There was something in her altogether antagonistic to the boy-nature.

You would have thought that to be a boy was in her eyes to be something wrong to begin with; that boys ought never to have been made; that they must always, by their very nature, be about something amiss.

I have occasionally wondered how she would have behaved to a girl.

On reflection, I think a little better; but the girl would have been worse off, because she could not have escaped from her as we did.

My father would hear her complaints to the end without putting in a word, except it were to ask her a question, and when she had finished, would turn again to his book or his sermon, saying-- "Very well, Mrs.Mitchell; I will speak to them about it." My impression is that he did not believe the half she told him.