The Railway Children
I love reading children's books, especially 'old-fashioned' ones. I recently came across this gem of a passage in Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children, first published in 1906:
"I say," said Peter, musingly, "wouldn't it be jolly if we all were in a book, and you were writing it? Then you could make all sorts of jolly things happen ....... Wouldn't you like to be writing that book with us all in it, Mother, and make Daddy come home soon?"
Peter's Mother put her arm round him suddenly, and hugged him in silence for a minute. Then she said:--
"Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing? If I were writing the book, I might make mistakes. But God knows how to make the story end just right--in the way that's best for us."
"Do you really believe that, Mother?" Peter asked quietly.
"Yes," she said, "I do believe it--almost always--except when I'm so sad that I can't believe anything. But even when I can't believe it, I know it's true--and I try to believe. You don't know how I try ....."
posted by Petrina @ 9:21 pm
3 comments
3 Comments:
Love the quote, Petrina. I'll have to read the book.
Seems like a surprisingly fuctional family. Where mum is mum and the kids are kids. If a son of mine was 'peter', he'd not be so keen on me writing the story - he'd rather be writing it himself.
Have times changed or were Nesbit's characters never realistic?
The mother is an author, so I guess her writing the story makes sense from the Peter's point of view. And maybe that quote doesn't show it, but I think the portrayal of the kids is quite realistic of kids now & then - in some ways they seem really 'functional' or really mature, and in others they're not.
If you want to borrow it, let me know :)
Isn't it great how passages out of books other than the bible can speak to us so much. One of my own favourite quotes comes from the last of the Narnia Chronicles: "The Last Battle". Where heaven is described as a good never-ending book where every chapter is better than the one the before. I don't know about you, but to me that is a great prospect.
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