Hugh Lofting: Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary

'When finally the workmen came in sight they were certainly a strange army to behold. You never saw such a ragged, half–starved, wild–looking lot. At first they were afraid they might be fired on from the battlements and windows. And they approached cautiously, keeping within the cover of the woods.

'When the workmen saw there was no danger they gathered in hundreds and thousands in front of the castle, howling and swearing and singing songs, waving hammers and pitchforks. Some of the servants came out to join them. But the butler, an old, old man, who had the keys, was determined to defend his master's property to the last. He locked the doors and barred the windows and would let no one in.

'But the leader of the workmen sent for a heavy beam. And with this as a battering–ram they soon beat in the main door, drove the old butler out and had the place to themselves.

'Then a crazy feast of destruction began. Bottles and barrels of wine were hauled up from the cellar, opened on the lawn and drunk by the workmen. Costly silks, hangings, clocks and furniture were thrown from the windows. Anything of value that wasn't smashed was stolen. They didn't come up the tower stairs as high as my room, but I could hear them in the rooms below me, laughing and roaring and breaking things with hammers.

'Looking downwards into the castle forecourt again I saw the leader calling to everyone to leave the buildings. I heard the men in the rooms below mine go clattering down the stairs. Soon I was the only one left in the castle. I wondered what this new move meant. When they were all gathered about him outside I saw the leader raise his hand for silence. He was going to tell them something. As the crazy mob grew quiet I strained my ears to catch his words. I heard them. And they almost made my heart stand still. For he was ordering them to bring straw from the stables and oil from the cellars. They were going to set the castle on fire!'

It was now quite late—long after midnight—and Pippinella's story still seemed far from being finished. The Doctor was by this time so thoroughly absorbed and interested that it is not likely he would have thought of the time at all had not the sudden neighing of one of the horses from the nearby stables reminded him that the circus must open to the public at ten o'clock, as usual, tomorrow morning, and that he must be up to see it upon. So, in spite of the protests of Gub–Gub (who dearly loved, you will remember, any excuse for staying up late), the green canary was put in her cage and the Dolittle family circle was packed off to bed. But this was not done before a promise had been obtained from the Doctor that, without fail, the story should be continued the following evening.

The following evening, after the crowds had left the circus enclosure and the sideshows had been closed up and everything put in shipshape for the night, Too–Too went over the accounts with the Doctor before supper, instead of after, so as to leave the evening free for the continuation of Pippinella's story. And as soon as Dab–Dab had cleared away the supper things the door of the little green canary's cage was opened and she flew down on to the table and took her seat on the Doctor's tobacco box.

'All right,' said John Dolittle, opening his notebook and taking a pencil from his pocket. 'As soon as you are ready—'

'Just a minute,' said Gub–Gub. 'My chair's too low, I must get a cushion. I don't listen well when I'm not sitting high.'

'Fussbox!' snorted Dab–Dab.

'Well,' Pippinella began, 'you can imagine how I felt—or rather you can't imagine it. No one could without bearing in my shoes. I really thought my last hour had come. I watched the crowd below in fascinated horror. I saw groups of men running between the front entrance of the castle and the stable, bearing bales of straw. These they piled against the great oak door, and some more inside the main hall, all along the wooden panelling that ran around the room. Then they brought up from the cellar jugs of oil, cans of oil, barrels of oil. They soaked the straw with this and threw more of it over the long curtains that were floating from the open windows in front of the castle.

'Then I saw the leader going around, getting all his men out of the building before he set fire to it. He sent some off singly down into the woods—to be on the lookout for anyone's approach, I suppose. He was probably afraid of the soldier's coming. For a moment there was a strange awed silence while the match was being put to the straw. It was clear that they all realized the seriousness of the crime they were committing. But as the bonfire flared up, sudden and bright, within the hall, a fiendish roar of delight broke from the ragged crew. And, joining hands in a great ring, they danced a wild jig around the burning home of the man they hated.

'What horses were left in the stables had been taken out and tethered in safety among the trees some distance away. Even the Marquis's dogs, a Russian wolf–hound and a King Charles spaniel, had been rescued and led out before the straw was lit. I alone had been overlooked. After the flame had taken well hold of the great oak doors and fire and smoke barred all admittance, some of the men at last caught sight of me, high up on the tower wall. For I saw several pointing up. But if they had wanted to save me then it was too late. The panelling, the doors, the floors, the stairs, everything of wood in the lower part of the building was now a seething, roaring mass of flame.

'Waves of hot air, clouds of choking smoke, flurries of burning sparks swirled upwards around my silver cage. The smoke was the worst. At first I thought I would surely be suffocated long before I was burned.

'But luckily, soon after the fire started a fitful breeze began. And every once in a while, when I thought I had reached my last gasp, the wind would sweep the rising smoke away to the side and give me a chance to breathe again.

'I pecked and tugged at the bars of my cage. Although I knew there wasn't the least possibility of my getting out, like a drowning man I still hoped that a lucky chance would show me something loose or weak enough to bend or break. But soon I saw I was merely wasting my strength in struggling. Then I started calling to whatever wild birds I saw flying in the neighbourhood. But the swirling smoke terrified them so they were afraid to venture close. And, even if they had, I doubt if there would have been anything they could have done to help me.

'From my position I could see inside the tower through the open window, as well as down on to the woods and all around outside. And presently, as I peered into the room, wondering if any help could come from that quarter, I saw a mouse run out into the middle of the floor in a great state of excitement.

'"Where's the smoke coming from?" she cried. "What's burning?"

'"The castle's on fire," I said. "Come up here and see if you can gnaw a hole through this cage of mine. I'm going to be roasted if somebody doesn't let me out."

'"What do you think I am," she said, "a pair of pliers or a file? I can't eat through silver. Besides I've got a family of five children down in my hole under the floor. I must look after them."

'She ran to the door, muttering to herself, and disappeared down the winding stair. In a minute she was back again.

'"I can't take them that way," she said. "Below the third landing the whole staircase is burning."

'She sprang up on to the window–sill. It's funny how little details, in moments of great distress, stick in your mind. I remember exactly how she looked, not six inches from the wall of my cage, this tiny creature gazing over the lip of the stone window–sill, down from that tremendous height into the garden and the tree–tops far below. Her whiskers trembled and her nose twitched at the end. She wasn't concerned about me, shut up and powerless to escape—though goodness knows she had stolen my food often enough. All she was thinking of was those wretched little brats of hers in the nest beneath the floor.