“How right- how incredibly, utterly right- and how impossible!”

“Everything in our lives," she said quietly, "leads up to everything else in our lives. So a moment in the present has a reference point, both in the past and in the future. I want you to know that you--as you are right now and as you ever wil be--are fully enough for this moment . . .”

“...of the few young men and boys at the fort, now that she was too old for racing and climbing trees with them, she felt both shy and critical...”

“The impression of strength came from an extraordinary vitality that seemed to pulse in the very air around him”

“I have no word of yours to assure me that our brief friendship held for you the same significance it held for me, but I must go on believing so. Every hope of the future is meaningless unless I have faith that you and I will share it together.”

“All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”

“She snatched at the dream that had comforted her for so long. It was faded and thin, like a letter too often read.”