"Rambunctious" sounds like a word to satisfy doctors and social workers. To explain (away) bumps, bruises and cuts.
If you believed two little boys, of any activity level, disappeared out a gate, in winter, with no provisions, the adjectives I might choose would be cold, hungry, frightened. Afraid of the dark. I MIGHT say they were quiet, sneaky -- but only if reporting past behavior which might shed light on where they might be now. I MIGHT say they were shy or friendly or trusting, if I thought that might be helpful. Will they hide? Will they run? Will they stick together? Sweet, vulnerable, lost little boys.
Instead, the impression we're given is of a pair of overzealous toddlers who are somehow in a neighboring home wrestling away. Searcher beware, they're gonna be rambunctious. So? So be prepared? They're gonna poke our eyes out? We're gonna have to protect ourselves? Be prepared to subdue them? Reckless, rambunctious runaways. As if.
Rambunctious IMO describes how one might REMEMBER those boys. Not how they are now but how they used to be.
And that, my friends, is a tell.
JMO
