Before any of the men could grab him, Sharp Eyes made a dash toward the big pool. Down into it ran a sloping walk, or little hill of stone. Down this Sharp Eyes walked until he could put his nose in the water.
Sharp Eyes was just going to take a drink when, all at once, he noticed that the water in the pool was moving. Then, suddenly, something big and dark brown rose up, as if from the bottom. Sharp Eyes saw a big mouth open right in front of him. It was a mouth so big that it looked like the front door of a real house, and inside it was lined with something that seemed to be red flannel. And then, out of the mouth, came a puffing sound, and the big animal who belonged to the big mouth, made a grunting noise, as though gaping and stretching after a sleep.
“Oh, my!” cried Sharp Eyes, as he saw the big mouth. “Who are you, if you please?”
“I might ask the same thing of you,” went on the big animal, as he walked up the stone hill, water dripping off him.
“I am called Sharp Eyes, the silver fox,” was the answer, “and I have had many adventures, but they have not been put into a book as yet.”
You see Sharp Eyes didn’t know about this book just then.
“I’ve had adventures also, and they have been put into a book,” went on the big creature.
“What is your name?” asked Sharp Eyes.
“I am Chunky, the happy hippo, and—”