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Chunky, the Happy Hippo

<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV CHUNKY IN THE MUD</h2> Poor Chunky was having a dreadful time. Never before had he been caught by a crocodile. It would not have been so bad, he thought in his hippo way, if it had happened on top of the water. There some of the big animals might have seen him and they would have helped him. But down under the muddy river—who could help him there? Chunky flopped about in the water, sticking his feet deep down in the muddy bottom, and pushing back as hard as he could, trying to get his nose loose from the crocodile’s teeth. But the crocodile held fast to the hippo. “Let me go! Let me go!” blubbered Chunky, speaking in a strange way because his mouth was partly closed by the crocodile. “Indeed and I’ll not let you loose!” answered the crocodile. “I want you for my supper!” At least he might have answered that if his mouth had not been busy holding fast to Chunky’s nose. Chunky pulled and pulled and pulled, but still he could not get loose, and the crocodile was[37] slowly, but surely, dragging him out to a deeper part of the river, when, all at once, there was a great splashing in the water, and something big and heavy sank down beside the little hippo boy. “Get away from here, Mr. Crocodile!” a voice shouted, sounding like thunder under the water. “Leave my Chunky alone.” And then a great, big body began pushing and shoving the crocodile, and Chunky saw that it was his father who had come to save him. Mr. Hippo, being big and strong, squeezed the crocodile up against the hard bank of the river, down under the water, and nearly squeezed the breath out of him. So the crocodile was very glad, indeed, to take his jaws off Chunky’s nose and let the little hippo go. Then, with another shove of his big body, Mr. Hippo thrust the crocodile far out into the river. The crocodile made a snap at Mr. Hippo, trying to bite him, but the big hippo floated out of the way just in time, and that was the end of the fight. “Oh dear!” cried Chunky to his father, who swam up beside him under water. “Oh dear! How my nose hurts!” “Yes, I guess it does, little chap,” said Mr. Hippo. “Come along with me and I’ll get your mother to put a grass poultice on it. Or you can hold it in the soft, cool mud on the edge of the river. That will cure it.” [38] Of course I don’t mean to say that sick animals really doctor themselves, but if you ever see your cat or dog eat grass, you may be sure it is doing it because it feels ill, so, in a way, it is taking medicine. And if you have ever watched a dog when it has been stung by a bee, you may have seen him go to some place where there is cool, wet mud that he can lie down in, and so get some plastered on the stung place, to make it pain less. So he takes this kind of medicine. In the jungle wild animals, when they are shot, or hurt by one of their own kind, or by another kind, get away if they can, where they can drink water and let some of it wash up on their wound. Water, mud and some kinds of grass and leaves are jungle medicines for the animal folk. And that is what Mr. Hippo meant. He did not mean that Mrs. Hippo would make a real grass poultice for Chunky’s sore nose, only that she might chew up some grass until it was soft and mushy and then her little boy hippo could lay his nose against it to make the bites of the crocodile feel better. “Where have you been?” asked Mrs. Hippo, as she saw Mr. Hippo and Chunky coming home. “Oh, the boy got into trouble—one of those crocodiles,” said the father hippo, in his own[39] kind of talk. “We’ll have to move away from here, I guess, if many more crocodiles come to this river.” Jungle animals do move from place to place; hippos, monkeys and elephants especially. They stay around one spot until they have eaten all the good food there, or until all the water is gone, and then they move on to a new home. Sometimes they move from one place to another because of danger, such as crocodiles or snakes might make. “Oh, Chunky, your nose is bleeding!” said Mrs. Hippo. “That’s where the crocodile bit me,” he answered. His mother showed him a place where he could lie down and put his nose in some soft mud. Then she brought him some sweet lily-plant roots to eat, and made a little cushion of soft grass for his sore nose to rest on that night. Chunky did not sleep very well. His nose pained him too much, but he did not cry. Wild animals do not know anything about crying, no matter how much pain they may feel. In the morning the sore nose was a little better, but Chunky could not go to play with his brother and sister and the other young hippos. He had to stay on the river bank. Still he was quite happy, for all the other animals[40] were kind to him, and brought him nice things to eat. Mumpy and Bumpy came to see him, and told him what fun they were having playing water-tag and other games in the river. “I wish I could play!” said Chunky. “Oh, but you can’t go into deep water until your nose gets better!” said his mother. “You must stay on shore. Perhaps you might go in wading, but even then you must keep your head out of water. In a few days you will be better, and then you can have