How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Jethro turned slowly back toward his team, his thin shoulders stooped a little. He did not weight more than eighty pounds. Ed Turner must have been sharply aware of the look of frailty about the boy in contrast to the great plow horses and the wide fields where Matt with his four boys and Shadrach Yale had worked only the year before. (6.31)
Oh how quickly things can change in a year. Go on and take a second to think about where you were 365 days ago. It's like a whole other person, right? What brings this to Ed Turner's mind is the physical look of Jethro in the field—still a young boy doing the work previously handled by six strong men.
Quote #5
Jethro looked at her respectfully. She knew people and times unknown to him. He could not agree with his father that Jenny was so very young. (7.22)
No matter how close Jethro and Jenny grow as peers she will always have that extra knowledge of a time he doesn't remember. Jethro can't consider his older sister as young when she has experienced more life than he, and as long as they're both alive, this will always be true.
Quote #6
It seemed very far away and unreal to Jethro. "Sometimes I forget that they was older than I am. I always think of them as the little boys."
"I reckon that's the way it'll always seem—they'll never be old." (7.30-31)
Death has a way of making time stand still. And even though the little boys were born before Jethro, once he surpassed them in age, it's easier to think of Jeth as older.