We ca n't gloss it over , Rilla . I 'm a coward . '' `` You 're not . Think of how you fought Dan Reese long ago . '' `` One spurt of courage is n't enough for a lifetime . '' `` Walter , one time I heard father say that the trouble with you was a sensitive nature and a vivid imagination . You feel things before they really come -- feel them all alone when there is n't anything to help you bear them -- to take away from them . It is n't anything to be ashamed of . When you and Jem got your hands burned when the grass was fired on the sand-hills two years ago Jem made twice the fuss over the pain that you did . As for this horrid old war , there 'll be plenty to go without you . It wo n't last long . '' `` I wish I could believe it . Well , it 's supper-time , Rilla . You 'd better run . I do n't want anything . '' `` Neither do I. I could n't eat a mouthful . Let me stay here with you , Walter . It 's such a comfort to talk things over with someone . The rest all think that I 'm too much of a baby to understand . '' So they two sat there in the old valley until the evening star shone through a pale-grey , gauzy cloud over the maple grove , and a fragrant dewy darkness filled their little sylvan dell .
It was one XXXXX the evenings Rilla was to treasure in remembrance all her life -- the first one on which Walter had ever talked to her as if she were a woman and not a child .
So ago before from in of over to until with