“I do not know what it was about that boy but just looking at him, even I wanted to clout him on the head. It was a head that invited violence.”

“I sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter what we do. Money comes and goes.’ I shook my head. ‘It doesn’t matter and you know it doesn’t.”

“I will never be a leader of men, and neither do I want to be one, and neither do I want to be led. I thought: I want to lead only myself.”

“I was often forced to whip him, which some men do not mind doing and which in fact some enjoy doing, but which I did not like to do; and afterward he, Tub, believes me cruel and thought to himself, Sad life, sad life.”

“I will admit he is unusual, but that is perhaps the closest I could come to complimenting him.”

“Returning his pen to its holder, he told us, 'I will have him gutted with that scythe. I will hang him by his own intestines.' At this piece of dramatic exposition, I could not hep but roll my eyes. A length of intestines would not carry the weight of a child, much less a full grown man.”

“I almost vomited in the boot! I was just about to vomit in the boot! Can you imagine how upset I would have been?”