Carole Marsh > Quotes

“That surely must be what happened," she said to Brian. "A caretaker found the head and returned it and . . ."
". . . and you can be in the play," Brian finished for her. "I sure hope so—then we can quit this wild goose chase and eat lunch. Besides, I wish I could see you stumble around up there forgetting your lines," he teased.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“Be sure and check Teach's Hole," Mother advised.
"I wish they would put my teacher in a hole," said Michael.”
― Carole Marsh , The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“The legend says a man named Jesse Elliot was horse racing. He must have had a bet or something, 'cause he shouted to his horse, Take me in a winner or take me to hell!"
"You said a bad word," Michael interrupted.
"It's OK when you're quoting someone else, silly," Brian argued.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“Thundersnow," said one of the men, glancing up from his card game. "Happens sometimes."
"Now, I've heard everything!" said Mimi, looking very unhappy.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“There are two hidden doors in the paneling of the Billiard Room. But they're not really secret panels. They were just there for the men guests to go from the Billiard Room to the Smoking Room with ease."
Secret doors so the men could sneak off and smoke? If she tried that, her mom would bowl her down the alley for sure, Stacy thought.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Biltmore House (Real Kids! Real Places!

“Checking in?" an equally sickly, yellowish woman asked, who seemed to have materialized out of nowhere.
"Yes," said Mimi, wanting to add, "Afraid so!”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“If you need a handout, all you have to do is ask, please."
"Only Mimi could be so nice to a thief," Grant muttered under his breath.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“Ms. Rogers sighed softly. "Just keep a weather eye," she said.
Grant looked out the window. "But it's a bright sunny day."
Papa laughed. "She means keep our eyes open for anything or anyone unusual or suspicious," he explained.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“Is everything ok?"
"I'm getting old and gray trying to keep up with them," John teased with a wink.
"Things are fine," Michele said. "We've learned a lot about Bath and pirates and have been swimming a lot, and they have the neatest little library here, but . . ." Michele stopped and slumped down in a heap on the floor by her Mother's feet.
". . . but they haven't found that missing head yet?" Mother finished.
"Exactly!" Michele said. "Just finding that stupid old head would solve everything, and I would have a chance to be in a real play before I'm old and gray."
"Such ambition!" said Mother. "I was delighted to get published before I was thirty. But I guess your reach should exceed your grasp."
"It seems like my grasp has been at straws so far this summer," Michele said.
A quizzical two plus-two-equals-four look came over John's face. "Just how hard have you kids been looking for that head?" he asked.
"Oh . . ." Michele began, biting her tongue for saying too much. "We've just been keeping our eyes open."
"Hm, I think I'd better keep my eyes open," John said, winking at Mother again. "Lash them to the yardarms!"
"Now, who's acting," Mother said and laughed.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“I think I know where it is, she thought. Then she whipped around and said loudly, "But I need your help."
Stacy blushed. She had said the words loud enough that everyone in the great room had turned to look at her. Quickly she ducked her head and sat down on the sofa with the others.
"Help with what?" Michael asked, giggling. "Making a fool of yourself?”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Biltmore House (Real Kids! Real Places!

“He kept saying weird things to me in Elizabeth English."
"Like what?" Christina asked.
"Like 'Me thinks I never forget a face,'" Mimi said.
"Me thinks that makes no sense," said Grant.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Lost Colony (Real Kids! Real Places!

“Cap'n, who ran the boat dock when he wasn't asleep on the pure with a bottle of beer in his hand, was just pushing off in his dinghy to check his crab pots.
Michele decided he didn't know much about kids or he would have asked them if they had permission to head out to sea at dusk. Of course it was hard for them to ask John when he had gone to Belhaven to pick up some people who had come over on the ferry from Ocracoke to see the play.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“Michael had awakened first and raced down to the creek. Now he sat proudly in the center of the others holding a dripping brown bottle in his hands.
"Let me open it," Brian said impatiently, but Michael continued to pick determinedly at the cork.
"Hurry it up brother," Michele urged.
Jo Dee giggled nervously. The cork spurted from the bottle's neck with a wet hiss. The roll of paper inside was twisted tightly and slipped right out. Brian grabbed it greedily and unrolled it.
"Let me read it," said Michael, snatching the note away.
"You can't read yet!" Michele said.
"Oh, yes I can!" he mumbled and handed the note back to Brian.
"Somebody read it!" insisted Michele.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“You'd better come back to Bath with me. It can be right spooky here at night when the moon is out, much less in a snarling storm."
"Have you spent the night on Plum Point before?" Brian asked, suspiciously.
"Sure, some college buddies of mine came down one weekend and we brought our sleeping bags out here. One of them told us a lot of good pirate stories. I'm afraid we were lazy and didn't even look for treasure. I do enough digging all day as it is."
Visions of gravediggers ran through Michele's mind.
"Dig?" she repeated.
"Yes. My name is Ray Whitley. I'm an archaeologist. I've seen you kids around town when I was coming back in after a digging expedition. That'll make you dirty and tired, especially lugging all my tools around half the night."
"In a brown bag?" asked Michele.
"Yes," he answered, looking at her as though he were very puzzled at the question.
"Why did you come to Plum Point tonight?" Michele asked, still suspicious.
"The man I rent a room from wasn't feeling well. I offered to check his crab pots," he said, nodding toward his boat which was floundering in the tumbling waves.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“Remember, there are a lot of things to be careful about, both here and at Biltmore House. You don't want to get into any trouble."
Stacy figured she meant for them not to break anything like a valuable antique or some old person's leg, by running through the lobby.”
― Carole Marsh , The Mystery of the Biltmore House (Real Kids! Real Places!

