“Oh, I’ve heard about you!” interrupted Sharp Eyes.
“You have?” asked Chunky. “Perhaps you read a copy of the book in which I am spoken of?”
“No, I can’t read,” said Sharp Eyes. “But I heard Don, the dog, telling about you. I liked to hear about you.”
“That’s very nice of you,” said Chunky. “Yes, Don and I were great friends. Did Don tell you how I saved the little girl who fell into my pool?”
“Yes,” answered Sharp Eyes, “he did. It was very nice of you to save her.”
“Pooh! that was nothing,” said Chunky. “When I saw you standing on the edge of my pool, I thought it was some one else who had fallen in, and I came up to see about it. But I am glad to meet you.”
“And I’m glad to meet you,” said Sharp Eyes. “Very glad indeed to meet you, Chunky. Now I wonder what I had better do—run away now that I am out of my cage, or stay and let them put me in another? What would you do, Chunky?”
“I’d stay here in the zoo,” said the happy hippo. “They will give you nice things to eat and clean water to drink. It is better than the jungle or the woods. Stay here and be happy.”
“I guess I will,” said Sharp Eyes.
By this time the menagerie men had run toward the hippo’s cage. They saw Sharp Eyes standing by the big, squatty creature.