Frances Quotes

“She pulled off her covers and stood on her bed so she could look out the window. She saw a moth bumping against the window. Bump and thump. His wings smacked the glass.”

″ ‘There is a tiger in my room,’ said Frances. ‘Did it bite you?’ said Father. ‘No’, said Frances. ‘Dd he scratch you?’ said Mother. ‘No,’ said Frances. ‘Then he is a friendly tiger’, said Father. ‘He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.’ ”

“There were so many giants and tigers and scary and exciting things before, that I am pretty tired now. That is just a moth, and he is only doing his job, the same as the wind. His job is bumping and thumping and my job is to sleep.”

″ ‘So do I’, said Frances, and she made the lobster-salad sandwich, the celery, the carrot sticks, and the olives come out even.”

″ ‘S is for sailboat. T is for tiger. U is for underwear, down in the drier…’ Frances stopped because ‘drier’ did not sound like ‘tiger’. She started to think about tigers. She thought about big tigers and little tigers, baby tigers and mother and father tigers, sister tigers and brother tigers, aunt tigers and uncle tigers.”

″ ‘Aren’t you worried that maybe I will get sick and all my teeth fall out from eating so much bread and jam?’ asked Frances. ‘I don’t think that will happen for quite a while’, said Mother, ‘So eat it all up and enjoy it.’ ”

“She saw something big and dark. ‘Giants are big and dark’, she thought. ‘Maybe that is a giant. I think it is a giant. I think that giant wants to get me.’ ”

“She sang the song very softly: ‘I do not like the way you slide, I do not like your soft inside, I do not like you lots of ways, And I could do for many days without eggs’ ”

“Francis ate her bread and jam and drank her milk. Then she went out to the playground and skipped rope. She did not skip as fast as she had skipped in the morning.”

“She closed her eyes, but she still could not sleep. So she began to sing a little song about the alphabet. She made it up as she went along.”

″ ‘But there are other kinds of eggs. There are sunny-side-up and sunny-side-down eggs.’ ‘Yes’, said Frances. ‘But sunny-side-up eggs lie on the plate and look up at you in a funny way. And sunny-side-down eggs just lie on their stomachs and wait’. ”

″ ‘Well’, said Frances, ‘there are many different things to eat and they taste many different ways. But when I have bread and jam I always know what I am getting, and I am always pleased.’ ”

″ ‘Carry me to my room, Father,’ said Frances. ‘All right,’ said Father. ‘Piggyback,’ said Frances. So Father carried her piggyback to her room.”

“She jumped out of bed and went to tell Mother and Father. When she got to their door, she thought about it some more and decided not to tell them. She went back to her room.”

“Frances told her teddy bear to watch. They took turns for a while. Then Frances got tired of it and let Teddy do all the watching.”

“While she waited for the bus she skipped and sang: ‘Jam on biscuits, jam on bread, Jam is the thing I like most, Jam is sticky, jam is sweet, Jam is tasty, jam’s a treat - raspberry, strawberry, gooseberry, I’m very FOND…OF…JAM!’ ”