the little children bod had played with when he was small were still little children ; fortinbras bartleby , who had once been his best friend , was now four or five years younger than bod was , and they had less to talk about each time they saw each other ; thackeray porringer was bod 's height and age , and seemed to be in much better temper with him ; he would walk with bod in the evenings , and tell stories of unfortunate things that had happened to his friends .