All at once the little girl stumbled and fell, right over the edge of the tank, into the water.
“Oh! Oh, my!” cried all the people.
Don the dog saw what had happened, and, while Alice’s father was trying to get the keeper to open the door of Chunky’s cage, so they could go in and get the little girl, Don was barking:
“Don’t hurt my little girl, Chunky! Don’t hurt her!”
This kind of talk—being animal language—Chunky could understand. Down under the water he had heard the splash as Alice fell in, and then he saw the little girl sinking down near him.
“This is no place for her!” quickly thought Chunky. “She is not a fish to live in the water. I must help her out.”
Then the hippo sank away down in the water and got under the little girl, so that she floated right on his broad back. And when Alice was there, gasping and choking and grabbing Chunky by the ears, up rose the hippo, and [there was Alice] safe and sound, but very wet, of course, [on Chunky’s broad back], under water no longer.
“Oh, look!” cried all the people.
“Your little girl is safe,” said the keeper, who opened the door of the cage. “The hippo has her on his back.”
Then, with Alice on his back, Chunky swam to the side of the pool, and there her father and the keeper lifted her off, Don taking hold of her dress as if he were helping also. And how Don did bark! But he was happy.