Everything took place openly in the most brazen fashion, as if they had
been playing leap-frog or hide-and-seek. Every one boasted of his own
achievements and tried to outdo the rest in unashamed performance. Yet
it was not so much a question of companionship in indulgence as of
sportsmanlike competition. Pleasure had little to do with it. What they
did, and still more what they pretended to have done, was an assertion
and a proof of manliness, and so was the language they used among
themselves. If they hid from the older people, that was not because they
regarded themselves as engaged in any sinful pursuits, but because the
grown-ups to them appeared jealous of all childish pleasures, and
particularly jealous of the pleasures most treasured by themselves.

Outwardly Keith played the part of an interested but passive observer.
When taunted for his timidity, or as being a mere infant, he parried by
using a number of nasty words, some of which he did not know the meaning
of. When by himself, he soon found that he could play the game as well
as the rest, and it increased his sense of self-importance very much,
but of this he said nothing to any one. Something within his own nature
protested against the flaunting of such an act, though the act itself
carried no offence to his childish mind. The inner protest was not
strong enough to break into words or to make the companionship of the
other boys seem repulsive to him. Nor was it concerned with anything
Keith did by himself.

The summer went very fast. Keith was sorry when told that it was time
for him to go home. He would come back, of course, but his regrets were
only momentary. No sooner was he started than the idea of seeing his
mother, Granny, and his tin soldiers again, put everything else out
of his mind.