What or who was that little boy in the woods???

When my husband was a child, he grew up next to a large area of woods and the town cemetery. Him and the other kids that lived on the no outlet road would play in the woods and the creek that ran through it. He was about 8 years old and always the last kid to leave playing. One day they we're all down by the part of the creek with the big hill. It was summer and almost dark. The other kids were ready to leave, but my husband was still down the hill by the creek. They were yelling for him to come on. He looked up on the other side of the hill across the creek, he saw a small boy or man sitting at the top of the hill. He described the person being shirtless, having longish dark hair, pointed ears and reading a large book for his size. Of course being that young and scared my husband ran up the hill with his friends and ran home. The next day while playing with his friends he asked them if they had seen the little boy. No one else had claimed to see the boy.
Why was he the only one to see him???
What or who could he have been??

[sea-dove]

pointy ears.. Elf?

Its like anything psychically seen or seeing into another dimension, others there may not see it. Im sure if he'd approached the other, the other would of been quite surprised.

Thank you so much sea-dove, I've never seen anything like he has, but I know 100% that he did, and now I can give him an answer for the question he's been wondering about for 30 years. Have you ever seen an elf??