Understood Betsy Quotes
"And yet they all had plenty to eat. I wonder what was the matter with them?"
"No womenkind in all the world had kinder hearts than they."
"It is possible also that they were a little bored with their empty life in their rather forlorn, little brick house in the medium-sized city."
"Aunt Frances shared in all Elizabeth Ann’s doings and even in all her thoughts."
"She was determined that she would thoroughly understand Elizabeth Ann down to the bottom of her little mind."
"The trouble with most children is that they are not understood."
"Elizabeth Ann was neither very strong nor well. And as to her being happy, you can judge for yourself when you have read all this story."
"She had never had a whole thought of her very own."
"I think it’s going to be real nice, having a little girl in the house again."
"Oh, I haven’t been asleep! I was waiting for somebody to tell me to get up."
"Good land, child, take all the milk you want!"
"She was fond of milk, and she made a very good breakfast as she sat looking about the low-ceilinged room. It was unlike any room she had ever seen."
"For some queer reason, every time she now glanced at that sheet of sunlight and the bright flowers she had a little of the same thrill which had straightened her back and gone up and down her spine while the band was playing."
"That’s Shep, our old dog. Doesn’t he make an awful noise! Mother says, when she happens to be alone here in the evening, it’s a real company to hear Shep snore—as good as having a man in the house."
"I don’t know what I am at all. If I’m second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third grade spelling, what grade am I?"
"You aren’t any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You’re just yourself, aren’t you? What difference does it make what grade you’re in? And what’s the use of your reading little baby things too easy for you just because you don’t know your multiplication table?"
"Elizabeth Ann was thinking to herself that this was one of the queerest things that had happened to her even in this queer place."
"Teacher says I can go with you if you’ll take care of me," she said.
"No, I don’t!" answered the little girl emphatically. "I like them to have brown hair, just the way most little girls really do!"
"It was the first season Mother let me wear real hoop skirts."
"Sometimes it seems to me that every time a new piece of machinery comes into the door some of our wits fly out at the window."
"Mercy, no, child! Why, I can remember when only folks that were pretty well off had stoves and real poor people still cooked over a hearth fire."
"Oh, well," said Cousin Ann, "it doesn’t matter if you really know the right answers, does it? That’s the important thing."
"It’s my opinion that she had made a very good beginning of an understanding."
"She was just picking up her cup to take it back to the sap-house when Shep growled a little and stood with his ears and tail up, looking down the road."
"Because she thought that was the thing to do."
"She put this out of her mind and walked along very fast, peering ahead into the dusk."
"Oh, it hasn’t anything to do with wolves," she said in answer to Molly’s question; "anyhow, not now."
"I always told Father we ought to put a fence around that pit," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Some day a sheep’s going to fall down there."
"I tried to think what you would have done if you’d been there," said Betsy.
"I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that Elmore Pond might adopt ‘Lias if he was gone at the right way."
"So ‘Lias Brewster will look nice, and Mr. Pond will maybe adopt him."
"It’s just like a story, isn’t it?—working and sacrificing for the poor!"
"Oh, God, please, please, please make Mr. Pond adopt ‘Lias."
"And that darned old skunk of a stepfather has gone and taken 'em and sold 'em to get whiskey."
"I’ll go if I have to buy out the whole town to get him an outfit!"
"Oh, I thought you said we were going to march up to ‘Lias in school and give him his clothes. Did you forget about that?"
"But how’ll ‘Lias know who to thank?" asked Molly. "That’s no matter," said Betsy.
"Never you mind how," said Betsy, trying to be facetious and mock-mysterious, though her own under lip was quivering a little.
"How much does it cost to go to Hillsboro on the cars?" asked Betsy with a sinking heart.
"I’ll earn the rest! I’ll earn it somehow! I’ll have to! There isn’t any other way!"
"Some young one wanting more money for the side-shows."
"And so I bought the tickets and we got home," she ended, adding, "Oh, Uncle Henry, you ought to have seen the prize pig! He was too funny!"
"Oh, I’d like to, all right!" said Betsy, looking confidently up into Aunt Abigail’s face.
"We’ve sort of got used to having her around."
"Oh, Aunt Frances, dear, darling Aunt Frances!" she cried, "how I wish I could always take care of you."