“He is almost as jolly as Tum Tum was, when he was here,” said the rhino. “And it needs some one to keep us animals jolly. When I think of the jungle where I used to live, I get lonesome.”
“Oh, well, the circus is a nice place!” Chunky would say, and then he would open his big mouth and smile in such a way that all the other animals had to laugh. So Chunky made them jolly whether they wanted to be or not. But most of them did.
Chunky stayed with the circus for a number of years, and grew very large and heavy, so that he weighed about five thousand pounds, or more than two tons of coal.
[“‘Now he is smiling at you!’”]
In fact Chunky grew too large for the circus, as he had to be carried around in a tank wagon, and could not walk, as the elephants did, to and from the trains. So one day Chunky was sold to a park in a big city, and the park had a menagerie in which different animals were kept, including some elephants, camels and giraffes.
In this park Chunky had a very fine and large cage, with a big tank at one end. Into this he could go whenever he wanted to, and stay as long as he liked.
Many people came to the park to see him, for he was one of the largest hippos in the world, it was said, and people seem to like to look at very large or very small things.