"Within two days, the children learned how to make their own fire from tinder and a green stick bowed with a shoelace. Tiny cavemen on Benzedrine couldn't have made fire faster." (Chapter 1, p. 3).

"She explained the economics of chickens, talking to the children as if they had sense and hoping a few words might get through." (Chapter 3, p. 25).

"Being uncommunicative and taking an interest in fire were neither crimes nor sins, just inconvenient." (Chapter 3, p. 32).

"He used to say that when Luce was born, the first time he saw her, she was asleep. He asked the nurse how old they had to be for their eyes to open." (Chapter 5, p. 43).

"He ran the numbers in his head, and found that hauling liquor paid considerably better than lubing boxcar couplings, but even if he worked until he was as old as the former bootlegger, he'd never make back what...