all and roll down. We'll catch you on the way back,"
the Kangaroo yelled, and as they now passed out of hearing of the
monkey's voice no one knew how the little creature took the suggestion.

"I'm glad he's gone," said the Hippopotamus. "He was a nuisance--and I
tell you I had a narrow escape. He had his tail wound around my neck a
minute before. He might have yanked me off with him."

"Yanked you?" said the Old Gentleman from Saturn, gazing contemptuously at
the Hippopotamus. "Bosh! The idea of a seven-pound monkey yanking a
three-ton Hippopotamus!"

"What?" roared the man in charge. "A what how much which?"

"Three-ton," said the Old Gentleman from Saturn. "That's what he weighs. I
know because he stepped on my toe getting off the Trolley."

"But it's against the law!" cried the Man in Charge. "We're not allowed to
carry more than 1,000 pounds on these Machines."

"Humph!" laughed the Kangaroo. "It's very evident, Hippy, that you'll have
to go way back and lose some weight."

"I can't help weighing three tons," said the Hippopotamus. "I'm built that
way."

"That's all right," said the Man in Charge, wringing his hands in despair;
"but you'll have to get off. If you don't we'll go over the edge." His
voice rose to a shriek.

Tom's heart sank and he half rose up.

"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."

[Illustration: "MY OWN PRIVATE ICEBERG."]

"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."