How right- how incredibly, utterly right- and how impossible!

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

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.

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

After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.

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

There was something irresistible about popcorn.