“When a star running back or wide receiver is injured, the coaches worry about their game plans. When a star quarterback gets hurt, the coaches worry about their jobs.”
“When the Ole Miss defense gathered in a single room, the only white people were coaches. On the football field the players became honorary white people, but off it they were still black, and unnatural combatants in Mississippi’s white internecine war.”
“I’d always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole – I wasn’t expected to be good so I wasn’t. But in Reardan, my coach and the other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good . . . And so I became good.”
“At last, Jemmy thought, you’re free of the prince! But he couldn’t resist a backward glance.
Prince Brat was standing in the center of the road. He’d dropped his load of driftwood and merely gazed at the receding coach.
Jemmy straightened, and folded his arms. The prince wasn’t his look out any longer.But he’d stood there like a wounded bird. Blast him! A prince hadn’t a cockeyed notion how to fend for himself.
‘Stop, Cap’n!’ Jemmy shouted. ‘We left me friend behind.’ ”
“ ‘Well, I want you to know I’m right here when you need me, Treehorn,’ said the Principal, ‘and I’m glad I was here to help you. A team is only as good as its coach, eh?’ The Principal stood up, ‘Goodbye, Treehorn. If you have any more problems, come straight to me, and I’ll help you again. A problem isn’t a problem once it’s solved, right?’ “
“Now Thomas is as happy as can be. He has a branch line all to himself, and puffs proudly backward and forward with two coaches all day. He is never lonely because there is always some engine to talk to at the junction.”
″ ‘That’s the breakdown train,’ he said. ‘When there’s an accident, the workmen get into the coach and the engine takes them quickly to help the hurt people and to clear and mend the line. The cranes are for lifting heavy things like engines and coaches and freight cars.’ ”
“Her godmother only just touched her with her wand, and, at the same instant, her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole world...her godmother...commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling her, at the same time, that if she stayed one moment longer, the coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen lizards, and her clothes just as they were before.”
“Away went Edward to get some coaches. ‘Be careful, Edward,’ said the coaches, ‘don’t bump and bang us like the other engines do. So Edward came up to the coaches very, very gently, and the shunter fastened the coupling.”
‘Thank you, Edward,’ said the coaches. ‘That was kind, we are glad you are taking us today.’ Then they went to the station, where the people were waiting. ‘Peep, peep,’ whistled Edward _′get in quickly, please.”