Hilda Lewis Quotes

“It all began with Peter’s toothache. You wouldn’t think anything really nice could come out of having a toothache, would you? Well, this time it did.”

“He didn’t remember this street, and what is more, he hadn’t known there were any old houses in new little Radcliff-on-the-sea. ‘But then,’ he told himself sensibly, ‘I don’t know everything!‘”

“Magic. Magic had happened to him. He knew it would one day. He had always believed in magic, even when the others had laughed at him, laughed because he was the eldest and ought to know better.”

″‘You don’t believe me,’ he said at last. ‘Well I don’t expect you to! I wouldn’t myself unless I saw it with my own eyes. But I wish, I wish it would happen. I wish the ship would take us somewhere — anywhere!‘”

″‘It’s a dream. I’m dreaming it. You’ve all come into my dream!’ ‘My dream!’ said Sandy in the kind of voice that means to go on arguing. ‘It isn’t a dream,’ Peter said happily. ‘It’s happening. And it’s real.‘”

″‘You see, magic doesn’t happen often- not once in a blue moon,’ Sheila went on, trying to get things clear. ‘I expect there isn’t another magic ship like this in the whole world.‘”

″‘I think you were meant to keep it Peter,’ she said softly. ‘I think that’s part of the magic.‘”

“Before them stood an old man, very tall and upright, carrying a staff as though it were a king’s sceptre. There was something so noble about the old man that the children knew, in spite of his simple tunic and broad-brimmed hat, that he must be a king at the very least.”

″‘There are always giants,’ replied Odin, ‘and men must always fight against them.’ ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Sandy, lifting a puzzled face. ‘I understand,’ said Sheila softly, ‘you mean fighting against the things that are wrong.’ Odin nodded. ‘Even children may fight that fight,’ he said. ‘Come!‘”

“There is no magic when one no longer believes.”