" She had been a pretty girl back in the 1830's when she married…but prettiness was short-lived among country women of her time…" Chapter 1, Page 8

"Seems sometimes theres' a deep silence all about us out here waitin' to be filled." Chapter 1, Page 11

"Dread of war was a womanly weakness, he had discovered, evidenced by his mother's melancholy and the tears of Jenny…" Chapter 1, Page 12

"Jethro found he didn't like to think of his sister Mary's death, but some memory had been touched off as his thoughts wandered. Let a few hours of work go by and let one's body begin to weary a little - then the thoughts that had been all of beauty and spring a while before started turning to thing that were better forgotten." Chapter 1, Page 16

"The shot that Travis Burdow fired over Rob Nelson's team that night was a shot fired at a society...