fun.” “Did you see any crocodiles?” asked Chunky of Bumpy. “No. But if I do I’ll step on ’em and make ’em go away!” he answered boastfully. “Better not try that!” said Mr. Hippo. “You are not yet big enough to fight the crocodiles. Leave that to me!” For three days Chunky had to keep out of the deep part of the river. He could only wade about and splash near shore, not diving or swimming. And as he had been used to going far out in the water ever since he was a tiny baby, he missed this very much indeed. But at last his nose was almost well, and his mother said it would be good for him to go in the water. Then Chunky was happy. He splashed in the river, dived away down to the bottom,[41] rolled over and over in the mud and swam about as much as he pleased. “Glad to see you!” cried Big Foot, for he and Chunky had become good friends since their little quarrel. “Is your nose all well?” “Almost,” Chunky answered. “But I don’t want to see any more crocodiles!” “I should say not!” agreed Big Foot. “But when I get larger I’m going to fight them, same as your father did.” Then Chunky played with the other hippos in the water, diving and having games of what you would call tag, until finally Big Foot said: “Oh, come on! Let’s wade ashore and go into the jungle!” “All right!” agreed Chunky. “Maybe we can have some fun there.” So into the jungle they went, trampling their way through the thick tangle of vines, chasing one another and grunting like pigs; and indeed they looked something like pigs as they pushed their noses in wet and muddy places to get at the sweet roots underneath. All at once Big Foot, who was walking ahead, cried: “Look out, Chunky! I hear something coming! Maybe it’s a crocodile!” “Crocodiles don’t come this far into the jungle,” said Chunky. [42] “Well, it’s something!” went on Big Foot. “Oh, look what a big animal, Chunky! I’m going to run back to the river! I’m afraid!” Chunky looked at the animal to which Big Foot was pointing with his ears, and then the little hippo laughed. “You don’t need to be afraid of him!” he said. “Why, do you know him?” asked Big Foot. “Yes, that is Tum Tum, the jolly elephant,” was the answer. “I met him here in the jungle the other day, and he told me about being in a book and having adventures. Hello, Tum Tum!” cried Chunky in jungle talk. “Hello yourself,” answered the big, jolly elephant. “I see you have a friend with you.” “Yes, Tum Tum, this is Big Foot,” said Chunky, waving his ears toward the other hippo. Big Foot, though older than Chunky, had never seen an elephant before, and he was much surprised. Just as Chunky had supposed, Big Foot thought Tum Tum had two tails, but he soon learned better, and he, too, liked the jolly elephant. “What are you doing here in the jungle?” asked Chunky of his big friend. “Oh, I’m looking to see if there are some wild elephants about, so the men with whom I am staying can catch them and train them for a circus,” was the answer. [43] “Are there men hunters around here?” Big Foot asked in an awed and very rumbling whisper. “Yes, they are back in the jungle, and they will soon be here,” answered Tum Tum. “Then we’d better run!” cried Big Foot to Chunky. “My folks always told me to look out for hunters.” “That’s right!” agreed Chunky. “We had better go back to the river.” “Oh, don’t be in a hurry,” said Tum Tum. “The hunters are not here yet. I can hear them coming long before they can see you, and I’ll tell you in time for you to get away. Still, maybe you would like to be caught and sent to a circus.” “Not me!” cried Big Foot. “Nor I,” added Chunky, though the more he thought about it the more he wished he could have some adventures, such as Tum Tum had had, many of them being written about in a book like this one you are reading. So the elephant and the two hippos stayed in the jungle for some little time, talking. Then, all of a sudden, Tum Tum raised his big ears, lifted his trunk, sniffed the air, and said: “The hunters are coming now. You had better run if you do not want to be caught. Good-bye! I hope I’ll see you again some day.” [44] “Good-bye!” called Chunky and Big Foot to Tum Tum, and then the hippos went back to their river, while Tum Tum began his search for wild elephants. It was two or three days after this that Chunky, who had gone off by himself up along the river bank to look for a certain kind of sweet grass, had another adventure. The little hippo was thinking of what Tum Tum had said about the circus, and how nice it was there, when, all of a sudden, Chunky stepped into a pool of water, which he did not think was very deep. But it was, and the worst of it turned out to be that under the water was some very sticky mud. So sticky, in fact, that Chunky sank down deep in it, being quite heavy and fat for his age. He tried to pull out his little short, stumpy legs, one after the other, but he could not. He only sank deeper and deeper in the mud. He was held fast there. “Oh, dear!” thought Chunky. “I’m stuck tight! I wonder if this can be a trap of the hunters to catch me for the circus. Oh, I wish Tum Tum were here to help me out! Oh, dear!” <hr class="chap" /> [45] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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