CHUNKY IS SURPRISED
“Oh, Chunky!” cried Mumpy, as she saw Big Foot rushing at her brother.
“Oh, Chunky, come on home!”
“Pooh! I’m not afraid of him!” said Chunky, as he stood still on the
river bank and looked at the on-rushing Big Foot.
“I’ll go and call father,” went on Mumpy, as she waded into the water
and began to swim out toward the grown hippos where they were having
fun of their own in the river.
“I’ll show you that you can’t laugh at me!” grunted Big Foot, who came
on as fast as he could. “I’ll bite you and push you into the river, and
see how you like that.”
“Pooh! I’m not afraid!” said Chunky again, but really he was, a little
bit.
Of course, if you had been in the jungle, or hidden among the reeds
on the bank of the African river, you would not have understood what
Chunky and Big Foot said. In fact, you would not even have guessed
that they were talking; but they were, all the same, though to you
the noises they made would have sounded only like grunts, squeals
and puffings. But that is the way the hippos talk among themselves,
and they mean the same things you mean when you talk, only a little
different, of course.
“Oh, look! Big Foot is going to do something to Chunky!” cried the
other boy hippos, and they gathered around to see what would happen.
For fights often took place among the jungle animals. They did not know
any better than to bite, kick and bump into one another when they were
angry.
“I’ll fix you!” said Big Foot again.
“Pooh! I’m not afraid,” answered Chunky once more, just as you may
often have heard boys say.
To tell the truth, Chunky would have been glad to run away, but he did
not like to do it with so many of his young hippo friends looking on.
They would have thought him a coward. So he had to stand and wait to
see what Big Foot would do.
On came the larger hippo boy, and, all of a sudden, when he was quite
close to Chunky, he gave a jump and bumped right into him. Chunky tried
to get out of the way, but he was not quick enough.
The next minute he found himself slipping into the river, for Big Foot
had knocked him off the bank. But Chunky did not mind falling into the
water. He had been going in anyhow for a swim with his sister. Chunky
was not hurt. No water even went up his nose, as it does up yours when
you fall into the water. For Chunky could close his nose, as you close
your mouth, and not a drop of water got in.
“There, I told you I’d fix you for laughing at me!” growled Big Foot,
as he stood on the bank and watched Chunky swimming around in the
water. “If you laugh at me any more I’ll push you in again!”
“Oh, you will, will you?” exclaimed a voice back of Big Foot. “Well,
you just let my Chunky alone after this! He can laugh if he wants to, I
guess!”
And with that Mrs. Hippo, who had quickly swum to shore when Mumpy told
her what was going on, gave Big Foot a shove, and into the water _he_
splashed.
“Ha-ha!” laughed all the other hippo boys and girls, as they saw what
had happened. “Look at Big Foot! Ha-ha-ha!”
Big Foot was very angry because Mrs. Hippo had pushed him in. But when
he saw all the others laughing at him, he knew that he could not knock
them all into the water, as he had knocked Chunky, so he made the best
of it.
“Ha-ha!” laughed Chunky. “So you’re here too, Big Foot! I saw my
mother push you in. She’s awful strong, she is! I hope she didn’t hurt
you. She didn’t mean to if she did. Here are some nice sweet grass
roots I dived down and pulled up off the bottom of the river. Have
some?” and Chunky held out some in his mouth.
Now Big Foot liked grass roots very much indeed, as did all the hippos.
So, though he still felt a little angry, he took them from Chunky, and
when the big boy hippo, with one foot larger than his other three, had
swallowed the sweet, juicy roots he felt much better.
“They were good,” he said. “Thanks! And say, I hope I didn’t hurt you
when I shoved you into the river just now, Chunky.”
“No, you didn’t,” Chunky answered. “And I hope my mother didn’t hurt
you when she shoved you in.”
“Ho! Ho! I should say not!” answered Big Foot, and he laughed now. “I’m
sorry I got mad,” he went on. “Come on, have a game of water-tag!”
“All right,” said Chunky, “I will. Come on, Mumpy!” he called to his
sister. “We’re going to have a game of water-tag.”
“Let’s all play!” cried Bumpo, who had not after all gone away. Then he
slid down the river bank into the water.
“Yes, we’ll all play tag!” chimed in the rest of the hippos, and they
were soon swimming and diving about in the water, splashing and bumping
into one another almost as you boys and girls play when you go in
bathing at the beach in the summer. Only, of course, the hippos, being
very big, made heavy splashes.
“This is lots of fun!” cried Chunky, as he tagged Bumpy and then dived
to get out of the way, for sometimes the hippos “tagged back,” just as
you children play.
“Yes, it’s jolly fun!” yelled Big Foot.
So the animal children swam, splashed and dived in the water, having
much more fun than when the one was angry at the other and had pushed
him into the river.
