“Temple Camp is west from here,” he yelled at me, because the train was making a lot of noise.
“Do you blame me for that?” I asked him. “I didn’t invent the compass, did I? If you’re not satisfied with where Temple Camp is you’d better complain to Mr. Temple, he put it there.”
“Oh, look at the big, high tree!” Hervey shouted. “Let’s climb up that on our way back.”
“Sure,” I said, “and jump off the top. You’d be going leap frog over the Woolworth Building if you were leader. Be thankful you’ve got a conservative leader.”
“A what?” the kid yelled. Just then he went backward off the arm of the seat plunk into a man’s lap.
“Tickets,” the conductor shouted.
I said, “Hey, mister, we’re on a funny-bone hike, and the train started before we had a chance to get off. We have to go to Alsen. Do you know if we can get ice cream cones there?”
He just laughed and said he’d have to collect our fares. It only costs ten cents from Catskill to Alsen.
I said to the fellows, “Well, so long as the engineer’s going to be our leader for a little while I’ll take a vacation.”
So I sat down and began looking out of the window.