`` I'm a mess '', she said, and suddenly she was alarmed.

You see, he lied to us when he said he was leavin alone ''.

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

The War Department wrote Mr. Manuel a letter and said he was a hero.

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

What else he said was lost in the rattle of gunfire on all sides.

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

`` Oh, no '', he said, and he was without humor now.

Normally Hague wasted no words, but now he found himself unable to stop their flow although he knew Kodyke was aware of all he said.

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.

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 ''??

She was still hugging the stained coat around her, so I said, `` Relax, let me take your things.

That was all she said.

This was the worst thing I could have said.

The girl took a couple of steps toward the man in shorts when Benson, in that barefoot courtliness Ramey could never decide was real, said, `` You don't want to go around there, Ma'am ''.

There was no doubt that Herr Schaffner meant every word of what he said.

But they never said anything, so he figured it was all right.

He said, lapsing into the profanity he often used when away from his parents and especially when he was with Charles.

While she was struggling to get her skirt down and get on her feet again, Jack ran over, offered her his hand and said, `` Gosh, I'm sorry, Miss Langford.

That should do it, he thought, because Miss Langford had said she was going to be strict about school work.

`` I only said I was hungry.

`` No, I don't think so '', said the big man, and it was the final clincher for Ernie.

`` I'd wind up full of bullet holes '', he said, and there was no question that he was talking about bullets fired by his coworkers.

He found that if he was tired enough at night, he went to sleep simply because he was too exhausted to stay awake.

Dawn would come soon and the night was at its coldest.

And he was fleeing, running -- fleeing his death and his life at the same time.

Then he was on his way at a gallop.

He scuttled in shadow along the east wall of the stockade and then followed the south wall until he was at the rear of the two frame buildings.

A man was standing in the open door of the lighted orderly room a few yards to Mike's left, but he, too, suddenly made up his mind and went racing to join the confused activity at the east end of the stockade.

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

She had picked up the quirt and was twirling it around her wrist and smiling at him.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

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

I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.

This desire, I went on, growing voluble as my conviction was aroused, had mounted at such a rate recently that I now found its realization necessary not only to my physical but also to my spiritual wellbeing.

Facing the forest now, she who had not dared to enter it before, walked between two trees at random and headed in what she believed was the direction of the pool.

She regarded them as signs that she was nearing the glen she sought, and she was glad to at last be doing something positive in her unenunciated, undefined struggle with the mountain and its darkling inhabitants.

laughing at a dying man, laughing as a man was beaten to death.

He'd started a fire and put coffee on, and now was busy at the work board of his chuck wagon.

Hank had gathered wood for a cookfire, and his wife was busy at it now.

Tom Horn was soon back at work, giving his secret employers their money's worth.

Haying time was close at hand, and they needed some strong branches to repair a hay rack.

`` It was Brenner's idea '', Jess mumbled, dabbing at his nose.

Seeing them waiting there at the foot of Emigrant Rock was so overwhelming that, for a good minute after they rounded the bend and started down the grade leading toward them, Matilda could not speak at all.