"She was a less than satisfactory source of palliation, but she did give Jem a hot biscuit-and-butter, which he tore in half and shared with me. It tasted like cotton."
"There was a marble topped wash stand by her bed; on it were a glass with a teaspoon in it, a red ear syringe, a box of absorbent cotton, and a steel alarm clock standing on three tiny legs."
"Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, in the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin."
"An oppressive odor met us when we crossed the threshold, an odor I had met many times in rain-rotted gray houses where there are coal-oil lamps, water dippers, and unbleached domestic sheets."