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...
She was envious of Sally, who had gotten a perfect husband in Benjamin Burt. Horrified by Eliza, who had married an Indian, even if Andrew was a Praying Indian. Sickened by Abigail, whose choice was a...
Ruth stormed away.She hated the Indians and prayed constantly not to hate her fellow captives as well. They were becoming Indian lovers. Only the stupefied Eliza had avoided it--and that was because s...
Ruth lay down and inched forward until she could look over the edge of the cliff to see what had happened.The force of Otter’s fall had brought snow and rock down upon him. One hand stuck out, and par...
None of the captives possessed the freedom to choose anything or take care of anyone.It turned out that Eben Nims believed otherwise.Eben was looking at Sarah in the way every girl prays some boy will...
Mercy’s only hope for friendship was Nistenha’s cousin’s daughter, Snow Walker, who was a frequent visitor and pleasant enough. But Indians were less likely to talk for the sake of talk and Snow Walke...
Mercy was outdoors more than she had ever been.She had thought that after the horrifying journey of ice and snow, she would never want the outdoors again. But spring and summer were joy.You’re not joy...
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...
In a dark and twisted grove of spruce, a place Eben would have avoided in summer at high noon, the Indians stopped for the night. If he had ever seen a place where an evil spirit would dwell, this was...
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...
But am I lost?And am I Mercy Carter? she had promised Uncle Nathaniel. I will remember my family, my God and my home.I have not broken my promise. I remember my family with love. I honor my God in eve...
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...
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.
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...
The best thing about college was that you could wear anything anywhere.
Strat yearned to imagine her without even the thin white dress, but it would not be honorable, so he prevented himself from having such a fantasy.
Sometimes, when he was older, and especially after he became taller than his mother, he would put his arms around her and silently hold her, and feel her pain right through the fold of his embrace.
Seventh grade had a full complement of creeps, weirdos, future criminals, and nerds.
Perhaps nobody knows anybody..It was a terrifying thought: like the alone. That you could know people well, and know them again the following year, and then know them more...and yet remain strangers f...