All of a sudden, Mrs. Hippo, who had stayed on the bank after making
Big Foot behave, gave a grunting cry.
“Quick!” she called in her own language. “Swim ashore, all you little
hippos! Swim ashore, quick!”
“What’s the matter?” asked Big Foot. He thought he was too large to
mind without first asking questions.
“Don’t stop to talk! Swim ashore as fast as you can!” cried Mrs. Hippo.
Chunky, Bumpy and Mumpy, her own three children-hippos, did as they
were told, and paddled for shore as fast as they could. For, though a
hippopotamus is a very big animal and looks very clumsy, there are few
as large as he who can swim so well or so fast, or dive so easily.
On and on toward shore swam the hippo children, who, a few seconds
before, had been playing tag. Last of all came Big Foot. As yet neither
he nor any of the others knew why Mrs. Hippo wanted them to come ashore.
Big Foot partly turned in the water and looked back. Then he saw what
it was. A big crocodile, which is something like an alligator, only
with a longer and more slender nose, or snout, its mouth filled with
long, sharp teeth, was swimming after the little hippos.
“Is that why you wanted us to come ashore?” asked Big Foot of Chunky’s
mother, calling to her as he swam toward land.
“Yes, indeed it is!” she answered, in her big deep voice. “And don’t
stop to ask any more questions! Hurry!”
So they all hurried and got safely into shallow water, where the
crocodile dared not come, bold and hungry as he was. He thought perhaps
big Mrs. Hippo would step on him and smash him. A crocodile can grab
hold of a baby hippo, and take it away, but dare not touch a big hippo.
So this crocodile, with an angry snap of his teeth, turned and swam
back into the middle of the river again, to wait for another chance to
grab a tender, baby hippo.
“My! how frightened I was!” said Mrs. Hippo, when she saw that her own
and the rest of the animal children were safe. “I saw the crocodile
coming toward you, but you didn’t see him because you were playing tag
so hard.”
“It’s a good thing you called to us to swim out of his way,” said Big
Foot. “I’m much obliged to you, Mrs. Hippo, and I’m sorry I pushed your
Chunky in!”
“Oh, you didn’t hurt me!” laughed Chunky, as he stood on the bank and
looked out to the middle of the river, where he could just see the nose
of the crocodile in the water, as the long animal swam away.
And then Chunky had another surprise, for escaping from the crocodile
surely was _one_. All of a sudden, out from the jungle flew a lot of
birds, and before the hippos knew what was happening the birds began to
settle down on their backs.
“Oh, look!” cried Chunky. “What are the birds going to do?” he asked
his mother. “Are they going to bite me?”
“No; don’t be afraid, silly little hippo boy!” she answered, with a
loud laugh. “The birds just came to get the snails and water bugs that
are sticking to your back. The river is full of snails, and when you go
in to swim they stick to you. The birds like to pick them off and eat
them, and that’s what they’re doing now.”
And that is just what the birds were doing. Out of the jungle they had
flown, and they circled around and lighted, one after another, on the
broad, flat backs of Chunky and the other hippo children. The skin of
a hippo is very thick――two inches in some places――but there are tender
spots where mosquitoes, or bad bugs like that, can bite. But on the
backs of the hippos nothing could bite through, and even when the birds
picked off the water spiders and snails with their sharp bills the
hippos did not feel it.
“Isn’t it funny to have birds on your back?” said Chunky to Big Foot.
“Oh, it has happened to me before,” said the larger hippo boy. “Of
course you’re young yet――you’ve got lots to learn.”
“Well, I’m glad the birds can get something to eat off me,” laughed
Chunky in his jolly way. He laughed, in his own fashion, more than any
of the other hippos, and seemed quite happy, so much so that often,
when he was spoken of, he was called “Chunky, the happy hippo.”
Here and there fluttered the birds on the backs of the hippos, picking
off the water insects, which might get under the folds of the skin of
Chunky and his mates and pain them. So the birds not only got a meal
for themselves but they helped the animals.
After a while all the bugs and snails were picked off and the birds
flew back into the jungle. Chunky watched them as they sailed above the
tree tops, and then he, too, walked slowly into the deep woods.
“Where are you going?” asked his sister.
“Oh, off into the jungle to have a sleep,” he answered. “Want to come
along?”
“No,” she said. “I’m going with some of the other hippo girls to roll
in the mud.”
So Chunky went into the jungle by himself. On and on among the trees he
wandered, making his way through the tangled vines, breaking them off
without any trouble, because he was very strong.
All at once Chunky heard a funny noise, like a big horn blowing, and,
looking up, he saw, standing in front of him, a big animal, much taller
than himself. And this animal had two big long white teeth sticking out
in front, and he seemed to have two tails, one longer than the other.
“Oh dear!” thought Chunky. “This is a terrible beast! I wonder if he
will bite me as the crocodile tried to;” and in order to get away,
Chunky turned to run back through the jungle.