After that Johnny began to watch himself. For the first time he learned to think before he spoke. - Esther Forbes

Most American heroes of the Revolutionary period are by now two men, the actual man and the romantic image. Some are even three men—the actual man, the image, and the debunked remains.

"How old are you, Johnny?" she asked.
"Sixteen."
"And what's that — a boy or a man?"
He laughed. "A boy in time of peace and a man in time of war."

If he still were in England and were the man whom this girl loved, she would probably seek him out — women have almost a genius for anticlimaxes.