1
Along the wide curving moat surrounding the palace, rows of cherry trees announced the end of their seasonal beauty. Some of the trees were weeping: blossoms in white and palest pink, ponderous with decreptitude, eddying on the brown water, stirred by the paddling of ducks.John Burnham Schwartz
2
Men had suddenly become a scarce commodity, if not quite as sought after as rice.John Burnham Schwartz