“...she acted as a kind of rough and ready chemical reagent; in certain combinations she produced certain known results.”

“Roughing it builds a boy's character, but only certain kinds of roughing it.”

“Mamma says she is quite certain that "how old is too old?" is not a question known to the Lord.”

“Over the years, I have noticed that the child who learns quickly is adventurous. She's ready to run risks. She approaches life with arms outspread. She wants to take it all in. She still has the desire of the very young child to make sense out of things. She's not concerned with concealing her ignorance or protecting herself. She's ready to expose herself to disappointment and defeat. She has a certain confidence. She expects to make sense out of things sooner or later. She has a kind of trust.”

“Used to all kinds of society, she watched people as one reads the pages of a novel, with a certain disinterested amusement.”

“There is a certain point—she has known this since her father-in-law’s long battle with heart disease—when a person begins to die in earnest. There is a hollowness about them. They begin to retreat. She has seen this, and she knows.”