It was bordered on both sides by a sprawling chaos, as if huge hands had pressed back the forest, bent it and folded it like some soft grass that would never rise up again. - P61
Sophia walked on across the meadow, through the strong green mat of grass that storms can’t kill – it only settles a bit and goes right on weaving its tight little roots. - P62
His herring nets would rip or get caught in his propeller, and fish and fowl would fail to turn up where he had expected them. And if he did have a good catch, the price would go down, so it was always six of one or half a dozen of the other. But beyond all these routine troubles that can spoil a person’s livelihood, there were other, unexpected possibilities. - P63
The sea is always subject to unusual events; things drift in or run aground or shift in the night when the wind changes, and keeping track of all this takes experience, imagination, and unflagging watchfulness. It takes a good nose, to put it simply. - P63
He was the kind of man who came alone and stayed that way until he figured it was time to leave. - P65
Grandmother staggered to her feet and found her sweater and her warm trousers and her walking stick and at the last minute stuffed the Lupatro in her pocket. - P67
Everything was salvaged, some by the right hands and some by the wrong, but nothing was simply lost. - P68
That’s strange, Grandmother thought. I can’t describe things any more. I can’t find the words, or maybe it’s just that I’m not trying hard enough. It was such a long time ago. No one here was even born. And unless I tell it because I want to, it’s as if it never happened; it gets closed off and then it’s lost. - P71
"I mean it all seems to shrink up and glide away," Grandmother said. "And things that were a lot of fun don’t mean anything any more. It makes me feel cheated, like what was the point? At least you ought to be able to talk about it." - P73
She could remember better now, much better, in fact. New images came back to her, more and more of them. It was cold in the first light, but she fell sound asleep in her own warmth. - P74
They had developed a habit, over the years, of not talking about painful things, in order to make them less painful. - P75
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