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

I'm finished with something, but I'm not beginning anything. That's wrong. When you finish something, you ought always to begin something new.

Then he kissed her. Betsy didn't believe in letting boys kiss you. She thought it was silly to be letting first this boy and then that one kiss you, when it didn't mean a thing. But it was wonderful when Joe Willard kissed her. And it did mean a thing.

It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.

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

And yet, even as she spoke, she knew that she did not wish to come back. not to stay, not to live. She loved the little yellow cottage more than she loved any place on earth. but she was through with it except in her memories.

Isn't it mysterious to begin a new journal like this? I can run my fingers through the fresh clean pages but I cannot guess what the writing on them will be.