"Why the jolly boat when we have a jolly sea-going hippopotamus?" inquired Roger, elevating one eyebrow. "A jolly hippopotamus, I might add, who runs under her own power and saves us the trouble of rowing!" Roger was much annoyed because he had failed to catch a flying fish before breakfast and instead of eating his hard-boiled eggs, kept winging over to the open port to glare at his finny rivals. Tandy, like the Captain, was too excited to eat, and even Ato downed his omelette and fresh strawberries from the Peakenspire fruit vine with rare speed and indifference. "It's a lucky thing you're so enormous, Kobo," puffed the ship's cabin boy, dropping down on the raft a few minutes later. "Ato's got his crab nets and fishing lines, Samuel's bringing an aquarium, a couple of baskets and a box. And I have this pail, my paints and a cage in case Roger does manage to catch one of those flying fish." Kobo was staring fixedly at her vegetable vine as Tandy dropped down beside her, and now snapping off a whole bushel of beans, she turned round and, munching contentedly, surveyed the excited boy at her side. "Whatever you have can be hung to my harness," she assured him, speaking a bit thickly through the beans. "But turn the point of that scimiter up instead of down; you wouldn't want to carve old Kobo, now would you? It will seem funny swimming through a forest, won't it, little King? The further we go on this voyage the queerer everything grows." "But I like it queer," stated Tandy, climbing with a satisfied little sigh on Nikobo's broad back. "I, too, find it most interesting and jolly," agreed the hippopotamus, fastening her eyes dreamily on the vegetable vine to see what was coming up next. "I thought I might be on short rations when I came on this voyage, Tandy, but I declare to goodness I've never had such a rich and varied diet in my life. You, too, look fine and strong and much happier than when we met in the jungle. But to get back to the fare--why, today I've had a basket of biscuits, a bushel of beans--" "And that makes it Bean and Biscuit Day, I suppose," giggled Tandy, remembering Kobo's strange way of dividing up her week. "But look! Listen! Here they come!" "Ahoy below, Hip Hip OPOTOMUS, AHOY!" roared Samuel Salt jovially from above. "All ready to cast off, my lass?" "Aye, aye, sir!" grinned Kobo as Samuel and Ato came panting down the rope ladders to the raft. "Move over, Tandy, and make room for the Cook and the Captain!" It took nearly ten minutes to get all the gear and crew aboard and Nikobo looked like some curious deep sea monster when she finally shoved off. Two large baskets were slung from ropes across her back. The pail and bird cage slapped up and down on one hip, the aquarium on the other, and through her collar various fishing rods, nets and poles were stuck like quills on a porcupine.