A woman set on anything will walk right through the moral crockery without wincing.

Snobbery, being an aspiring failing, is sometimes the prophecy of better things.

There are those who say that trees shade the garden too much, and interfere with the growth of the vegetables. There may be something in this:but when I go down the potato rows, the rays of the sun glancing upon my shining blade, the sweat pouring down my face, I should be grateful for shade.

One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one

Plots are no more exhausted than men are. Every man is a new creation, and combinations are simply endless.

The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions, as it is the latest. Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure. Fondness for the ground comes back to a man after he has run the round of pleasure and business, eaten dirt, and sown wild oats, drifted about the world, and taken the wind of all its moods. The love of digging in the ground (or of looking on while he pays another to dig) is as sure to come back to him, as he is sure, at last, to go under the ground, and stay there.

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value