nued about two years. He moved to the
city when I was ten years old. He was about a year and a half
older. I have seen him only twice since then. The summer that I
was eleven years old I met a little boy who was visiting his
aunt, our neighbor. He was a year older than I. I cannot remember
his name, but can remember how he looked. I loved him the same as
I did Ray, except at the time I thought I loved him much better.
I didn't know whether he loved me or not, but I thought that he
did, because I noticed that he was just as nervous when we were
together as I was, and turned his eyes away when I looked at him
just as I couldn't help doing when he looked at me. One day I
told Grace, his cousin, that I liked him better than I did any
one else I knew. I said that I believed that I liked him better
than I did my mamma. He had been at his aunt's two months, and I
told Grace this just the day before he was going away. On the
next day he came over in the forenoon and found me standing alone
by the rain-barrel, thinking about him and almost crying because
he was going away so soon. We stood and talked awhile, and then
he said "Say, did you really mean what you said to Grace
yesterday?" I can remember just how he looked at me when he said
it. I wanted to tell him that I did. Then I thought that I would
tease him. So I pretended that I did not know what he meant and
tried to get him to tell me what it was. He kept telling me that
I knew what it was and to please answer him. But I kept
pretending that I did not know. I remember that I thought that I
had better not say that I did because he hadn't yet said that he
loved me. At last he said, "Please do tell me, I would be _so_
happy if I knew that you meant it." I was just going to tell him
that I did mean it when mamma called me to come in and help her,
so I had to go without telling him. He went away that afternoon,
and I have never heard of him since. I cried that night because I
had not told him what he wanted me to instead of teasing him. The
last boy that I fell in love with had twinkling blue eyes, dark
hair and dozens and dozens of freckles. He was what the people
call a "holy terror," but every one liked him because he was so
free-hearted and ready to help everybody. I do not know how I
happened to fall in love with him nor when, but I