Mark Andersen Quotes

“He feared his father’s anger more than anything else. But his desire to enter the shed was so great it drove his fear into the back of his mind, where it gnawed on him like a mouse in a wall.”

″‘If you were mine-’ Mark had been saying this to himself since the first night he had stopped to see Ben. He often lay in bed thinking of it before going to sleep.”

“He wanted to be friends with his father and feel the same closeness there had been between his father and Jamie. Jamie would have been a big man. He had gone on the boat that last summer, and Mark had listened enviously as Jamie and his father discussed fishing and boating problems in man-to-man fashion.”

“Mark was sure he’d never know such warm companionship with his father. Jamie had got it all. He wondered what would have happened if Jamie had asked for Ben.”

″‘You’d follow me around like a dog-’ At this, Mark paused, struck to his very heart with joy at the thought of arousing such love and devotion in what would be the biggest bear in the whole world. ‘Wouldn’t that be something!‘”

“Mark’s heart had begun hammering at his father’s first words. The mention of shooting Ben was too much. But he hardly realized he had spoken aloud the thought that flooded his mind until he heard his father’s incredulous voice, ‘Buy the bear for you? You want him?‘”

″‘You’d have me believe you just walked right up to him, picked up the chain, led him back, and tied him up! A five-year old brownie, half grown, maybe more.’ ‘Well, I petted him some first, and scratched his ears, and rubbed him under the chin. He likes being scratched under the chin.‘”

“That’s why I don’t want Mark fooling around with this bear. He’s all we’ve got left.”

″‘If he needs a pet,’ his father said, ‘we’ll get him a dog.’ ‘It’s too late,’ his mother’s voice answered. ‘Mark’s given his heart to Ben.‘”