Polite children should be polite to the elders. This is what the boy was taught in school. So he couldn't rudely walk away when the neighbor wanted to talk to him.
The neighbor smiled at the boy and brought him a handful of small sweets. The boy refused to accept them again, but the neighbor then threw them into his bag. They fell between purchases and there was no way to take them out, so the boy thanked him though he wasn't grateful. Forcing him to accept sweets had been an unpleasant experience for him..
The neighbor offered to walk the boy home, but the boy thanked him and said that he was old enough to handle himself. Yes, the boy is already big, admitted the neighbor with a strange smile. The boy really wanted to leave this man as soon as possible.
The neighbor wanted to show the boy something interesting, so he asked the boy to come out in front of the house after dark. He certainly won't regret it.
