“Granma's name was Bonnie Bee. I knew that when I heard him late at night say, 'I kin ye, Bonnie Bee,' he was saying, 'I love ye,' for the feeling was in the words.”

“Ye see, Little Tree, ain't no way of learning, except by letting ye do. Iff'n I had stopped ye from buying the calf, ye'd have always thought ye'd ought to had it. Iff'n I'd told ye to buy it, ye'd blame me fer the calf dying. Ye'll have to learn as ye go.”

“Granpa said he seen that and so he knowed. Granpa said ye had to understand. But most people didn't want to-it was too much trouble-so they used words to cover their own laziness and called other folks "shiftless".”

“I felt total bad about it, and empty. Granpa said he knew how I felt, for he was feeling the same way. But Granpa said everything you lost which you had loved give you that feeling. He said the only way round it was not to love anything, which was worse because you would feel empty all the time.”

“Granma said when you come on something good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out where no telling it will go. Which is right.”

“Then sometime there in late March, after the Indian violets had come, we would be gathering on the mountain and the wind, raw and mean, would change for just a second. It would touch your face as soft as a feather. It had an earth smell. You knew springtime was on the way.The next day, or the next (you would commence to hold your face out for the feel), the soft touch would come again. It would last a little longer and be sweeter and smell stronger.”

“Borovi su šaptali i vjetar im se pridružio i počeli su pjevati: „Malo Drvo se vratio... Malo Drvo se vratio! Poslušajte našu pjesmu! Malo Drvo je opet s nama! Malo Drvo je došao kući!“Najprije su tiho pjevušili, pa su pjevali sve glasnije i potok je isto pjevao s njima. Psi su to čuli, prestali su njušiti tlo i stajali naćuljenih ušiju i slušali. Psi su znali; prišli su mi i legli oko mene zadovoljni.Cijeli taj kratki zimski dan proveo sam ležeći na mom tajnom mjestu.Moja duša više nije osjećala bol. Bio sam opran od svega pjesmom vjetra i drveća i potoka i ptica, punom ljubavi. Oni nisu razumjeli ni marili kako misli tjelesna pamet, kao što ni ljudi koji misle samo tjelesnom pameću ne razumiju i ne mare za njih. I zato mi nisu govorili o paklu, niti da sam kopile, i nisu uopće govorili o zlu. Oni nisu znali za takve riječi niti što one znače. I nakon nekog vremena, i ja sam ih zaboravio.”