Doctor could not get out into the open sea. Then the leader of these bad men (who called himself “Ben Ali, The Dragon”) shook his fist at the Doctor [24] and shouted, “Ha! Ha! You are trapped, [25] my fine friend! You were going to run off in my ship, eh? But you are not a good enough sailor to beat Ben Ali, the Barbary Dragon. I want your duck and your pig too. We’ll have pork chops and roast duck for supper tonight. And before I let you go home, your friends must send me a trunk – full of gold.”
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погрозил
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Ты в ловушке
Poor Gub-Gub began to weep. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor, “Let him talk, Doctor. Be pleasant to him. Our old ship will sink soon – the rats said so – and the rats are never wrong. Let him talk.”
“Look here, Ben Ali —” But before the Doctor could say any more, the pirates began to sail the ship nearer and they laughed. Poor Gub-Gub was really frightened. But soon something went wrong with the pirates; they stopped laughing; they looked puzzled. Then Ben Ali suddenly shouted, “Thunder and Lightning! – Men, THE BOAT’S LEAKING!” And then the other pirates saw that the boat started getting lower and lower in the water.