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21 " More lady-lessons. It is impossible to do all and be all a lady must be and not tie oneself in a knot. A lady must walk erect with dignity, looking straight before her with eyelids low, gazing at the ground ahead, neither trotting nor running nor looking about nor laughing nor stopping to chatter. Her hands must be folded below her cloak while at the same time lifting her dress from the floor while at the same time hiding her mouth if her smile is unattractive or her teeth yellow. A lady must have six hands! "
― Karen Cushman , Catherine, Called Birdy
22 " Corpus bones, I thought. To be wedded to this perfumed prig with his mouth in a knot and a frown always on his face! "
23 " I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say. "
24 " 19TH DAY OF OCTOBER, Feast of Saint Frideswide, virgin, though why that should make someone a saint I do not know "
25 " Alyce," she breathed. Alyce sounded clean and smart. You could love someone maned Alyce. She looked back at the face in the water. "This is me, Alyce." It was right. So the newly called Alyce shifted the pack on her shoulders, and with her head back and bare feet solid on the ground, she headed back to the midwife's cottage and never noticed when it grew dark, for heat and light were within her. "
― Karen Cushman , The Midwife's Apprentice
26 " [in the context of 1881] "Don't you want to get married and have babies? Mrs. Bergman used to say that women need-" "What women need is more exercise, shorter skirts, and their own way once in a while. "
― Karen Cushman , Rodzina
27 " She was not as stupid as some I have had, and better company, but still perhaps her going was for the best. She was not what I needed.""Because I failed," whispered Alyce in the shadows."Because she gave up," continued the midwife. "I need an apprentice who can do what I tell her, take what I give her, who can try and risk and fail and try again and not give up... "
28 " I want to remake the whole world; anything less is not worth the trouble. "
― Karen Cushman
29 " I want to remake the world; anything less is not worth the trouble. "
30 " Me iudice, in my opinion, life is like juggling... Things come at you―balls, clubs, knives, sorrow, loss. Either you stand there and let them hit you or you throw them back pugnis et calcibus, with all your might. "
― Karen Cushman , Will Sparrow's Road
31 " Morwenna says beauty and rainbows soon pass away, but I know for the rest of my life when I look at Meg I will see her like this. "
32 " And the cat went with her. "
33 " She must not look too proud nor yet too humble, lest people say she is proud of her humility.”Excerpt From: "Catherine, Called Birdy. "