“The wind cut like a knife up here, and shrilled in the night like a mother mourning her slain children.”

“It was bitingly cold up here, and the wind pulled at his clothes like an insistent lover.”

“No mother loves all her children the same, not even the Mother Above.”

“That night the wind was howling almost like a wolf and there were some real wolves off to the west giving it lessons.”

“No mother should outlive her children, and no captain should outlive his ship.”

“A man can own a woman or a man can own a knife, but no man can own both. Every little girl learns that from her mother.”

“Pyp had stabbed a turnip with his knife. "The night is dark and full of turnips," he announced in a solemn voice. "Let us all pray for venison, my children, with some onions and a bit of tasty gravy.”