In Crapapple Cove, Maine, Benjamin Franklin Pierce (named after an explorer and a president) is six years old, and his father reads him "The Last of the Mohicans." His father cooks bacon and eggs in the little kitchen every morning, while Benjamin sits by the window to pull on his grey school socks, and watches his breath blow in icy plumes like a dragon's, watches Jack Frost trace silver shards across the window pane. He listens to the bacon sizzling in the pan, and feels warm and safe as he hears the rain tumbling on the roof, the dogs barking wetly in the yard outside.
Benjamin Pierce is six, and he comes home from school in a rush of wool-scarf -flying, pink-cheeked jubilation, and clatters up the stairs to kiss his mother. Sometimes, if she is well and smiling, he sits with her in the big double bed, and she reads to him from big, leather-bound, gold-leaf books of Shakespeare, Wilde, Hemingway, Tolstoy, and Tennyson. But she never reads him "The Last of the Mohicans." That belongs to Dad. He sometimes tells Ben with a twinkle in his eyes that it is the only book he has ever read. Most days though, Mother is too tired to play, so Ben clatters downstairs again (fourteen stairs, he counts them every time) and helter-skelters outside without his mittens to build snow forts with Tommy, and play soldiers and Indians. Tommy is Chingachgook, with a toy sword that his big brother made for him, and Ben is Hawkeye, with a slingshot made from an old strip of leather. Sometimes, Dickie Barber plays with them too, and he has a real gun that his Dad bought him in town, which fires plastic bullets and bangs like a real soldier's gun. Ben rolls snowballs with Tommy, and they scale the big pine tree to their secret hut to throw them at Tommy's sister Esmae.
In Boston, Massachusetts, Johnny McIntyre is nearly (but not quite) seven, and he goes to church on Sunday swinging from his big brother's arm. Michael is older than him, ten now, but Johnny is nearly seven, and one day he will be bigger than Mike. His mother stays at home with the new baby, and Kathy is too little yet to come to church, because she's only two, while Johnny is six, going on seven. He used to ride to church sitting on his Father's shoulders, but now he is almost the oldest, so he walks along the pavement instead, only running a little bit to catch up with Michael, and it is Adam now who rides on Dad's shoulders. Johnny likes Sundays best, because he doesn't have to go to school, and after Mass, Dad takes them all to the park, and he is allowed to take his shoes off and paddle in the lake, and Michael chases the ducks to make Adam laugh, and then Dad gets out a football and teaches them all how to pass and kick. Johnny loves football. He is fast, faster than Dad, and he can kick almost as far as Mike can. On the way back , Dad stops to get a loaf of bread for lunch, and the boys are allowed to choose something from the bakery. When it is Johnny's turn, he always chooses raisin buns with creamy white icing, and he licks his fingers all the way home. After lunch, he plays in the yard with Mike and Adam, but they don't let Kathy play, because she's too young, and anyway, she's a girl. Kathy doesn't mind. She sits in front of the fire with Mommy, and reads picture books to the baby. (She can't really read, she just pretends to, but Johnny can, because he's at school now. Sometimes, if he's feeling really nice, he'll read to her and show her what the words are, but mostly he just plays outside because books are girly.)
Johnny McIntyre is six, going on seven, and he plays in the garden with his brothers while his mother cooks roast chicken for Sunday dinner.
Hawkeye Pierce is six years old when his mother dies, and his father reads him "The Last of the Mohicans."