Loose planking, hey ?" Pee-wee listened to the rattling of the loose planks as another car sped over the unseen structure, little dreaming of the part that bridge was destined to play in his young life.

The commonplace noise of the neglected flooring seemed emphasized by the quiet of the woodland.

That reminder of human traffic, so near and yet so far and out of tune with all the gentler sounds of the valley, presented a strange contrast and jarred even Pee-wee's stout nerves.
"There goes another," Charlie said; "we must be nearer to the highway than I thought." They had, indeed, inscribed a kind of loop and having passed its farthest point from the main road were traveling toward it again and would have emerged upon it just beyond the bridge but for the wood embowered and sequestered village which was their destination.

The first sign of this village was a cow standing in the middle of the grass-grown road as if to challenge their approach.

Perhaps she was stationed there as a sort of traffic cop..