"This is the opening passage of the novel which sets the scene for the first chapter."
"Significantly, the ending of the novel is also set here, signalling that things have come full circle."
" "
"The scene is one of natural beauty."
5
10
"A few miles south of __?_?_?__, the Salinas River drops in close to the hill-side bank and runs deep and green."
"The __?_?_?__ is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow __?_?_?__."
"On one side of the river the __?_?_?__ foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky __?_?_?__ mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees - willows fresh and"
"green with every __?_?_?__, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's __?_?_?__; and sycamores with mottled white, recumbent limbs and branches that __?_?_?__ over the pool. On the __?_?_?__ bank under the trees"
"the leaves lie deep, and so crisp that a __?_?_?__ makes a great skittering if he runs among them."
SOLEDAD,7,31
WATER,9,14
POOL,11,10
GOLDEN,12,39
GABILAN,13,37
SPRING,15,27
FLOODING,16,47
ARCH,18,10
SANDY,18,42
LIZARD,19,51
5
8
"__?_?_?__ come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night __?_?_?__ of 'coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the"
"ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of __?_?_?__ that come to drink in the dark."
" "
"There is a __?_?_?__ through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by __?_?_?__ coming down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water."
"In front of the __?_?_?__ horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many __?_?_?__; The limb is worn __?_?_?__ by many men who have sat on it."
