In a white country church house with six pews on the right and six pews on the left, I formed my first ideas of God and his people.

I have never seen a man’s back worn to shreds by a cruel whip, but I have seen crisscrossed lines of despair in the wrists of a friend.

We have been ferried up, up, up the excruciating climb, full of dread and horror. Now we creep over the edge and hang poised.

For all Mrs. Zook knows, yellow and gray may be out of style by now. She would have to ask her sister Kim, who knows about things like that.

He looks so precious sitting in the cart, and he eats his graham crackers with a bib, and total strangers tell you how cute and well-behaved he is.