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.

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

She tried to act as though it were nothing to go to the library alone. But her happiness betrayed her. Her smile could not be restrained, and it spread from her tightly pressed mouth, to her round cheeks, almost to the hair ribbons tied in perky bows over her ears.

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

The most important part of religion isn't in any church. It's down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you act from day to day, in the way you treat other people. It's honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.

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

In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.