"Sit still," said the two Andirons, grabbing him by the arms. "We're in for it. We've got to take what comes."
"Right you are," said the Bellows. "Don't you bother, Tom. We'll come out all right in the end."
"But what's the trouble, Mr. Man?" asked the Poker. "What's the Hippo's weight got to do with our going over the edge?"
"Why, can't you see?" explained the Man in Charge. "His 6,000 pounds pushing the machine along from behind there gives us just so much extra speed, and all the brakes in the world won't stop us now we've got going unless he gets off."
The announcement caused an immediate panic, and the Polar Bear began to cry like a baby.
"Oh, why did I ever come?" he moaned as the tears trickled down his nose and froze into a great icicle at the end of it. "When I might have stayed home riding around on my own private iceberg?"
"Stop your whimpering," said the Kangaroo. "Brace up and be a man."
"I don't want to be a man," blubbered the bear, "I'm satisfied to be a poor, miserable little Polar Bear."
"You've got to jump, Hippy," said the Flamingo. "That's all there is about it."