Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty

NY:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, 1936 - 1980

ISBN 0-15-118994-3

“Old Mr. Marblehall”

(91)  Watch and you’ll see how preciously old people come to think they are made - the way they walk, like conspirators, bent over a little, filled with protection.

“Death of a traveling Salesman”

(123)  For he was not strong enough to receive the impact of unfamiliar things without a little talk to break their fall. 

“Powerhouse”

(133)  When somebody, no matter who, gives everything, it makes people feel ashamed for him.

“The Wide Net”

(181)  “The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy,” said Doc.

“A Still Moment”

(190)  Lorenzo well knew that it was Death that opened underfoot, that rippled by at night, that was the silence the birds did their singing in.

“The Winds”

(214)  It kept her from eating her dinner to think of all that she had caught or meant to catch before the time was gone - June-bugs in the banana plants to fly before breakfast on a thread, lightning-bugs that left a bitter odor in the palms of the hands, butterflies with their fierce and haughty faces, bees in a jar.

NB:  Suddenly remembering that odor of fireflies or lightning bugs.  “I want the lightining bugs back”

“Shower of Gold”

(267)  Time goes like a dream no matter how hard you run, and all the time we heard things from out in the world that we listened to but that still didn’t mean we believed them.

“Moon Lake”

(354)  stobs - a broken branch or a stump; a stake used for fencing.

(356)  It’s not the flowers that are fleeting, Nina thought, it’s the fruits - it’s the time when things are ready that they don’t stay.

NB:  It’s both and all.  Nothing stays, it’s all fleeting.

“The Whole World Knows”

(376)  Ah, I’m a woman that’s been clear around the world in my rocking chair, and I tell you we all get surprises now and then.

NB:   Taoist circle of 50 feet and grandmother wisdom

Chuang Tao:   "I was taught that man in his highest form dwells quietly in an abode whose circuit is fifty feet, but the people in general rush madly about without knowing where they are going."

“Music from Spain”

(399)  It was womanlike;  he understood it now.  The inviolable grief she had felt for a great thing only widened her capacity to take little things hard.  Mourning over the same thing she mourned, he was not to be let in.

“No Place for You, My Love”

(465)  People in love like me, I suppose, give away the short cuts to everybody’s secrets.

“The Bride of the Innisfallen”

(497)  She and the wistful round man still clasped hands through the window and continued to shine in the face like lighthouses smiling.

(503)  raths - a usually circular earthwork serving as stronghold and residence of an ancient Irish chief

“Circe”

(535)  Ever since the morning Time came and sat on the world, men have been on the run as fast as they can go, with beauty flung over their shoulders.