“Are we supposed to do that?” I asked him.
He said, “This is intermission, this is lunch hour. But when I jump up and say, ‘Scrhlmxmi’——”
“What?” Pee-wee yelled.
“It’s a Greek word, it means ‘we should worry,’” I said.
Hervey said, “I’ll tell you how it is if you want to play the game right. You’re supposed to follow your leader in everything. If he laughs, you must laugh; if he keeps still, you must keep still; if he has a headache, you must have a headache.”
“Do you think I’m going to have a headache just to please you?” Pee-wee shouted in his face. “How about toothaches, and—and—appendicitis—and——”
“Follow your leader,” Hervey said.
“Yes, and where will we be at supper-time?” the kid wanted to know.
“There’s another verse that goes with that game,” Hervey said. Then he began singing all the while trying to balance a stick on his nose while he was lying on the ground. Gee whiz, I had to laugh, he looked so funny. This was the song:
On a funny-bone hike you don’t get in a rut,