All of a sudden I lost my balance almost and I had to stand on both legs and wave my hands to keep from falling down into the field. Dub did the same and he bunked against me, then Sandy went bunking against him and, good night, we all went tumbling down in a bunch outside the stone wall. Lucky for us, hey?
“Follow your leader,” I said.
So then I went hop, skip and jump down the road with that crazy bunch after me. Gee, it was a picture no artist could paint. Anyway I guess Dub was having a good time. He was laughing, I know that. Pretty soon we came to the place where the road goes down to Shady Vale—it’s pretty steep. There was a sign that said.
STEEP HILL
USE YOUR EARS
I said to them, “Here’s where we have to be careful—follow your leader. Use your ears so you won’t go down too fast.” I grabbed hold of my two ears and held them out so the wind would catch them and hold us back—that’s what I told the other fellows. They all did just like I did. Some parade!
Down at the foot of the hill were a couple of girls sitting in a Ford and they started laughing at us. One of them said, “What are you holding your ears for? You look too silly!”
“To go slow down the hill,” I said. “There’s a sign up there that says we should use our ears.”
“It means gears,” she said. “Somebody scratched out the G. You’re too ridiculous!”
“How did we know that?” Will asked her. “We’re Boy Scouts and we obey the law. When we see a sign we obey it.”
She said, “Well, Mr. Show-off, since you’re so obedient, there’s a sign right across the road there that says STOP.”