And Ruth was the last person to whom a sensible Indian would hand a weapon.
Listen to Sarah Hoyt! cried Ruth. Her long bony face was twisted with anger and hunger. She’s actually laughing. I despise her! It dishonors the dead to make friends with their murderers.Eben’s heart...
It’s me! Mercy Carter! Oh, Mr. Williams! Do you have news? She flung herself on top of him. Oh, his beautiful beard! The beard of a real father, not a pretend Indian father or a French church father....
I don’t understand adoptions myself. I wouldn’t want to be a father to somebody else’s son. But the French and the Indians have run out of children. They love to pretend we’re their children.They aren...
What capacity the Indians had not to worry. In Deerfield, all had been worry. Worry about the Lord, worry about sin. Worry about today, worry about tomorrow. Worry about crops, worry about children.Bu...
They reached a river where the water was open, seething and churning over rocks.We’re going to cross that? thought Mercy. It’s too wide and deep. We’ll drown.Tannhahorens took off his tobacco necklace...
The Indian next to Mr. Williams interrupted him roughly. We kill. You tell.Mr. Williams ceased to pray. Joe Alexander escaped last night, he said. If anyone else tries to escape, they will burn the re...
Tannhahorens did not look at Mercy. The tip of his knife advanced and the Frenchman backed away from it. He was a very strong man, possibly stronger than Tannhahorens. But behind Tannhahorens were twe...
Mercy could not keep up the pace. Gradually the line passed her by, until she was walking with Eben Nims, and she must not fall farther behind than that, because the Indians behind Eben were the end o...
Eben realized that he need not worry about being burned or tortured. He was going to starve to death.Eben had thought that up here, where nobody lived or ever had, the deer would be standing in rows i...
At the crunch of footsteps they looked up, and then they stopped talking. Ruth was dangerous, not because of her habit of throwing things, but because every word she spoke was upsetting. They had begu...
And then a creek, so fast-flowing that even in this wicked cold it had not frozen. The Indians stood in ice water up to their thighs, handing the small children across, but the adults had to wade. Wet...
Arms, her black African arms, with
When you were steadily dating a boy, as she was Reeve, and this was known to everybody, it freed you up to be friends with boys.
Turnpikes at night were like girl talk: not interesting.
The most crippling part of my personality is that as much as I want to know something, I can't bear admitting I'm ignorant. It's as if I think I should have been born knowing and understanding all. As...
Summer. That long lovely world of slow days and late nights, warm air and friendly sun.
Sometimes Reeve couldn’t stand women. They were so practical.
Seventh grade had a full complement of creeps, weirdos, future criminals, and nerds.
Pretty dresses, desperate hearts.