Chunky waded out into the river until he felt the water coming up over his nose. Then he shut the breathing holes, so no water would run into them. It was just as if one of you boys had ducked your head under water and held your nose closed with your fingers, only Chunky did not need to hold his nose.
He could not have done so if he had wanted, for he had no hands, and he needed his four feet to walk on. For, though in deep water he could swim, as could the other hippos, he now wanted to walk along under water on the soft, oozy, muddy bottom of the river and eat grass and plant-roots.
Chunky had in his jaw some long, sharp teeth, called tusks. They were not as big as the tusks of Tum Tum the elephant, and they did not show when Chunky closed his big lips. But when he opened his mouth his tusks could easily be seen and so, too, could his other big teeth, called molars, which were used for grinding up the grass and other things he ate, just as your teeth grind, or chew, your food.
It was with his long, sharp tusks that Chunky dug up from the muddy bottom, or from the banks of the river, the roots which he loved so well. And now, as the boy hippo waded out, he opened his eyes under water to look about and to find a good feeding place.
“Ah, I shall have a fine feast!” thought Chunky to himself, as he saw, a little ahead of him, under water, a big clump of rich, green grass. “There must be some fine roots there.”
Walking along on the soft mud at the bottom of the river, the little hippo boy peered about, trying to decide which was the best place to begin his meal. The surface of the water was about a foot over his back, and he could see quite well, for the sun was shining overhead in the blue sky.
Opening wide his mouth, so he could use his tusk-like teeth to uproot the grass, Chunky began his feast. With a motion of his big head, which made the water above him boil and bubble, the hippo tore out a lot of the juicy roots, getting them into his mouth.
“Ah! but these are good!” he thought to himself. “I don’t believe that Tum Tum, even if he was in a circus, and was put in an adventure-book, ever had anything as good as this. Yum-yum!” said Chunky, or whatever it is hippos say when they have something good to eat.
Chunky was chewing away, wishing his sister Mumpy and his brother Bumpy were with him to enjoy the sweet grass roots, when, all of a sudden, Chunky felt something sharp nip him on the end of his nose.
“Ouch!” he cried to himself. “I must have run against a sharp stone.”