第18章

The children were all laughing and shouting.And certainly the woman they were following was most extraordinary.She had very long arms and the most stooping shoulders I have ever seen.She wore a straw hat on the side of her head with poppies on it; and her skirt was so long for her it dragged on the ground like a ball-gown's train.I could not see anything of her face because of the wide hat pulled over her eyes.But as she got nearer to us and the laughing of the children grew louder, I noticed that her hands were very dark in color, and hairy, like a witch's.

Then all of a sudden Dab-Dab at my side startled me by crying out in a loud voice,"Why, it's Chee-Chee!--Chee-Chee come back at last! How dare those children tease him! I'll give the little imps something to laugh at!"And she flew right off the wall down into the road and made straight for the children, squawking away in a most terrifying fashion and pecking at their feet and legs.The children made off down the street back to the town as hard as they could run.

The strange-looking figure in the straw hat stood gazing after them a moment and then came wearily up to the gate.It didn't bother to undo the latch but just climbed right over the gate as though it were something in the way.And then I noticed that it took hold of the bars with its feet, so that it really had four hands to climb with.But it was only when I at last got a glimpse of the face under the hat that I could be really sure it was a monkey.

Chee-Chee--for it was he--frowned at me suspiciously from the top of the gate, as though he thought I was going to laugh at him like the other boys and girls.Then he dropped into the garden on the inside and immediately started taking off his clothes.He tore the straw hat in two and threw it down into the road.Then he took off his bodice and skirt, jumped on them savagely and began kicking them round the front garden.

Presently I heard a screech from the house, and out flew Polynesia, followed by the Doctor and Jip.

"Chee-Chee!--Chee-Chee!" shouted the parrot."You've come at last! I always told the Doctor you'd find a way.How ever did you do it?"They all gathered round him shaking him by his four hands, laughing and asking him a million questions at once.Then they all started back for the house.

"Run up to my bedroom, Stubbins," said the Doctor, turning to me."You'll find a bag of peanuts in the small left-hand drawer of the bureau.I have always kept them there in case he might come back unexpectedly some day.And wait a minute--see if Dab-Dab has any bananas in the pan- try.Chee-Chee hasn't had a banana, he tells me, in two months."When I came down again to the kitchen I found everybody listening attentively to the monkey who was telling the story of his journey from Africa.

THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER

CHEE-CHEE'S VOYAGE

IT seems that after Polynesia had left, Chee-Chee had grown more homesick than ever for the Doctor and the little house in Puddleby.At last he had made up his mind that by hook or crook he would follow her.And one day, going down to the seashore, he saw a lot of people, black and white, getting on to a ship that was coming to England.He tried to get on too.But they turned him back and drove him away.And presently he noticed a whole big family of funny people passing on to the ship.And one of the children in this family reminded Chee-Chee of a cousin of his with whom he had once been in love.So he said to himself, "That girl looks just as much like a monkey as I look like a girl.If I could only get some clothes to wear I might easily slip on to the ship amongst these families, and people would take me for a girl.Good idea!"So he went off to a town that was quite close, and hopping in through an open window he found a skirt and bodice lying on a chair.They belonged to a fashionable black lady who was taking a bath.Chee-Chee put them on.Next he went back to the seashore, mingled with the crowd there and at last sneaked safely on to the big ship.Then he thought he had better hide, for fear people might look at him too closely.And he stayedhidden all the time the ship was sailing to England--only coming out at night, when everybody was asleep, to find food.

When he reached England and tried to get off the ship, the sailors saw at last that he was only a monkey dressed up in girl's clothes; and they wanted to keep him for a pet.But he managed to give them the slip; and once he was on shore, he dived into the crowd and got away.But he was still a long distance from Puddleby and had to come right across the whole breadth of England.

He had a terrible time of it.Whenever he passed through a town all the children ran after him in a crowd, laughing; and often silly people caught hold of him and tried to stop him, so that he had to run up lamp-posts and climb to chimney-pots to escape from them.At night he used to sleep in ditches or barns or anywhere he could hide; and he lived on the berries he picked from the hedges and the cob-nuts that grew in the copses.At length, after many adventures and narrow squeaks, he saw the tower of Puddleby Church and he knew that at last he was near his old home.When Chee- Chee had finished his story he ate six bananas without stopping and drank a whole bowlful of milk.