“Good-bye!” called Tum Tum. “If ever you get caught by the hunters, and you don’t like it, I’ll help you get away if I’m around.”
“Thank you!” said Chunky, and he made up his mind never to be caught if he could help it. But you just wait and see what happens to the little hippo boy!
Chunky made his way through the jungle to where his father and mother had their home. It was not a house, or even a nest, such as birds live in, though I have called it a nest. It was just a place where the reeds and weeds were trampled down smooth to make a soft place for the hippos to sleep.
There was no roof over the top of the hippos’ house, if you can call such a place a house. There were no windows in it, nor doors, and when it rained the water came in all over. But Chunky and his brother and sister did not mind the wetness. They liked being in the water as much as being on dry land, and they spent more than half their time in the river, anyhow.
So, really, all they needed of a house was a place where they could lie down and sleep, and it was easy to make such a place. All Mr. and Mrs. Hippo had to do was to lie down in the weeds and reeds, roll over once or twice to make them stay down smoothly, and the house was made.
There was no furniture in it—neither tables nor chairs, and not even a piano or a talking machine. The hippos had no use for these things. All they needed was a place to lie down, and such a place need not even be dry. Then all else they wanted was something to eat, and this they could get on land or in the water.
“I think I like my home on the river bank better than the circus, even if Tum Tum did say it was jolly,” thought Chunky, as he crashed his way back through the jungle to where he had left his sister. She was out in the river now, playing water-tag with some of the other hippo boys and girls.
“Aren’t you afraid of the crocodile?” asked Chunky, as he, too, waded out to get some more grass roots, for he was hungry again. Hippos and elephants eat very often during the day.
“The crocodile has gone away,” answered Mumpy. “The big hippos swam around in the water and drove him to the other side of the river. We are not afraid. Come and play tag with us, Chunky.”
“Not now,” he answered. “I’m going to eat. After I eat I will play.”