Being the oldest of the children, Adam could afford to pay attention to the youngest without loss of station, and he was never far away from Rachel after that. Doreen and Annabel found her boring, since she was both female and younger than they were. After a while, rebelling at Adam’s insistence that she be included in every game, they flounced away to the small burying ground and made up stories about who was buried there. James went off by himself to another part of the grove where he found interest in sitting quietly and observing Violet and Sugar, who thought, if they thought at all, that they were alone. Violet was half asleep or pretending to be. Neither talked. A bee buzzed in the sweet, dusty air, and Sugar sat beside Violet with a hand under her dress and between her legs. James stared at them, wondering if they were sick, they looked so funny.

Adam had entirely assumed the role of courtly nurse-brother to Rachel, whose energies and invention doubled as she took the measure of his interest and patience. Roman watched the two children, feeling himself a very grown man, but acknowledging his affection for both of them. Rachel was everybody’s darling, but she was particularly his. He watched them now unjealously. Although he had seen Adam occasionally for all the boy’s life, he saw young-manly beauty in him today for the first time. Making up the story of their lives, he decided that they would grow up friends, fall in love, and marry! It was just what would happen, and one day long away in the future he would tell them he had thought of it on this day. He sounded notes on the flute, not trying to make a special tune, just putting music into the air.

“I declare,” Edna said, “it’s like he already knows how to play that thing. I’m glad he has it. He’s a teacher, and it was our teacher, Mr. Bartram, who brought it here in the first place. Poor soul, I wonder whatever happened to him. I don’t suppose you came across him in Savannah? He wanted to compose ‘airs for Arcadia,’ he said. But he never could put two notes together that sounded any better than a goose’s honk. Now, Roman has a touch with it. Children! You stay away from those graves, you hear me, or else the people in them will come to haunt you tonight when you go to sleep in the dark! Anybody hungry?”

This question brought them on the run. Juanita was commissioned to pour lemonade for them to drink while Edna and Sarah set out the food. Bone, who had trotted about the grove sniffing uninterestedly, returned to the center of activity and sat patiently waiting his chance, knowing that it would come.