“And we had seen a man at the amphitheater dressed as a pirate—the same day the prop room keys disappeared," Brian said.
"Yeah," moaned Michele. "The same day we were looking in the trunk where the head was!"
Mother gave John a stern look.
"And you saw another pirate in the graveyard that night," said Jo Dee.
Now Mother really glared at John who looked like he wondered if these were the same kids who had stayed with him all summer.
They all grinned at John and giggled.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“Their motto was You Don't Have to Come Back . . . You Just Have to Go Out.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery at Kill Devil Hills

“If I had something valuable, I'd keep it in my pocket where I could keep an eye on it," Michael said.
"Sure," said Wendy. "With all the holes you have in your pockets, that would be a real safe place.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Biltmore House (Real Kids! Real Places!

“In their rush to eat breakfast, Michael sloshed cereal down the front of his tee shirt. Jo Dee spilled her juice. Michele just puddled with her grits and eggs, while Brian gobbled his food like he was in a contest.
"What's with you kids?" John asked impatiently.
No one answered.
"After you clean up the kitchen, I want someone to sweep the deck and walk, someone to feed Tideriggings and the other two to go to the store for me."
"We can't," Michael blurted out.
John narrowed his eyes and peered over his coffee cup at Michael's face turning red as he sunk down in his chair. The others studied the food on their plates like it was a biology assignment.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“I'm beginning to feel like a forty-niner myself," groused Mimi. "Our trip to California has been fraught with problems so far.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“Then Brian stopped so quickly that she had to grab her hand brakes to keep from plowing into him."
"Hey, you want me to bump my head against a tree, too?" she asked.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“In fact, being the proud new owner of a gold mine seems like a big pain in the neck, frankly.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“And nobody wanted to come to Bath," reminded Mother. "It was going to be an awful, terrible, boring summer," she teased.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“The lid slipped off and out popped another slip of paper, along with several small, sticky black circles. "Spots . . . beauty spots!" she cried.
Michael climbed out from under the bed and inspected the black spot on the tip of his sister's finger. "They look like ugly spots to me," he said.
"Ladies used to wear these on their face to be pretty," Michele said.
Jo Dee pressed her finger to Michele's and carefully plastered the spot on her cheek. She picked up the brass mirror and looked at her distorted image.
"It looks like somebody squashed a tick on your face," Michael said.
Jo Dee yanked the spot off and threw it at him but it stuck on the end of her finger which made everyone howl, except for Michele.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“It took all of us," they admitted in unison.
"Except me," said Dennis. "But I was decapitated."
"You do mean incapacitated, I hope," Mother said. "How were you boys planning to spend summer vacation?" she added.
The boys exchanged glances of dismay. Dennis pretended to go back to sleep. "Earning money to pay for the damage?" Jeremy guessed.
"Close," said Mother. Briefly, the boys had hope. "Now re-punctuate that sentence with a period instead of a question mark and you'll be exactly right.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Lost Colony (Real Kids! Real Places!

“The kids all turned to look at the Mystery Girl and saw Mimi's and Papa's bottoms as they leaned into the plane looking for the lost necklace.
"Uh, I guess you'll meet the front of them later," Grant said.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful Gold Rush Mystery

“Just like Long Tom assumed the mine was his," said Zac.
"And the businessman assumed..." began Christina, who then shrugged her shoulders, "well, I don't know what he assumed.”
― Carole Marsh, The Gosh Awful! Gold Rush Mystery

“They each closed their closet doors and scampered down the staircase. The guide was just about to close the heavy front door when they reached the downstairs hall and hurried breathlessly out the door.
"Thought I'd lost you two," the guide said. "Are you coming down into the basement kitchen with us?"
"No thank you," Michele said, "but we enjoyed our tour." It was surely an acting job to say that, she thought.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate

“This table once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte," he said.
"You mean the Napoleon we read about in our history book?" Staci asked.
"The guy with his hand under his coat scratching his bellybutton?" Wendy added.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of the Biltmore House (Real Kids! Real Places!

“The hot lights made Michele's skin sweat and mosquitoes attacked the back of her neck. You can't even scratch on center stage, she thought.”
― Carole Marsh, The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate