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In 1846 the prairie town of Oak River existed only in a settler’s dream.

Bess Streeter Aldrich

Except for our higher order of minds we are like the little moles under the earth carrying out blindly the work of digging, thinking our own dark passage-ways constitute all there is to the world.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Dark Order Thinking
Some girls are apparently born with dates; some through much personal activity, achieve them; but others seem by necessity to have dates thrust upon them.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Achieve Dating Girl
Our souls may all be equal in the sight of the Lord, but our gumption and ingenuity ain’t. So the results of man’s labor will never be equal.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Equality Labor Men Sight
not all clever words are true. … And inversely most things that are true are not clever.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Clever Cleverness Inversely
When I was young I had no means or time, and now I have the means and time, I have no youth.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Irony Mean Youth
I think that love is more like a light that you carry. At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance. Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Love Motherhood Thinking
Katherine it was who took upon herself the complete charge of [Junior’s] speech. Not an insignificant “have went” nor an infinitesimal
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Home Mother Running
Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Christmas Song Xmas
Junior was eleven. The statement is significant. There are a few peevish people in the world who believe that all eleven-year-old boys ought to be hung. Others, less irritable, think that gently chloroforming them would seem more humane.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Believe Boys Couple
Biggest affirmative argument I know in favor of ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ is just the way you feel inside you that nothin’ can stop you from livin’ on.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Favors Living Men Way
It was true, she thought, that the big things awe us but the little things touch us.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Bigs Little Things
They are the most painful tears in the world … the tears of the aged … for they come from dried beds where the emotions have long burned low.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Age Emotion Long Tears
You wouldn’t think that sorrow could be a light, would you, dearie? But it can. And then after that, service lights it. Yes. . . . I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Hand Love Sorrow Woman
Things last so much longer than people.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Lasts Longer People
In 1846 the prairie town of Oak River existed only in a settler’s dream.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Book Dream Rivers
Regardless of the popular literary trend of the times, write the thing which lies close to your heart.
BESS STREETER ALDRICH

Heart Lying Writing