For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the ninth gate.

Bee stings are very educational

I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.

But we survived, didn’t we? That makes it an adventure. If you get killed it’s a tragedy.

I suppose you could call me...Soot," said the thing. "Yes...Soot. I have breathed it, lived in it, and eaten it for so long that it is a fitting name." "Eaten it?" asked Suzy. "Why eat soot?" "Boredom," said Soot.

Fish and fowl, warm sun and shady trees, the field mice in the wheat, under the cool light of the moon.

Since being a prisoner was a definite improvement over being dead, which was what she thought was going to happen when the Loundergs had attacked, Suzy was quite cheerful.