By this time all the animals had heard Cheapside arriving and they came rushing in to see the traveler and to hear the news of Puddleby and England.
"How is the old horse in the stable?" asked John Dolittle.
"Pretty spry," said Cheapside. "Course 'e ain't as young as 'e used to be. But 'e's lively enough for an old 'un. 'E asked me to bring you a bunch of crimson ramblers—just bloomin' over the stable door, they was. But I says to 'im, I says, 'What d'yer take me for, an omnibus?' Fancy a feller at my time of life carrying a bunch of roses all the way down the Atlantic! Folks would think I was goin' to a weddin' at the South Pole."
"Gracious, Cheapside!" said the Doctor, laughing. "It makes me quite homesick for England to hear your Cockney chirp."
"And me, too," sighed Jip. "Were there many rats in the woodshed, Cheapside?"
"'Undreds of them," said the sparrow—"as big as rabbits. And that uppish you'd think they owned the place!"
"I'll soon settle them, when I get back," said Jip. "I hope we go soon."
"How does the garden look, Cheapside?" asked the Doctor.
"A1," said the sparrow. "Weeds in the paths, o' course. But the iris under the kitchen window looked something lovely, they did."
"Anything new in London?" asked the white mouse who was also city bred.