It was a solemn thing to reflect upon, under a glittering heaven that held, or not, those who might feel with him the bigness of the moment.

He suffered a vision of the new shoes, stiffly formidable, side by side at the foot of his bed in the little house.

It left him feeling all his years.
And he would wear long trousers! With tolerant amusement he saw himself as of old, barefoot, bare-legged, the knee pants buttoned to the calico blouse.

It was all over.

He scanned the stars a last time, dimly feeling that the least curious of their inhabitants would be aware of this crisis.
Perhaps on one of those blinking orbs people with a proper concern for other world events would be saying to one another: "Yes, he's grown up now.