"Now, see here," roared the lion, planting himself determinedly in Crunch's path. "You must promise me not to try that trick till I'm ready. I've been frightened all my life and I don't wish to be frightened into a courageous lion without knowing it."
"Oh, all right," grumbled the Stone Man again, "but I don't see any sense in all this delay. What if your friends do turn blue? It won't hurt them, and why should you put yourself in the clutches of this wicked old Mudger?"
"That is my affair," roared the Cowardly Lion, shocked at Crunch's unfeeling words. "I suppose a person entirely composed of stone cannot help being hard and unsympathetic," he reflected to himself. Aloud he called, "Come along, let's hurry," and hurry they did as fast as their legs would carry them.
A Munchkin farmer, whose cottage they passed just at dusk, gave the Cowardly Lion a hearty dinner, but he shook his head doubtfully at Crunch, who had propped himself up against a barn while the lion ate.
"He'll break something," whispered the farmer nervously. "He's too heavy to be walking about. What's he doing alive anyway? Has Ozma seen him? Or the Scarecrow? Here, here!" he called angrily, as the barn began to creak and lean to one side, "you'll have to lean against something else!"
"I'll stand right here, and nothing will budge me," grumbled Crunch disagreeably. At this the Cowardly Lion swallowed the rest of his dinner at one gulp and started to run down the road. He knew that the Stone Man would follow him and he did not want the poor farmer's barn demolished.
"I thought you were going to help people," he roared reproachfully, as Crunch overtook him.