Friday, June 05, 2009

That boy's not all cotton fluff, is he?

"You know," Henry said. He was talking more to himself than the faerie, trying to believe something. "A man once told me that sometimes winning a fight isn't as important as standing in the right place, facing what needs to be faced. And sometimes standing in the right place means you end up dead. And that's better than not standing at all." Henry twisted around and looked into the fat faerie's dark eyes.

"Oh," Frank said. "That's a dark bit of philosophy for a lad. Think that way, and all you'll ever get is your name written on a bit of stone. What I say is, don't go playing unless you can win. Only sit down to chess with idiots, only kick a dog what's dead already, and don't love a lady unless she loves you first. That's Franklin Fat-Faerie's—"

Henry was gone.

Frank puffed out his cheeks and pulled a thread from his pocket. "Well, Franklin, that boy's not all cotton fluff, is he?" He began tying the thread around one of the supporting sticks. "He's got it pretty well figured, and you know it. We're all going to get ourselves dead, and only the gulls will want our after-bits. But," he added, tugging gently on the thread, "I'll do my dying standing on the right spot, beside the son of Mordecai, even if he is a bit of a nunce."

—N. D. Wilson, Dandelion Fire, pp. 371–375

2 comments:

Waldemar Family said...

Saw this book on your desk. Are you doing a family read-aloud?

Jabell said...

Actually, the oldest three read it and loved it, so I jumped in the fray. I finished both 100 Cupboards and Dandelion Fire. They were great! I can't wait until the third one comes out. It was also a great time to talk with the kids and share what we liked about the characters and story. I highly recommend the series.

For read-aloud as a family, we are working our way through Lord of the Rings. We are in the Fellowship of the Ring right now. The fellowship is heading into Moria!