“Some people are going to love you like you are a pond, and others are going to love you like you are a river, but you are an ocean, and you should never settle for anyone who loves you for anything less than that.”
“Why don’t we build a nest and raise our ducklings right in this pond? There are no foxes and no turtles, and the people feed us peanuts. What could be better?”
“Her house was not well built for she had never made one before, but it was cozy inside. She had windproofed it by sealing the sod bricks with mud from the pond at her door, and she had made it beautiful by spreading the caribou ground cloths on the floor. ”
“Miyax knew when to stop dreaming and be practical. She slid down the heave, brushed off her parka, and faced the tundra. The plants around the pond had edible seeds, as did all of the many grasses. There were thousands of crane fly and mosquito larvae in the water, and the wildflowers were filling if not very nourishing. But they were all small and took time to gather. She looked around for something bigger.”
“The frog had found a sunny place in the middle of the pond. He was sitting on a lily pad. ‘I wonder if I could do that,’ said Kipper. But he couldn’t!”
“A great big enormous trout came up-kerpflop-p-p-p! with a splash-and it seized Mr. Jeremy with a snap, ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’ - and then it turned and dived down to the bottom of the pond!
But the trout was so displeased with the taste of macintosh, that in less than half a minute it spat him out again; and the only thing it swallowed was Mr. Jeremy’s goloshes.”
“Mr. Jeremy put on a macintosh, and a pair of shiny goloshes; he took his rod and basket, and set off with enormous hops to the place where he kept his boat.
The boat was round and green, and very like the other lily-leaves. It was tied to a water-plant in the middle of the pond.
Mr. Jeremy took a reed pole, and pushed the boat out into the open water.”
“Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond.
The water was all slippery-sloppy in the larder and in the back passage.
But Mr. Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold!”
″ ‘I’m the ruler,’ said Yertle, ‘of all that I see. But I don’t see enough. That’s the trouble with me. With this stone for a throne. I look down on my pond but I cannot look down on the places beyond. This throne that I sit on is too, too low down. It ought to be higher!’ ”