Bill Peet Quotes

″ ‘I can wish,’ sighed poor Katy, ‘What else can I do? If you wish hard enough then your wish might come true.’ ”

“Often Katy would wish that she someday could be something quiet and simple like a lovely elm tree, or a ramshackle barn all alone on a hill where the noisiest thing was a squeaky windmill.”

“What she wished most to be, much more than the rest, Was a cabin she’d seen on her trips through the west. A little log shack half-covered with vines Perched on a slope in a forest of pines.”

“High up in the mountains were terrible ledges Where the track ran along only feet from the edges. The view was breathtaking but after one look, It was so upsetting she shivered and shook.”

“Her trips always ended near a city somewhere Way out in a freight yard with smoke clouding the air, Where a turmoil of trains made a great noisy rumble On crisscrossing tracks, an impossible jumble.”

″ ‘From now on,’ Katy promised, ‘I shall never complain, I’ll be a happy caboose at the end of a train And put up with the jolts, the train noise, and the rest, All the smoke that rolls by- or at least try my best.’ ”

“She was free of the train! At last she was loose! And away down the track went Katy caboose, On down the grade she flew faster and faster Straight for a curve and certain disaster.”

“When Katy hit the curve she took off like a kite, High over the treetops on her first and last flight, That would quickly have ended poor Katy caboose If it hadn’t been for two towering spruce. The caboose became caught in a very tight squeeze Between the tall trunks of two evergreen trees.”

“Like a great glaring eye, then, the light searched about. It flashed past the trees down the steep rocky bluff And it searched high and low, but not quite high enough.”

“Katy stayed in the treetops, no one ever found her. Except for the squirrels and the birds all around her. At last she was free, just as free as the breeze, And how Katy did love it up there in the trees.”

“The most fun of all for Bruce was rock tumbling. There were lots of rocks in Forevergreen Forest - great jumbles of them. With a swipe of a paw the bear sent them tumbling down the steep slopes three and four at a time. The tumbling rocks shattered logs and flattened the bushes and brush, leaving no place for the rabbits and quail to hide. So they took off in a panic to go leaping and dodging and flying pell-mell in every direction.”

“Whenever the tiny bear was feeling frisky and ready for fun he flipped pebbles around as if they were boulders just to scare the wits out of the grasshoppers, the beetles and caterpillars. From a bug’s-eye view Bruce was a great big hairy-scary horrible brute of a beast.”

″ ‘Laugh while you can,’ warned the witch, ‘but just wait. I’ll have the last laugh, Mister Bear. Oh, indeed I will!’ ”

“One drop of dwindling. Two blurps of belittling. A smidgeon of minikin. A half teaspoon of twurp. A shift of shortening. And then one pinch of kapoot should do it.”

“While the bear slept he gradually began to grow smaller. Inch by inch and little by little Bruce dwindled away. He kept shrinking and shriveling until he was down to the size of a possum. And still he kept shrinking, When the diminishing spell was finally finished the bear had dwindled all the way down to the size of a chipmunk.”

“Little bears have short memories and in a few days Bruce forgot all about ever being a giant of a bear. For all he knew Roxy’s flower garden was a beautiful leafy green forest with plenty of room to roam.”

“He was sure the crafty old witch planned to fix him for good. If she could shrink him down to a runt of a thing she could turn him into a tadpole, or into a flea, or make him disappear altogether.”

“In desperation Bruce scrunched himself up into a ball, hoping the witch would mistake him for part of the rock. But there was no chance of fooling old Roxy, and holding her lantern out over the creek she spotted the bear in a flash.”

“A chilly breeze rippled the dark water and the soggy wet bear shivered and shook from the cold and also from fright. Bruce knew that the night hunters were already out on the prowl, and now he was fair game.”

“Bruce was awakened by a sharp peck on the head, and with an angry growl that came out like a squeak he reared up all ready to fight. But when he found himself nose to beak with a giant of a quail Bruce backed off to gape in amazement.”