Explore "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THE future was a near thing to Katie. She had a way of saying, "Christmas will be here before you know it. " Or, at the beginning of vacation, "School will be starting up before you know it. " In the spring when Francie discarded her long drawers and joyously flung them away, mama made her pick them up again saying, "You'll need them soon enough again. Winter will be here before you know it. " What was mama talking about? Spring had just started. The winter would never come again.
A small child has little idea of the future. Next week is as far ahead as his future stretches and the year between Christmas and Christmas again is an eternity. So time was with Francie up until her eleventh year.