Kitabı oku: «The Story of Doctor Dolittle / История Доктора Дулиттла. Уровень 1»

© Смирнова А. И., адаптация, упражнения, словарь, 2023

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2023

The First Chapter
Puddleby

Once upon a time, many years ago, when our grandfathers were children, there was a doctor. His name was John Dolittle and he was a proper doctor who knew a lot.

He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All people in the townknew him well by sight¹. Whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, “There goes the Doctor! He’s a clever man.” And the dogs and the children would all run up and follow behind him. Even the crows from the church-tower would caw greeting him².

He lived in a small house on the edge of the town. Though the house was small, there was a large garden with a wide lawn and stone seats. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself.

He loved animals and kept many kinds of pets. He had rabbits in the food closet, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar. In the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had a gold-fish. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old horse. He also had chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the owl Too-Too.

His sister did not like all these animals and said they made the house untidy. One day when an old lady with pain in her joints visited the Doctor, she sat on the hedgehog who was sleeping on the sofa. She never came to see the doctor after that. The lady chose to drive every Saturday to another town and see a different doctor rather than to visit a house full of animals.

Then his sister, Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said,

“John, how can you expect sick people to come and see you when you keep all these animals in the house? Your room is full of hedgehogs and mice! That’s the fourth person who left because of that. Some say they wouldn’t come near your house again—no matter how sick they are. We are getting poorer every day. If you go on like this, none of the best people will have you for a doctor.”

“But I like the animals better than the ‘best people’,” said the Doctor.

“You are ridiculous,” said his sister, and walked out of the room.

So, as time went on, the Doctor got more and more animals; and the people who came to see him got less and less. At last, there was only one person left. It was a meat seller, who didn’t mind any kind of animals. But he wasn’t very rich and he only got sick once a year, at Christmas-time. Every visit he paid the doctor sixpence for a bottle of medicine.