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Chunky, the Happy Hippo

<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X CHUNKY IN THE CIRCUS</h2> Chunky began to feel quite happy again. He felt that these were more like the times when he had been in the jungle. But he did not open his mouth to smile or to laugh, and there was a very good reason for this. If he had opened his mouth, as he was swimming in the stormy ocean, he would have swallowed a lot of salty water, and he did not want to do that. So he kept his mouth closed tightly, and his nose holes also, whenever a wave broke over him, which often happened. “Yes, I’ll swim back to shore and go to my jungle again,” thought Chunky to himself. “I guess I don’t want to be in a circus, even if Tum Tum said it was so jolly. I’m glad my cage fell and broke so I could get out.” So Chunky began to swim. I have told you that hippos are very good swimmers and divers in the water, and Chunky was one of the best. Even if his legs were very short, he knew how to use them to paddle himself through the ocean waves, and he was soon swimming in fine style. [92] At first Chunky liked it, but, after awhile, he became tired. “I wonder how much farther away the shore is,” thought Chunky. “I ought to be there pretty soon. And I wonder if I can get down to the bottom of this big pond of water and dig up some grass roots to eat. I guess I’ll try that.” Taking a long breath, so he would not have to come up to breathe for about ten minutes, Chunky let himself sink under the waves. Down and down he went, quite a distance in the ocean, but he did not come to the bottom. That was more than a mile down, and quite too far for Chunky to sink. As he was floating around in the water, big fish brushed by him, and tried to talk to him, but he could not understand what they said. They were asking him what kind of fish he was, and, of course, he was not a fish at all! Then, all of a sudden, a big shark, with a large mouth and very sharp teeth, made a rush for Chunky, intending to bite him. “My!” thought the hippo. “This is as bad as the crocodile! I must get away from here!” He began swimming toward the top as fast as he could go, and the shark for some reason or other, not liking to go too near the surface, stopped following Chunky. For two or three hours Chunky swam about in[93] the ocean, and by that time the storm had commenced to die down. The wind did not blow so hard and the rain did not come down so heavily. The waves, too, were not so large. “But it’s queer I don’t get to shore,” thought Chunky. He did not know what a big place the ocean was, especially when one falls overboard in the middle of it, as the young hippo had done. Chunky was beginning to feel tired now. He raised his head as far out of the water as he could, and looked all about him. Afar off he saw a black speck, and he remembered, once, when he had swum far out in the jungle river, and looked back, the shore had seemed to him but a black speck. “That must be the shore,” thought Chunky. “I’ll swim toward that. Then I’ll be all right.” So Chunky swam toward the black speck, which, though it got larger, did not seem large enough for the shore. And then Chunky noticed a queer thing. When he stopped swimming, which he did now and then to rest his legs, the black speck seemed to be coming toward him. And then, all at once, a lot of black smoke came out of the black speck and Chunky knew what it was. It was the very ship off which he had fallen earlier in the day during the storm. “Well,” thought Chunky to himself, “if I can’t get to shore, and it doesn’t seem as if I was[94] going to, I suppose I may as well go back to that floating house. At least I can rest there, and, even if I have to go to the circus, maybe it will be as jolly as Tum Tum said it would be. Yes, I’ll go back to the ship.” At first, those on the steamer knew nothing of Chunky’s swimming about in the ocean. They knew he had fallen overboard when his cage fell and broke, but, if they thought any more about it, they must have thought the hippo was drowned. And so there was much surprise when one of the sailors cried: “I see something in the water! It looks like a big, black pig!” “A black pig!” exclaimed the captain. “More likely it’s a shark or a whale!” However, the captain had the ship steered toward Chunky, where he was swimming, and then, looking through a telescope, the captain saw what really was in the water, and cried: “Why, there’s that hippo we lost overboard! Get ready, men, and we’ll hoist him on deck again! Lower a boat.” The ship was steered close to Chunky where he floated in the water. Then a rowboat was lowered, with some sailors in it, carrying ropes to put about the hippo and hoist him on deck again. Of course Chunky might have dived down, and, keeping under water, out of sight,[95] he could have swum far away. But he was tired, and quite ready to go back on deck again. The small boat came close to him. At first some of the sailors were afraid, and one called: “Look out that he doesn’t open his big mouth and bite our boat in two!” “Oh, he won’t do that!” said one of the animal men, who was in the rowboat with the sailors. “This hippo is very good-natured and happy.” And Chunky showed that he was by letting the sailors put ropes around him in the water, for they could not lift him out unless they did this. Once the ropes were fastened about Chunky, he was towed to the side of the ship, and there, by means of a derrick, he was hoisted on deck again. “There you are!” cried the animal man. “I’m glad to get you back again, Chunky.” And so Chunky had fallen overboard and got back on the ship again, for the vessel had not moved far from the spot where, in the storm, the hippo had slid off the deck. Chunky was so tired from his swim, and from having been in the water so long, that he was very easy to handle. He made no trouble at all, though he had been wild in the jungle only a few weeks before, and had never seen a man, white[96] or black. He was put in another cage, and then the ship kept on, for the storm was over. “Oh, so you are back with us again!” cried Gimpy, when he saw Chunky. “Yes,” was the answer. “I started to swim to shore, but it was too far. I got tired, and then I saw this ship and swam toward it. I am glad to be back.” “And we are glad to have you back,” said Short Tooth. “We were lonesome without you. Now tell us about your adventure.” “I didn’t have any adventure,” said Chunky, in surprise. “Yes you did!” declared