“It was a cool day and very clear. You could see a long way-but not as far as Velma had gone.”

“You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.”

“GOING TO WALDENIt isn't very far as highways lie.I might be back by nightfall, having seenThe rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water.Friends argue that I might be wiser for it.They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper:How dull we grow from hurrying here and there!Many have gone, and think me half a foolTo miss a day away in the cool country.Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish,Going to Walden is not so easy a thingAs a green visit. It is the slow and difficultTrick of living, and finding it where you are.”

“Where the shadow of the bridge fell I could see down for a long way, but not as far as the bottom. When you leave a leaf in water a long time after awhile the tissue will be gone and the delicate fibres waving slow as the motion of sleep. They don't touch one another, no matter how knotted up they once were, no matter how close they lay once to the bones.”

“If Fang is in any way harmed while I'm gone-if he gets a hangnail-you won't see another morning. Are we clear on that?”

“You been gone too long, Sula.Not too long, but maybe too far.”