The baby Francie crowed with delight as her grandmother held up the cruet and the sun shone through it and made a small fat rainbow on the opposite wall. Mary smiled with the child and made the rainbo...
Sissy had two great failings. She was a great lover and a great mother. She had so much of tenderness in her, so much of wanting to give of herself to whoever needed what she had, whether it was her m...
She was made up of more, too. She was the books she read in the library. She was the flower in the brown bowl. Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter qu...
She learned of the class system of a great Democracy. She was puzzled and hurt by teacher’s attitude. Obviously the teacher hated her and others like her for no other reason than that they were what t...
She had had the pain; it had been like being boiled alive in scalding oil and not being able to die to get free of it
Several times that day, the name or thought of Papa had come up. And each time, Francie had felt a flash of tenderness instead of the old stab of pain. Am I forgetting him? she thought. In time to com...
Run, run, you fool, before the waves of hurt start breaking.
People always think that happiness is a faraway thing, thought Francie, something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains - a cup of stron...
Our family used to be like this strong cup, thought Francie. It was whole and sound and held things well. When papa died, the first crack came. And this fight tonight made another crack. Soon there wi...
Now his children are getting old too, like him, and they have children and nobody wants the old man any more and they are waiting for him to die. But he don't want to die. He wants to keep on living e...
Maybe being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.
Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life...And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.
Katie heard the story. 'It's come at last,' she thought, 'the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache. When there wasn't enough food in the house you pretended you weren'...
It's come at last, she thought, the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache.
It's a beautiful religion and I wish I understood it more. No, I don't want to understand it all. It's beautiful because it's always a mystery. Sometimes I say I don't believe in God and Jesus and Mar...
It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life an...
I know there is no Santa Claus. Yet you must teach the child that these things are so. Why? When I, myself, do not believe? Because, explained Mary Rommely simply, the child must have a valuable thing...
I know that's what people say-- you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, youll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget. Every time you fall in love it will be becaus...
How much do they be paying you? he asked mellowly.The usual salary. A little more than they think I'm worth and a little less than I think I'm worth.
Gently, Teacher explained the difference between a lie and a story. A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have h...