“Why aren’t you in the circus now?” asked Chunky.
“Well, I’m getting too old to do circus tricks any more, though I feel as jolly as ever,” answered Tum Tum. “So the man who owned me said he’d take me out of the circus and bring me back to the jungle to help train any wild elephants he might catch. That’s why I’m back in the jungle. I’m going to help tame and train wild elephants, which the hunters, who are with the man who owns me, are going to try to catch.”
“Ha! So there are hunters here, are there?” cried Chunky, for he had heard his father and mother speak of these creatures, and they had told him always to keep out of their way.
“Yes, there are some hunters in the jungle,” said Tum Tum. “They are after elephants.”
“Do you think they’ll want a hippo?” asked Chunky anxiously.
“Well, I can’t tell. Maybe they might. Would you like to be caught and put in a circus?”
“Indeed I would not!” cried Chunky. “I want to stay in the jungle, and swim in the muddy river with my brother Bumpy and my sister Mumpy. We have lots of fun.”
“We had fun in the circus, too,” said Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. “There I met Mappo, the merry monkey, and I know lots of other animals, about whom those things that are called books have been written.”