Master Hippo

The hippo from the banks of Nile, How wide and winning is the smile With which he does his simple best In hippo language to suggest The thought that stirs his inmost mind - 'It's time, I think, I supped or dined!' And meals for hippopotami Are weighty things, you can't deny; For when they're babies you must buy 'em Full thirty quarts of milk per diem, And when they're older, every day A baby hippo can enjoy His bath like any human boy, And splash and splash like Billy-o! He's not - despite his name, of course - The least bit like a river horse, But much more like a river pig, He is a harmless beast, and though He is not beautiful, we know, No doubt his mother thinks him so!