Sure as Strawberries Quotes

“He named them all and brushed their coats and took them for rides in his car. They were the friendliest goats in the world. Mattie loved them.”

“And they would make ham or bake muffins for Uncle George. But best of all, they gave Uncle George their friendship. ‘Friendship is precious as water,’ Uncle George would say.”

“Every summer Mattie visited her Uncle George, and that was her favorite time in the whole year. Uncle George kept twenty-eight goats.”

‘When a neighbor needed a new well, Uncle George would take a forked willow wand and walk slowly over the land, holding the wand straight our before him, each hand grasping one side of the fork. As he walked, he’d coax the wand with his special charm.”

“That would break the power, spoil the charm,′ Uncle George would say. So folks gave him fee and straw for his goats, vegetables from their gardens, or sometimes a quilt or some clothes they had made.”

“Maybe I just don’t have the gift,′ Mattie once said to Uncle George. ‘Maybe you don’t, but maybe you do,’ he told her. ‘The gift sometimes starts out tiny as a berry seed. It needs some nourishing before it grows.”

“Then, sure as strawberries, the tip of the wand would dip and bobble and tug and finally curse in a graceful arc toward the earth. When folks took their shovels and dug deep at the exact spot where the wand had pointed, they found water.”

“Mattie loved watching Uncle George find water. Sometimes when he was busy, Mattie would go off by herself and cut a forked willow branch and practice. She held the wand firmly straight out in front of her and coaxed it with the charm.”

“It was a sad time for Mattie too. There were only three days before she was to leave for home. The goats were Uncle George’s family, and hers too. If only I could find water, she thought, that would do the trick.”

“Uncle George was a water diviner, he had the gift. ‘The gift run deep and hidden,’ Uncle George would say. ‘It’s there to be found like water, like a good friend, sure as strawberries.”

“Then came the hard, hot summer when the wells dried up and Uncle George took a fall. He broke his arm and had to wear a cast from his shoulder to his fingertips.”