David Moss Quotes

“At the landing-stage waited a real boat, a canoe at least ten feet long.”

“Mrs. Moss had always distrusted the river, not for herself, but because she was afraid of her children falling in. The only one who had done so, years ago, was David’s elder brother Dick; the falling in had had no special effect upon him, unless perhaps it had given him a taste for water- he was in the Navy now.”

“She was not as portly as a trout; kinder than a pike; what fish was she? ‘I shall call her the Minnow,’ said David softly, digging deeply with his paddle.”

“He wanted to prove quickly what he felt in his bones: that no one owned the boat, that no one had the right to claim it from him.”

“He had lost the Minnow to her rightful and unpleasant owner; he would have to go ashore and fight the owner for calling him a thief, and, as he was the smaller boy, he would probably be beaten.”