“Oh, tell me about the other animals!” begged Chunky. “Was there one like me?”
“Yes, there was a hippo in the circus,” said Tum Tum; “but he was old and big, and slept in his tank of water most of the time. I didn’t have much to say to him. But I like you.
“Then there were other animals in the circus, and out of it, too, for that matter, and I liked most of them. I met Squinty, a comical pig, and there was Don, a runaway dog, besides Flop Ear, a funny rabbit. They all have books written about them, and you’d be surprised at the many adventures my friends had.”
“I was surprised, just now, when the jungle birds perched on my back,” said Chunky.
“You’d be more surprised if you could read about my adventures in the book,” said Tum Tum, with a jolly twinkle in his eyes, as he reached his trunk up in a tree and pulled off some sweet, green leaves. “Have some,” he invited Chunky, and Chunky did.
“Well, I’m very glad to meet you,” said the little hippo boy, after a while, when he and Tum Tum had talked for some time, and the jolly elephant had told him a few of his adventures, especially of once having been in a fire when the circus barns caught, and of how he had helped save some of the animals from being burned, including Dido, a dancing bear.
“My! that was an adventure!” cried Chunky.
“Pooh! that’s nothing,” said Tum Tum. “Maybe I’ll have more adventures now that I’ve come to the jungle. What! you aren’t going, are you?”
“Yes, I guess I’d better go home,” said Chunky. “Some of those hunter friends of yours might try to catch me to put me in a circus, and I don’t want to go. Maybe I’ll see you some other time,” and away he went through the jungle toward the river, on the edge of which, amid the tall reeds, he lived with the other hippos.