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Chunky, the Happy Hippo

<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII CHUNKY’S NEW FRIENDS</h2> Along through the jungle jogged the black men, carrying the cage with Chunky in it. Now and then the black men would sing a funny song. At least it would have sounded queer to you, for it was like a lot of coughs, sneezes, hiccoughs and giggles. But it was a song the men often sang as they marched, so the way would not seem so long, nor their burdens so heavy, and Chunky was quite a heavy load, let me tell you! After a while the men stopped in the jungle, to make a fire and cook something to eat. Farther back, the other black hunters who had caught Chunky and sold him to the white man, were doing the same thing. They had found a deer, which one of them speared, and they cooked it. The cage, with Chunky in it, was set down in the jungle, not far from the fire the men made to cook their meal. This was the first time the hippo had seen a blaze, and, for a time, he was frightened, as are all jungle animals at the sight of fire. But, after a bit, when Chunky found[67] that the fire did not come near him, he was not so much afraid. But he was very hungry for some grass, and he wanted very much to swim in a lot of water, and wallow in the mud. Pretty soon, when it had grown dark in the jungle, and the black men were eating their meal, along came the white hunter. “Have you given that little hippo anything to eat?” he asked the black men. “No,” they answered, “we have not.” “Well, you’d better do so,” said the white man. “He is hungry, as well as you. And I want him to be nice and fat and strong when I put him on the ship to take him to America to the circus. Get him some grass and water.” Then two or three of the black men, putting their fingers in their mouths, and sucking them, which was their way of cleaning them instead of using napkins, went down to the river bank, near which they were camped, and pulled up a lot of grass for Chunky. They also brought him water in hollow gourds, which were as large as a water pail. They knew the hippo liked lots of water. My! how thirsty Chunky was! He drank almost a barrel full, it seemed, and then he ate some of the grass the men tossed into his cage. It tasted good, and he felt better after that. The men went to sleep around their jungle fire[68] then, and Chunky, having had something to drink and something to eat, fell asleep also. You might have thought, being carried away from his home as he was, Chunky would have felt so bad that he could not sleep. I know you would, but animals are not like that—especially jungle animals. As long as Chunky had enough to eat he was pretty well satisfied. And though back in the jungle his father and mother missed him, they did not worry much. When night came and Chunky was not home, Bumpy and Mumpy, his brother and sister, asked Mrs. Hippo: “Where is Chunky?” “I don’t know,” she replied. “He may be lost in the jungle or he may have gone away. He is getting old enough, now, to look after himself. I guess he is all right.” And so, after a little while, Chunky’s folks forgot all about him, and went to sleep too. They did not know that the little boy hippo was being taken on a long journey. Early in the morning Chunky, in his wooden cage, awoke in the jungle camp. It is so hot in Africa that when hunters travel they do so early in the morning and late in the afternoon. At mid-day the sun is too hot to walk out in it. So, after breakfast, Chunky being given more grass and water, the black men picked up his[69] cage again and set off. As they went along under the jungle trees, Chunky could hear, overhead, many monkeys chattering away. “Oh, look at that poor hippo the hunters have caught,” said one. “Isn’t it too bad! I wouldn’t want to be in a cage.” “Oh, I don’t mind it so much as I did at first,” said Chunky, speaking to the monkeys in jungle talk, which the black men and white men could not understand. “I’ve had enough to eat and drink and no one is hurting me. No crocodiles can get me here.” “Well, you certainly are a happy chap,” went on the monkey who, by leaping from branch to branch overhead in the trees, easily kept up with the marching men carrying Chunky. “What makes you so jolly?” “I guess I must have caught it from Tum Tum, the elephant,” was the answer, and Chunky actually opened his big mouth as if he were smiling. “Oh, I know Tum Tum!” cried one of the monkeys. “He’s a jolly elephant who once was in a circus. And he knows a friend of ours.” “Who?” asked another chattering chap. “Mappo, the merry monkey,” was the answer. “Don’t you remember Mappo, who used to live in the jungle with us?” “Oh, yes!” [70] “Well, he went away, and, for a long time we did not see him.” “Yes,” said the other monkeys. “That’s so!” “Well, he was caught and sent to a circus, and that is where Tum Tum was, only he’s out now. Maybe you’ll go to a circus, Chunky,” said the monkey. “Maybe,” agreed the happy hippo, who smiled again. “I guess it won’t be so bad. Tum Tum was telling me about it. Yes, I think I would like to go to a circus.” “Tum Tum said Mappo liked it,” put in another monkey, with a queer twist to his tail. “Mappo did tricks, and he had a lot of adventures and had a book