“We could go for a walk through the marshes, Plum Island way,” said Sally Rose, looking at Johnny.
“All of us?” he asked her. Kitty and Eben and Dick ought to know that he meant for them to go away and leave him alone with Sally Rose. But they didn’t go.
“We could all go back to our house and have plum cake and buttermilk,” suggested Kitty. “Granny cut a new plum cake yesterday.”
Eben’s voice rose high and shrill again. “We could play hide-and-seek,” he announced boldly.
Sally Rose giggled. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“That’s only for young ’uns,” muttered Dick. “I be too big for that now.”
But suddenly Kitty defended the idea.
“You’re right, of course, Dick,” she said wistfully. “But then, don’t you sometimes hate to feel you’re getting too big for the things that used to be fun? Eben’s the youngest of us, and he finished school more than a year ago. Soon we’ll be grown and married, with houses and children, and we won’t be able to run out after dark like this, and walk by the river, and watch for the moon. We’ll have to stay in, and rock babies, and split firewood, and see that the doors are locked and the table set for breakfast. It’ll come on us all so soon now.” She looked at Johnny appealingly. “Let’s have one last play night—one night to be young—before we grow too old.”
Johnny’s eyes widened suddenly, and his mouth curved in a smile. Sally Rose had a cluster of apple buds pinned on her bodice, and their sweetness hovered all about. It made him feel sad, and happy, and unsettled as a girl, ready to agree to anything, even Kitty’s daft notion.
“Right enough, Kit,” he said. “For one more night, we’ll be young. We’ll play hide-and-seek, if we never do again. I’ll count first, and the rest of you hide. This’ll be goal, this empty rum keg here.”