“The hunters are coming now. You had better run if you do not want to be caught. Good-bye! I hope I’ll see you again some day.”
“Good-bye!” called Chunky and Big Foot to Tum Tum, and then the hippos went back to their river, while Tum Tum began his search for wild elephants.
It was two or three days after this that Chunky, who had gone off by himself up along the river bank to look for a certain kind of sweet grass, had another adventure.
The little hippo was thinking of what Tum Tum had said about the circus, and how nice it was there, when, all of a sudden, Chunky stepped into a pool of water, which he did not think was very deep. But it was, and the worst of it turned out to be that under the water was some very sticky mud. So sticky, in fact, that Chunky sank down deep in it, being quite heavy and fat for his age. He tried to pull out his little short, stumpy legs, one after the other, but he could not. He only sank deeper and deeper in the mud. He was held fast there.
“Oh, dear!” thought Chunky. “I’m stuck tight! I wonder if this can be a trap of the hunters to catch me for the circus. Oh, I wish Tum Tum were here to help me out! Oh, dear!”
CHAPTER V
CHUNKY IS CAUGHT
Chunky, the happy hippo, was not as jolly as he had been when playing water-tag in the river with Bumpy, his brother, and Mumpy, his sister. In fact, he was rather sad. Stuck fast in the mud as he was, he pulled and twisted and wiggled and turned, trying to get loose. But he could not. He was still held fast.