Sometimes in the spring the old lake would return. One will open a cellar door to wading boots floating tallowy soles up and planks and buckets bumping at the threshold, the stairway gone from sight after the second step. The earth will brim, the soil will become mud and then silty water, and the grass will stand in chill water to its tips.
— Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping Note the details, “tallowy soles”; the precise verbs, “”bumping”; the careful observation, “brim … mud … silty water … chill water to its tips.”
