`` Little boy , '' she had said , with a friendly smile , `` will you show me where the mayflowers grow ? '' Shyly enough he had assented , and they set out together for the barrens beyond the field , where the arbutus trailed its stars of sweetness under the dusty dead grasses and withered leaves of the old year . The boy was thrilled with delight . She was a fairy queen who thus graciously smiled on him and chattered blithely as they searched for mayflowers in the fresh spring sunshine . He thought it a wonderful thing that it had so chanced . It overjoyed him to give the choicest dusters he found into her slim , waxen little fingers , and watch her eyes grow round with pleasure in them . When the sun began to lower over the beeches she had gone home with her arms full of arbutus , but she had turned at the edge of the pineland and waved her hand at him . That night , when he told his mother of the little girl he had met on the hill , she had hoped anxiously that he had been `` very polite , '' for the little girl was a daughter of Colonel Stuart , newly come to Pinehurst . Jeffrey , reflecting , had not been certain that he had been polite ; `` But I am sure she liked me , '' he said gravely . A few days later a message came from Mrs. Stuart on the hill to Mrs. Miller in the valley . Would she let her little boy go up now and then to play with Sara ? Sara was very lonely because she had no playmates . So Jeff , overjoyed , had gone to his divinity 's very home , where the two children played together many a day . All through their childhood they had been fast friends . Sara 's parents placed no bar to their intimacy . They had soon concluded that little Jeff Miller was a very good playmate for Sara . He was gentle , well-behaved , and manly . Sara never went to the district school which Jeff attended ; she had her governess at home . With no other boy or girl in Bayside did she form any friendship , but her loyalty to Jeff never wavered . As for Jeff , he worshipped her and would have done anything she commanded .
He belonged to her from the day they had hunted XXXXX on the hill .
Jeffrey Miller Pinehurst Sara Stuart arbutus beeches day dusters mayflowers