About a month later, Dr. Dolittle reached Puddleby.
"Puddleby! It's good to be home!" the doctor let out a long sigh.
"Home sweet home!" shouted Gub-Gub.
"I can't wait to see everyone," Dab-Dab said excitedly.
They walked slowly back to the house.
"Everything looks the same," remarked Gub-Gub.
"Puddleby will never change," added Dr. Dolittle.
"Dr. Dolittle?" A horse pulled his glasses closer.
"Oh, hello! How are you?" the doctor asked pleasantly.
The horse could not speak for a while.
"We thought you left Puddleby!" he finally said.
"No, no. We went on a . . . ," Dr. Dolittle paused, "an adventure."
Finally, they arrived at the house.
"Welcome to your new home," the doctor said to the pushmi-pullyu.
"Thank you. It's very nice," the creature replied.
Suddenly the doors opened.
"Dr. Dolittle! Dr. Dolittle!" shouted all the animals that had stayed behind.
Dr. Dolittle spent hours telling them about the trip.
"Psst! What's that?" the cow whispered to Dab-Dab.
"That's the pushmi-pullyu, the rarest animal in the world," the duck answered.
"It's got two heads!" the rabbit said too loudly.
"SSSHHH!" the other animals said to the rabbit.
Before long, everyone in Puddleby heard of Dr. Dolittle's return.
They also heard he brought a two-headed animal from Africa.
Dr. Dolittle put up a sign that read, "The rarest animal in the world!
Look but don't touch!"
At first the pushmi-pullyu was very uncomfortable.
But soon he didn't mind people looking at him.
People from the circus wanted to buy him.
"See?" said Dab-Dab.
"Everybody wants you!"
Dr. Dolittle didn't want more money.
He had more than enough.
"Money," he sighed, "what a headache.
But it's nice not to have to worry."
Dr. Dolittle visited the sailor who had given him the boat.
"I'm sorry about your boat," he apologized.
The kind sailor said, "That's okay, Doctor.
I'm glad you're home safely."
But then the doctor surprised him.
Dr. Dolittle gave the sailor not one, but two boats.
One of them was the Barbary ship.
"Oh, thank you so much!" cried the sailor.
"Without your help, we could never have gone to Africa," Dr. Dolittle shook the sailor's hand.
Dr. Dolittle also bought a new piano.
"Now you can move out of my drawers," he told the happy mice, "and back inside the piano."
Every day was filled with joy, now that Dr. Dolittle was back.
Dr. Dolittle continued to take care of other people's animals.
But he was happiest at home with his pets.
Every night the kind animal doctor fell asleep smiling to himself.
And every night he dreamt about his next adventure.
[caption_out@