A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.

Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America.

Luck, you see, brings bitter friends.

Being at ease with himself put him at ease with the world.

Sometimes when she was alone, and she knew she was alone, she permitted her mind to play in a garden, and she smiled.

And their greed was for gold or God. They collected souls as they collected jewels.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.