“Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters.”

“Shadows were too black, and when a breeze stirred the trees, the shadows changed in a disquieting way.”

“The sky was the yellow color of old cheese and the clouds flew across it, as if they had seen something horrifying in the desert wastes where they had so lately been.”

“Put an egg in your shoe and beat it, make like a tree and leave, imitate an amoeba and split.”

“It had been like swallowing a gust of October wind.”

“Good luck is just bad luck with its hair combed.”

“The first thing was to get down to Addie Richardson's henhouse, and that was a goodish way, four or five miles. She found herself wondering if the Lord was going to send her an eagle to fly her those four miles, or send Elijah in his fiery chariot to give her a lift.Blasphemy," she told herself complacently. "The Lord provides strength, not taxicabs.”