So then we all sat on the railing of the desert island and sang Follow your leader, and Pee-wee joined in good and loud. He kept the fish under his arm. When it comes to a showdown Pee-wee is loyal. He can even be loyal to a fish. Maybe we sat there for as much as an hour and Hervey was telling us about all the crazy things you can do on a Follow your leader hike. All of a sudden Garry shouted, “A sail! A sail! Another sail on the horizon!”
“Is it the same horizon?” I asked him.
“It’s a red sail,” he said.
“It’s a red cow, you mean,” I told him.
“We are saved!” they all started yelling again. “A cow! A cow! A red cow with white spots! She is coming to our rescue!”
“Maybe she’ll give us some malted milk,” Hervey said.
Oh boy, I had to laugh. There, away way down the road a cow was coming along, waddling from one side to the other and as she came nearer we could see how she was swishing her tail.
“She’s making about ten knots an hour,” Garry said; “she’s coming straight for us. She is bringing milk to the starving castaways. Watch and see if she turns into that side road.”
“She has passed it!” Bert yelled. “She is coming straight for us under full sail. Hold the fish up as a signal of distress. She is a hero, I mean a shero.”
It looked awful funny to see that old cow lumbering along, and every time she stopped to eat a leaf or something we thought she was going to turn into a side lane.
“There’s a little girl right behind her,” Bert said. “She’s carrying a big whip; she’s driving the cow.”
That little girl was about half as big as Pee-wee. She had on a big sunbonnet and a kind of a gingham apron and she came hiking along behind the cow with that great big whip over her shoulder. She looked awful little.
“Do you think I want to be rescued by her?” the kid shouted.
“I’d let a mosquito rescue me, I’m so hungry,” I said.
Pretty soon the little girl and the cow were right at the end of the road where the end of the bridge belonged. The cow didn’t seem surprised but the little girl did. The cow just started to eat grass as if she didn’t care whether she got across or not.
“Road closed on account of a desert island,” Bert called.
“You have to take a detour around through the Panama Canal,” Garry shouted. “Don’t be frightened, we won’t hurt you.”
I said, “Hey, little girl, would you be kind enough to go to the nearest house and tell the people that some boy scouts are starving on this bridg............