₦airaland Forum

The skates were on, and now Hatty and Tom were ready for the ice; two skaters on one pair of skates, which seemed to Tom both the eeriest and the most natural thing in the world. A new skill and power came into him, as though these skates knew their work better than the skater: he could skate as well as Hatty, because these were her skates…

They did not skate with linked hands, as many skating partners did, for fear of the odd appearance being noticed but once they had left behind the thick crowds of sociable skaters just below the town, they skated abreast, keeping time together, stroke for stroke. There was no wind at all that afternoon, and they cut through the still air, faster and faster.

Hatty had pinned her skirt up above her ankles, for greater freedom of movement; and now she abandoned the use of her muff, the better to swing her arms in time with their skating. Their speed made the muff fly out behind her on its cord, and at last a stroke gave it such a violent fling that the cord broke and the fur ball shot away and landed in the middle of a game of bandy and somehow became part of the game and was never seen again. Hatty saw it disappear, and neither stopped nor faltered in her course but only laughed, as though she cared nothing now for muffs or improprieties or aunts. They skated on…

tom's midnight garden




The first branches grew conveniently low, and the main trunk had bosses and crevices. With the toes of his left foot fitted into one of these last, Tom curved his hands around the branch over his head. Then he gave a push, a spring and a strong haul on the arms: his legs and feet were dangling free, and the branch was under his chest, and then under his middle. He drew himself still further forward, at the same time twisting himself expertly; now he was sitting on the bough, a man’s height above ground.

The rest of the ascent was easy but interesting: sometimes along the spreading outermost branches, sometimes working close to the main trunk, Tom loved the dry feel of the bark on the main trunk. In places the bark had peeled away, and then a deep pink showed beneath, as though the tree were skin and flesh beneath the brown. Up and up he went, and burst at last from the dim interior into an openness of blue and fiery gold. The sun was the gold, in a blue sky. All around him was a spreading tufted surface of evergreen. He was on a level with the tall south wall….







**one of my favorite books**

Narrative of the life of frederick douglass





'In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me,  The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. . . . .'

the secret garden




'"Not but that it's a grand big place in a gloomy way, and Mr. Craven's proud of it in his way-- and that's gloomy enough, too. The house is six hundred years old, and it's on the edge of the moor, and there's a hundred rooms in it, though most of them's shut up and locked. And there's pictures and fine old furniture and things that's been there for ages, and there's a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground-- some of them," She paused and took another breath. "But there's nothing else," she ended suddenly.'

mary poppins





'With her large bag in her hands she slid gracefully up the banisters, and arrived at the landing at the same time as Mrs. Banks. Such a thing, Jane and Michael knew, had never been done before. Down, of course, for they had often done it themselves. But up -- never! They gazed curiously at the strange new visitor.'

the magician's nephew






'For what you see and hear depends on a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.'

coraline




'Coraline sighed. "You really don't understand, do you?" she said. "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. what kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything, What then?"'

middlemarch




'Art is an old language with a great many artificial, affected styles, and sometimes the chief pleasure one gets out of knowing them is the mere sense of knowing.

“But if you are single the last thing you want is your best friend forming a functional relationship with somebody else.”

“I realize it has become too easy to find a diet to fit in with whatever you happen to feel like eating and that diets are not there to be picked and mixed but picked and stuck to, which is exactly what I shall begin to do once I've eaten this chocolate croissant.”

“I will not get upset over men, but instead be poised and cool ice-queen.”

“That is such crap. How dare you be so fraudulently flirtatious, cowardly and dysfunctional? I am not interested in emotional (crap). Goodbye.”

“It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting "Cathy" and banging your head against a tree.”

bridget jones diary






“I will not fall for any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, megalomanics, chauvists, emotional (nitwits) or freeloaders, perverts.”

a town like alice






I know you've taken risks to do these things. Do Please be careful."