How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Now if that don't cut the cane!" Killburn said. "Outlaw? Sure now!" He laughed uproariously. "You sure come to the right place."
Lurhetta broke into a grin. There was an instant sympathy between her and Ben's father and between her and the rest of the Killburns, as if they had suddenly opened a magic window to let her through.
"I love it here," she said simply, as though that explained her name. (12.77-79)
The Killburns make Lurhetta feel at home. They don't ask about her name; they just accept it like she's one of them. As Ben's father says to her, "You sure come to the right place." Home isn't just defined as a place; it's an attitude, and in this case, it's about a warm welcome to an outsider.
Quote #8
At any moment, three or four Killburn children would be hard at work, often filling bushel baskets to the brim with vegetables in seconds. Or they would dance through the rows over to Mrs. Killburn's house. They always seemed to go to that house in particular, dancing on up the steps. A table on the porch held pitchers of lemonade and single-server clay dishes of custard. Women and young men and girls in overalls came out of the house with drinking glasses and returned with empty dishes or pitchers. All of it done in a pleasant, amiable fashion. (12.10)
Is the Killburn compound really all that bad? Is communal living all that bad? Everyone's working or playing or eating—and happily at that. Isn't that what a home ought to be about?
Quote #9
"I finally got something through my head," he said.
"Something what?" Jones said.
Not just living on the mountain. But me, living on the mountain.
Living… anywhere. You, living.
"I play with anybody I want," M.C. said. "This is my home. I live here, too." (14.176-180)
M.C. is finally claiming the mountain as his home in a way that makes him his father's equal. He goes against his father's values and claims Ben as his best friend, which is huge. After all, what kind of home is it if you can't even have your friends over?