The sailors soon made one, for I guess sailors can do almost anything. On deck a big wooden box as large as a room in your house, was set, and water was pumped into this. It was salt water from the ocean in which the ship was steaming along, but the hippos liked salt water to wash in as well as fresh, as I have told you.
“Now we’re all ready,” said the animal man. “We’ll hoist the hippos up, one at a time in their cages, and dip them into the tank.”
Chunky and the others rather hoped they might be allowed to come out of their cages and splash around loose in the water tank, but this could not be. They might have gotten out and run all about the ship, not knowing any better. So they had to stay in their jungle cages still.
“Oh, but this is fine!” cried Chunky, as he sank down in the water and let it soak into his hard, dry skin. “This is fine!”
“Just what we wanted!” said Short Tooth.
“Couldn’t be better!” gurgled Gimpy, as he let the water come up over his back.
“How happy those hippos seem,” said a giraffe. He had stuck his head out of a hole in the deck, for he was down below, though he could look out, as he was very tall and had a long neck.
“Yes, they are happy,” said the lion. “Especially the one they call Chunky. I never saw such a jolly chap. He thinks he’s going to have lots of fun in a circus; but wait until he sees how it is! Then he won’t open his big mouth and smile any more.”
The hippos liked the tank so much that the animal man said they could stay in it during the rest of the voyage. It was not so deep but what they could put their heads out to breathe, and this just suited Chunky and the others.