Often he would strike out across the downs and be away from early
morning until starlight, and concerning his adventures he would be
strangely reticent.
But I do not profess to have fathomed the ways and moods of boys, and I
merely shrugged my shoulders, perhaps a little sorrowfully.
"I suppose he is growing up," thought I. And yet, for all that, I could
not keep myself from wondering what influence was at work upon the
boy's development. Even the doctor, who, of us all, saw the least of
him, noticed the change, for he asked me suddenly, one late September
day,
"What's the matter with Tommy?"