“They soon stopped being ten years old. But whatever age they were seemed to be exactly the right age for having fun.”

“You have two numbers in your age when you are ten. It's the beginning of growing up.”

“A house with nothing old in it seems - unseasoned.”

“That's the way you have to be with boys," said Betsy. "Beam about their old football when you're dying to know whether they're going to take you to a party.”

“You might as well learn right now, you two, that the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say.”

“We have to build our lives out of what materials we have. It's as though we were given a heap of blocks and told to build a house.”

“The wastes of snow on the hill were ghostly in the moonlight. The stars were piercingly bright.”