written about him.” “Do you know what that is like?” asked Chunky. “I heard Tum Tum speak of adventures and a book.” “No, I don’t know,” was the answer. “I never heard of a book except from Tum Tum, and I don’t believe he really knows what it is.” “Well, perhaps if I go to a circus I shall find out,” went on Chunky. “Do you want us to go and get Tum Tum, and have him break your cage with his big feet and strong trunk, so you can get out?” asked a white-whiskered monkey. Chunky thought about this for a while, as the black men carried him through the jungle, while[71] the monkeys leaped along in the tree tops overhead. “No,” said the hippo boy after a while. “I guess you don’t need to bother Tum Tum, though it’s kind of you to offer. I sent a little bird to find him, but I guess my elephant friend is too far away. “Besides, I think I won’t try to break loose. I feel very good here, though I wish my cage was a bit larger. But I’ve had water to drink, and sweet grass to eat, and I am having a nice ride. I think I’ll stay longer and see what else happens to me. I want to have some adventures and be put in a book.” “All right, then we won’t get Tum Tum,” said the monkey who had offered to try to find the elephant. “And, Chunky, if you do get in a circus, and see our old friend Mappo, give him our love, will you?” “I’ll certainly do that!” promised the hippo boy. Then, all at once, the hissing of a snake was heard, and as monkeys are very much afraid of snakes, they gave loud chatters and scurried away through the jungle, leaving Chunky in his cage being carried along by the black hunters. For many mornings and afternoons the white men and their black helpers, who were out to get live animals for circuses and parks in big cities,[72] traveled on through the jungle. They caught two more hippos, though neither was as large as Chunky, and they caught other animals and birds, all of which were carefully put in cages to be carried to the ship to go across the sea. Chunky felt happier now that he had some friends with him, and he was especially glad there were two more hippos. “Now I shall not be lonesome,” he said to his new friends, in animal talk. “How did you come here?” “I was caught in a big net as I went through the jungle,” said Short Tooth, one of the hippos that had one tusk which was shorter than the other. “And I was caught as I was swimming in the river with my mother,” said the other hippo, which was named Gimpy by Chunky and Short Tooth. Gimpy walked a little lame from having stepped on a sharp stone when he was a baby, cutting his foot. So the three hippos were kept in cages close together, and were carried through the jungle, down toward the seacoast, with the other wild animals. Chunky made friends with them all, for he was a happy chap, and tried to look on the bright side of everything—as much as any animal can. “We might be a good deal worse off,” he said[73] to a young lion who was grumbling because he had been caught and put in a cage. “Just think, here we have all we want to eat without ever going after it.” “Burr-r-r-r-r!” growled the lion. “I don’t like it at all! I want to get out of here!” and he leaped about, scratching and clawing at the wooden bars of his cage until the black hunters cried in fright and ran away. But one of the white men came and stood near the lion’s cage and spoke to the lion, which was a small cub. “Be quiet!” said the white man, though of course the lion could not tell what the man was saying. “Be quiet, little King of Beasts! You shall have good meat to eat, clean water to drink and you need never hunt for food again. Besides, you are going to be in a circus! Be quiet!” And the man spoke in such a kind way that the lion was quiet. Then the white man, who was the head, or chief, of the others out looking for live wild animals, came over to where the hippos were in their cages. “Three of you, eh?” he said, though of course Chunky could not understand what he said. “Three nice hippos! Well, you will be worth a lot of money if I can get you across the ocean safely and to the big city. There I can sell you to a circus or a menagerie in the park. [74] “Ha! You are a fat, chunky chap!” the man went on, looking at our hippo. “And you seem quite contented. I should even say you were happy by the way you smile,” continued the white man, for, just then, Chunky opened his mouth as wide as he could. Perhaps he was only yawning, sleepy-like, but it looked like a big laugh. “Yes, you are quite fat, I think Chunky would be a good name for you,” went on the white hunter, and so the hippo was named over again, the same name his mother’s friend had given him in the jungle. For many more days the white and black men traveled on with the live animals they had caught. Then, one morning, after quite a long march, Chunky noticed that the black men suddenly stopped singing and broke into loud cries. They seemed quite happy. “What do you suppose has happened?” asked Gimpy, as he stood up in his traveling cage. “I don’t know,” answered Short Tooth. “Maybe they have caught an elephant.” “I hope it’s my friend, Tum Tum,” thought Chunky. “I’d like to see him now.” <hr class="chap" /> [75] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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