"The old couple, like two scathed trees, dry, harsh, and uninviting, presenting only rough surfaces to the clinging ivy, which fain would clothe with brightest verdure their leafless branches." Ruth Hall, chapter VI, p. 18.

"Each bright summer morning, Ruth and the little Daisy, (who already partook of her mother's love for nature,) rambled, hand in hand, through the woods and fields, with a wholesome disregard of those city bugbears, sun, dew, bogs, fences, briers, and cattle." Ruth Hall, chapter XI, p. 26.

"The noisome, flaunting weeds of earth have not wholly choked the modest flower of gratitude. 'Smile more, mamma!'" Ruth Hall, chapter XLIII, p. 104.

"Poor Ruth! And this was human nature, which, for so many sunny years of prosperity, had turned to her only its bright side!" Ruth Hall, chapter L, p. 125.

"Can good people do such things? Is religion only a fable? No, no; 'let God...