I watched him do that, again and again, and I did not have the words yet for what it made me feel, only that watching a person be gentle to my sister when gentleness cost him something with the other boys was the most attractive thing I had ever seen a human being do.

I did not have the vocabulary, at that age, to understand what I was responding to, but I understand it perfectly now, and I think it is worth naming, because it turned out to be the truest thing about Gabriel and the key to everything that followed.

What I was responding to was integrity, the specific and rare kind that does the right thing when the right thing is unpopular.

Any child can be kind to the popular and the easy, where kindness costs nothing.