“He talks softly, patiently, as I sit on the window ledge and watch boats with colorful triangles for sails scratch the ocean.”

“I saw William Blackett’s escaping sail already far from land, and Captain Littlepage was sitting behind his closed window as I passed by, watching for some one who never came. I tried to speak to him, but he did not see me. There was a patient look on the old man’s face, as if the world were a great mistake and he had nobody with whom to speak his own language or find companionship.”

“And I shall watch the ferry boats, and they'll get high, On a bluer ocean against tomorrow's sky,And I will never grow so old again,And I will walk and talk, in gardens all wet with rain.- Sweet Thing”

“Some sit and watch the life; some sail to the sea and the life watches them!”

“It is the tenderness that breaks our hearts. The loveliness that leaves us stranded on the shore, watching the boats sail away. It is the sweetness that makes us want to reach out and touch the soft skin of another person. And it is the grace that comes to us, undeserving though we may be.”

“She talks as she sails, the old wooden boat -- of oyster days, and summer bays, and watermen grown old.”