Eleanor H. Porter

“ Let her have her glorious flight out into the freedom, with the wide, wide world open before her, and without a thought of any one behind her who would be looking after her with longing eyes and outstretching arms. ”

“ As the winter came on, John Gilmore grew more feeble. He came less frequently downstairs now, spending much of his time sitting quietly in his room looking out upon his snow-covered garden. He did not seem to be suffering any pain and Sister Sue refused to think that he was really not so well.
"It is just that he can't get out of doors," she said to Mrs. Preston one day. "He'll be all right when spring comes and he can get to digging in his beloved garden again."
She said the same thing to Donald Kendall one day just after Christmas. ”

“ John Gilmore rallied from the sickness that had kept him in bed a week, and was so well by Christmas that when the letter came from Cousin Abby, Sister Sue wrote she might come.
Yes, Cousin Abby had written a very pitiful letter. She said she was sick, and had spent all her money trying to get well. She wished she could die quickly, but the doctors said it would probably be several months, maybe a year, before she did die, and here she was, still living on! Money all gone and not well enough now to earn any more! She asked, then, could she come to Gilmoreville? ”

“ Sister Sue echoed the names because evidently she knew not what else to say. Her eyes were puzzled, questioning.
"Yes, the Bentons," he nodded. Then, because he wanted to talk of anything but themselves and their own minds and feelings, he plunged at once into a somewhat voluble description of his host's family. "Nice people. Really a good sort, you know, in spite of their loads of money. There's a daughter Beth who sings, and a daughter Helen who paints—very well, too. Then there are two boys, twins, in Harvard. There's always something doing at the Bentons', you may be sure." ”

“ After Donald Kendall had gone, she asked the question of Sister Sue: "If your father got better, really himself again, so ye could leave him all right, would ye go on, that is, I mean have ye given up all idea of ever goin' on an' bein' that concert player ye wanted ter be?" ”

“ When May learned of Cousin Abby's circumstances, the letter and its result, she promptly informed Sister Sue that, of course, she understood that this had made it utterly impossible for her to come to Gilmoreville this summer. That Cousin Abby always had been very distasteful to her, and that certainly now, with a sensitive child like Martia to consider, to go there was quite out of the question. They should go to the shore for the entire summer. ”