Summary of Diana BeresfordKroeger's To Speak for the Trees

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1

I would climb to the top of the valley to visit my weeping stone. The sight of the valley below made me feel both safe and like a tiny dot, as small as the blackandwhite cows down there. They were content. I must be, too.

#2

I was a descendant of the English aristocracy, the most fragile leaf on a Beresford family tree that included earls, lords, and marquises by the branchful. I was also Irish, and as a female child among the Beresfords, I faced the stumbling block of primogeniture.

#3

My mother was a spirited and adventurous woman, well read and outgoing. She had a wild streak and a unique bond with animals, which was captured in my favorite story about her: that she once got a donkey onto the roof of her schoolhouse.

#4

My mother had a very different view on culture and beliefs than me. She expected me to grow up and become a woman who was attractive and acceptable to my father’s people, and then make a good marriage.