I never miss Meeting now,” I said. “Do not look surprised. I have sent many a prayer heavenward on your behalf. And your father is not home yet. Your uncle sails under more danger of...

I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through, and others who came in mean and will go out mean. It’s like coffee. Once it’s roasted,...

…we named her Dorothy Ann. Dolly, for short. I kissed her warily, fearful of the pain of loving her, love her, though love her I did; fearful lest she hurt me by dying.

Was he he handsome?” she asked with a sly smirk.”Very. He is still, I think.””The devil, they say, goes about in finery.””And if you believe Beelzebub is as cunning as he is attractive, then I...

One thing I know from living with Jack is that war, any war, stains a man deep, and nothing can get the stain out. They can wear clothes like a rancher or a banker, but...

I realized that poverty was a kind of captivity.

The best thing a girl can be is a good wife and mother. It is a girl’s highest calling. I hope I am ready.

How is it possible for me to feel so young and so old at the same time?

Children are a burden to a mother, but not the way a heavy box is to a mule. Our children weight hard on my heart, and thinking about them growing up honest and healthy, or...

What a pure blessing it was to have a bath in a tub alone in a room where all you had to do was pump the water, not tote buckets. Then all you had to...

And he likes to torment me, and laughs when I get upset when he does. No, of course not. I do not love Jack Elliot. He is low and coarse and a soldier, and not...

I might like to have someone courting me. But it would have to be someone who is a square shooter and who has a train load of courage. And it would have to be someone...

We are a noisy and blessed little family

Well, there is rough old Albert, as ornery as any big brother a girl could have, putting his arm around Savannah and cooing to her like a repenting hound dog, and promising her she is...

I asked Mama was it a sin to do what I done, and she said no, it was the same as David slaying Goliath, it was only to save Ulyssa and the others, not because...

[Children] just cannot be sad too long, it is not in them, as children mourn in little bits here and there like patchwork in their lives.

Udell was an ordinary man, I thought, but a man with an extraordinary way of thinking. That was truly worth more than gold: extraordinary thinking.

Mama told me to make a special point to remember the best times of my life. There are so many hard things to live through, and latching on to the good things will give you...

Mama said it’s probably because of Suzanne, and that you are never the same after a child dies. That made me wonder what she was like before Clover died, because I don’t think I really...

I told Mama and Savannah about Ruben’s proposal. That got us to talking about marriage and we laughed and cried some, and missed Papa, and it felt good to belong to each other. I don’t...

We have talked about Suzy and about her last days, but it’s as if our lives stopped then and there. If I say anything to him about feeling lonesome, he goes outside and does some...

At times, it’s better to think of exactly what is happening right in front of you every second, rather than going through things from the past in your mind.

It seems as if I can only thing if I write my journal, it just connects the part of my head that is busy doing things with the part that is busy thinking about everything...

Living is getting knocked down time and again, then standing up time and again, and once more. It’s easy to act honorable when things are coming along and all your pastures are green. Plenty difficult...