“What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree...”

“...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...”

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

“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.”

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

“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 . . .”

“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.”