She said, and her tone had softened until it was almost friendly.

Curt was in almost as bad shape, but he wouldn't quit.

Then, with a glory that almost wiped out the deep, downward sags in her careworn face, Matilda leaned over the wheel and shouted to Hez, who was stumbling along in the heat and the dust on the opposite side of the wagon `` Pa!!

For several weeks we eyed one another almost like sparring partners, and then one day Uncle was slightly indisposed and stayed home ; ;

Sometimes he did this three or four times a day, for this Woman was almost always with him.

He was pressed far back into the corner of the car on his hay sacks, the rattling and tinning of the wheels on the rails almost covering the sound of his ocarina.

Their skin was covered with a thin coating of sweat and dirt which had almost the consistency of a second skin.

From high in the tree, the whole block lay within range of the eye, but the ground was almost nowhere visible.

The street that is full now of traffic and parked cars then and for many years drowsed on an August afternoon in the shade of the curbside trees, and silence was a weight, almost palpable, in the air.

`` Don't forget, here was a man who had been accusing his colleagues for almost a year of willfully attempting to present an incorrect report.

Trevelyan was at least in part attracted to the period by an almost unconscious desire to take up the story where Macaulay's History Of England had broken off.

The cautious Thomas re-examined the note and then, making up his mind that it was genuine, snapped his fingers, whistled and almost danced in his exuberance.

The skirmishing was almost constant.

To help him do so The Prince had conferred control of his land forces on a soldier who was different from him in almost every respect save one: both were eccentrics of the purest ray serene.

Tom said he almost burst into tears, he was so disappointed and put out.

In late December, the American army moved from Whitemarsh to Valley Forge, and although the distance was only 13 miles, the journey took more than a week because of the bad weather, the barefooted and almost naked men.

Boniface had to uphold the sacredness of the feudal contract at all costs, for it was only as suzerain of Sicily and of the Patrimony of Peter that he had any justification for his Italian wars, but in the English-Scottish-French triangle it was almost impossible for him to recognize the claims of any one of the contestants without seeming to invalidate those of the other two.

We were almost the same age, she was fifteen, I was twelve, and where I felt there was a life to look forward to Lilly felt she had had as much of it as was necessary.

Karl was an almost exact copy of his father physically and it was strange to see the expected become the unexpected.

The wholesome activities were to be provided by many organizations including the YMCA, the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, the American Library Association, and the Playground and Recreation Association -- private societies which voluntarily performed the job that was taken over almost entirely by the Special Services Division of the Army itself in World War 2.

When they were closer and he saw that one was a woman, he was more puzzled than ever.

Morgan hesitated, thinking that if this was a trick, it was a good one.

There was no one but me.

The pony herd was the one flaw in our defense ; ;

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and went down on one knee, taking her weight so that some of the wind was driven out of him.

There was only one place where Jake Carwood's description had gone badly awry: the peace and quiet.

The town was about what Wilson expected: one main street with its rows of false-fronted buildings, a water tower, a few warehouses, a single hotel ; ;

only the counter at one end was lighted by a long fluorescent tube suspended directly above it.

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The one thing they had in common was their hatred.

When they reached their neighbor's house, Pamela said a few polite words to Grace and kissed Melissa lightly on the forehead, the impulse prompted by a stray thought -- of the type to which she was frequently subject these days -- that they might never see one another again.

There was only one place where the mountain might receive her -- that unnamed, unnameable pool harbored in its secret bosom.

But she was caught in it, and she faced the terrible possibility that, if it were a dream, it was one from which she might never awaken.

That was another one of those traps.

At one and the same time, she was within it but still searching for the drawbridge that would give her entry.

All the doors were open at this hour except one, and it was toward this that Stevens made his way with Russ close at his shoulder.

An Ah coudn ansuh him an so Ah said ' Aw right, Ah gay-ess, an his fathuh didn uttuh one wohd an aftuh Huhmun was gone, the majuh laughed an tole me thet he an the bawh had been hevin an occasional drink t'gethuh f'ovuh a yeah, onleh an occasional one, but just the same it was behahn mah back, an Ah doan think thet's nahce at all, d'you ''??

`` That was a terrible thing to do '', I said to Oso.

`` But that was war '', I said.

Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

Such was my state of mind that I did not question the possibility of this ; ;

under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

It was dark and, I sensed, very large ; ;

Sometimes I was aware of people moving about in the darkness.

This impressed me, until I realized how limited was his sphere of influence.

I felt certain he was really a spineless little man.

Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.

I was shown, instead, a batch of white tickets of the sort handed out, he told me, every morning.

Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

I felt certain it was self-appointed.

I decided to see no more of the clerk until the processing of my papers was completed.

I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.