a monkey in the cage next to Chunky’s. “Falling overboard was an adventure. I’ve heard Tum Tum tell about his adventures, and some that Mappo, the merry monkey, had, and some of them were no more exciting than yours. Tell us about it.” “Well, I didn’t suppose that was an adventure,” said Chunky. “But I’ll tell you about it,” and he did, just as it is set down in this book, which tells many more of Chunky’s adventures. “Well,” said the lion, who had listened to Chunky’s tale, “if I ever get off this ship I’ll never come back.” “Maybe you’ll be glad to,” said the happy hippo. “I was.” [97] So the ship steamed on and on with its load of wild animals. There were one or two other storms, but they did no damage, and no more cages slid overboard. Another and larger tank was built for the hippos on deck, and in this they took long baths each day. The animal men, for there were several of them, would come around to feed and talk to the different beasts. One special man always came to the hippos, and they learned to know him and watch for him, for he brought them long, yellow sweet vegetables every day. They were carrots, of which the hippos grew very fond, though they never had had any in the jungle. “Why are you so good to the hippos?” one of the sailors asked this animal man one day. “I want them to know and like me,” he answered. “Then I can teach them a few tricks to do when they are in the circus.” “Ho! Ho!” laughed the sailor. “What tricks can a great, big clumsy hippo do?” “Well, not very many, it is true,” admitted the animal man. “Not as many as an elephant. But maybe I can teach Chunky to do a few.” The animal man seemed to like Chunky a little better than he did the other two hippos, though he was kind to all three. Perhaps he saw that Chunky was a little smarter than Gimpy or Short Tooth. [98] After many days of steaming the ship came, at last, to a big city. Chunky did not know it was a city, but he knew it was quite different from his jungle. There were only a few trees here and there, and he could see no rivers with nice, muddy, oozy banks on which he might sleep. And it was very noisy, not at all like the jungle, where the only noises were the wind blowing in the trees, the howling of animals, the chatter of the monkeys, and the songs and screechings of birds. With the other animals, some of them still seasick, and most of them very lonesome for the forest or jungle they had left, Chunky was hoisted off the ship in his cage and put on a big wagon. He was drawn through the city, but he could see nothing of it, for his cage was covered with a big sheet of canvas, such as tents are made of. Then Chunky was taken to a large building, where his cage was set down among those containing Gimpy, Short Tooth, the lion, the monkeys and others. “What place are we in now?” asked Chunky of the monkey who knew Mappo and Tum Tum. “Is this the circus?” “No, I guess it is just the beginning of it,” was the answer. “Tum Tum said the circus was a jolly place. This isn’t!” [99] And it was not, for it was just a sort of barn, or storehouse, where the animals were kept until they were sold to circuses or park menageries. For more than a month Chunky stayed in this animal barn. Every day he could go into a tank, specially made for him and the other hippos, and have a nice swim, though not for very far. And every day Chunky had grass or hay or bran-mash to eat, with carrots, apples and other fruit. In fact he had much nicer things to eat than he had had in the jungle, and he liked them very much. One day the man who looked after Chunky, feeding him and seeing that the hippo had plenty of water to drink and swim in, came to the cage, looked in, and said: “I think you are tame enough now, to be taught a trick or two.” “You can’t teach a hippo tricks!” said another man. “They are too clumsy to stand on their heads.” “Well, I wouldn’t teach this one that kind of trick,” returned the first man. “But I think I can get him to open his mouth wide when I tell him to, and I’ll teach him to raise one leg and stand on only three. They are not very hard tricks, but they will be something for the circus, if ever we sell Chunky to one.” [100] Of course Chunky did not understand this talk, nor did he know what the man wanted when he stood in front of him and said: “Open your mouth, Chunky! Open your mouth!” Chunky did not open his mouth until he got ready, which was when he wanted to take a bite of hay. And then, as he opened it wide, the man, all of a sudden, gave Chunky some carrots, which he liked very much. “Every time you open your mouth wide when I tell you to, I’ll give you some carrots,” the man said. Chunky did not understand this talk, either, but he soon came to know that each time he opened his jaws as wide as he could when the man was standing in front of him and making that, to Chunky, queer noise, he would get one of the long, sweet, yellow vegetables; so, after a while, all the man had to say was: “Open wide, Chunky!” Then the jaws would open like a big window, and you could look down Chunky’s throat, which seemed to be lined with red flannel. “Ha!” cried the man. “Chunky has learned to do a trick! Now he is ready for a circus.” And so Chunky was, for, besides learning to do the mouth trick, the hippo had learned to be gentle, and not to try to bite the man who fed[101] him, knowing the man would not hurt him, but would be kind to him. The man could go into the cage with Chunky and pat him on the head, and Chunky rather liked that. Then, one day something new happened to the hippo, who was quite happy once more; happier than he had been in the jungle. Some men brought a new, small cage up beside Chunky’s big one, in which he stayed with Short Tooth and Gimpy, and Chunky was gently pushed into the small cage. He went readily enough, for he saw a pile of carrots in the small cage. Once inside, the door was shut and the cage was wheeled away. “Oh! are you going to leave us?” asked Gimpy. “Why, it seems so!” replied Chunky, rather surprised. “Where are they taking you?” asked Short Tooth. “I don’t know,” answered Chunky. “I can tell you,” said an old elephant, who had lived in the animal house many years. “You have been sold to a circus, Chunky, and they are taking you there.” And so it happened. The next day Chunky found himself in a circus, but what happened to him there I’ll save for the next chapter. <hr class="chap" /> [102] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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