Janet Barkhouse Quotes

“Soon, it would be dark. ‘Even if I turn back and run all the way, I can never get home before Papa! He’s going to take me out of school and make me go down the pits.‘”

“Willie took Gem a treat every afternoon all week.”

″‘Why were you so late?’ Sara asked Willie. ‘I was watching the wild horse from Sable Island unloading. It’s a terrible thing to make wild horses go down the pits.‘”

“That mare’s tame. She was the lighthouse keeper’s. He called her ‘Gem’.”

“I’ll clean out your stables and curry your horses... whatever you want.”

″‘This is my chance to ride her,’ he thought. He climbed on the top bar of the fence and jumped on Gem’s back. The bar broke with a loud crack and scared the mare. She threw Willie off, jumped over the broken bar and galloped away.”

“All the same, he couldn’t keep away from the Sable Island horses. They were being trained in a paddock down by the waterfront. Willie ran there after school, whistling all the way, his pockets filled with wild apples.”

″‘I...I... my horse ran away,’ he stammered. The old man looked him over. ‘A bit young to be ownin’ a horse, ain’t ya?‘”

″‘What’s wrong with the pits?’ His father’s face grew red with anger. ‘We’re a family of colliers, me and my father before me, and now John.‘”

“The wild horse screamed as its feet left the deck of the schooner. Willie Maclean watched as it winched ashore. His face twisted with pity.”

“Even if I turn back and run all the way, I can never get home before Papa! He’s going to take me out of school and make me go down the pits.”