The Lord God Made Them All

Maybe ye don’t know it, Mr. Herriot, but this is the best time of your life.” “Do you think so?” “Aye, there’s no doubt about it. When your children are young and growin’ up around ye—that’s when it’s best. It’s the same for everybody, only a lot o’ folk don’t know it and a lot find out when it’s too late. It doesn’t last long, you know.

need nerves of steel to be a parent.

I was really sloshing around in my trough of self-pity

Those were dreadful words. “Not many minutes” was a common phrase in Yorkshire and could mean anything up to two hours.

Klaipeda is, of course, the old Lithuanian port of Memel, and I have previously read that when the Russians took over, a proportion of the native population was deported and replaced by Russians. I am unable to ascertain the extent of this, and since Klaipeda is now part of the Soviet Union, I shall refer to all the people I meet as Russians.

I pulled up and wound down the window. For a few moments he looked out over the miles of heathery moorland and the rounded summits of the great hills slumbering in the sunshine, then he spoke quietly as though to himself. “So this is where you work?” “Yes, this is it, Andy.” He took a long breath, then another, as if greedy for more. “You know,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about air like wine, but this is the first time I’ve realised what it means.

He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small.

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.

Gently I pointed out that it should be “sheep,” and though he was so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open, he launched into an interrogation as to why the singular should be the same as the plural and wanted to know all the other English words which had this peculiarity.

Parents are never sure that they have done the right thing. They can only do what they think is right.

Ten, eh? Ten and six… ten and six …” For a few seconds her thoughts seemed far away as she plied her needles, then she looked at me again. “Maybe ye don’t know it, Mr. Herriot, but this is the best time of your life.” “Do you think so?” “Aye, there’s no doubt about it. When your children are young and growin’ up around ye—that’s when it’s best. It’s the same for everybody, only a lot o’ folk don’t know it and a lot find out when it’s too late. It doesn’t last long, you know.

TO ANY CONSCIENTIOUS VETERINARY surgeon, killing a patient is a terrible thought. I am not talking about euthanasia, which is so often merciful, but of inadvertently killing when attempting to cure.

I have children of my own.” And then he spoke the words that have become engraven on my heart. “You need nerves of steel to be a parent.

The farmers were kind, as they always are with young people. Even the most uncommunicative would grunt, “Ah see you’ve got t’apprentice with ye,” as we got out of the car.

I can think of only a handful — old men doggedly doing the things they have always done for the sole reason that they have always done it. They are the last remnants of the men I cherished