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“When she was his companion, her father had always felt himself stirred to interest and enterprise. "You ought to have been a man, Betty," he used to say to her sometimes.
But Betty had not agreed with him. "You say that," she once replied to him, "because you see I am inclined to do things, to change them if they need changing. Well, one is either born like that or one is not. Sometimes I think that perhaps the people who must act are of a distinct race, a kind of vigorous restlessness drives them. I remember that when I was a child I could not see a pin lying upon the ground without picking it up or pass a drawer which needed closing without giving it a push. But there has always been as much for women to do as there is for men.”
― The Shuttle
But Betty had not agreed with him. "You say that," she once replied to him, "because you see I am inclined to do things, to change them if they need changing. Well, one is either born like that or one is not. Sometimes I think that perhaps the people who must act are of a distinct race, a kind of vigorous restlessness drives them. I remember that when I was a child I could not see a pin lying upon the ground without picking it up or pass a drawer which needed closing without giving it a push. But there has always been as much for women to do as there is for men.”
― The Shuttle
“If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care: to whom you speak, of whom you speak, and how and when and where. Your loving mother, C. L. Ingalls.”
― Little Town On The Prairie
― Little Town On The Prairie
“Her genius, as has before been mentioned, is a genius for living, for being vital. Many people merely exist, are kept alive by others, or continue to vegetate because the persistence action of normal function will allow of their doing no less. Bettina Vanderpoel had lived vividly and in the midst of a self-created atmosphere of action from her first hour. It was not possible for her to be one of the horde of mere spectators where soever she moved there was some occult stirring of the mental and even physical air. Her pulses beat too strongly, her blood ran too fast to allow of inaction of mind of body.”
― The Shuttle
― The Shuttle
“It's the new life in her which strikes me," he said. "She's brought wealth with her and wealth is power to do the good or evil that grows in a man's soul, but she has brought something more... She has begun living with them as if her ancestors have done it for six-hundred years. And what I see is that if she had come without a penny in her pocket she would have done the same thing... She's life," he said, "She's life itself. Good God, what a thing is it for a man or a woman to be life instead of a mass of tissue and muscle and nerve dragged about by the mere mechanism of living."
Mount Dunstan about Bettina Vanderpoel”
―
Mount Dunstan about Bettina Vanderpoel”
―
“For all that little financial lesson in the Montreal hotel, Emily was still confused by British currency. She’d grown highly incensed not only with it but with me because she couldn’t understand it. It was the only thing I ever heard her admit to not understanding. It was in vain that I tried to show her the difference between a half crown and a two-shilling piece. She refused to admit they were anything but two versions of fifty cents, and persisted in being so stubbornly obtuse about it that I finally told her that if she just bring herself to read what was written on them, she’d know. This didn’t work out so well either because she’d keep taxi drivers waiting interminably while she’d scan the reading matter of each and every coin, turning it round and round, sometimes breathing on it and rubbing it clear. When I suggested that people might think her awfully queer, she said, not at all, they’d merely mistake her for a coin collector.
I tried explaining to her that one florin meant two shillings but that only made her madder. The day we received a bill made out in guineas and I told her that there was no such thing as a guinea, it was a pound and one shilling, only the swanker shops charged you in guineas, and you paid in pound and shillings, but you called it guineas, although as I had said there really was no such thing, she slapped me.”
― Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s
I tried explaining to her that one florin meant two shillings but that only made her madder. The day we received a bill made out in guineas and I told her that there was no such thing as a guinea, it was a pound and one shilling, only the swanker shops charged you in guineas, and you paid in pound and shillings, but you called it guineas, although as I had said there really was no such thing, she slapped me.”
― Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s
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Sharone’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Sharone’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
241 books
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114 friends
993 books
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208 friends
620 books
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229 friends
0 books
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45 friends
181 books
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105 friends
2,598 books
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73 friends
113 books
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38 friends
0 books
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3 friends
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