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Whenever I read aloud to kids , there 's a bit of me that feels as if I've turned into a soft , blurred version of my mother ; that I 'm reading to the child I once was . She reminded me a tiny bit of my own mother , though I was n't sure why . " By 8:45 , Slutter 's group had passed through the Pearly Gates and halted on a natural shelf just above the Hogsback , where they drove the shaft of an ice ax into the snow as an anchor . And it had been that brief date-an espresso and a shot of brandy for him , with a sip of the house blend for her-that had led to the picnic on the river . " she asked , wiping a nonexistent bit of smudge from beneath her eye . More than two million people have died , if not from bombs and bullets then from the famines and diseases spawned by the conspiracy of war , drought , and flood . Even Henry Greech sank his personal dislike of the boy for the moment , and made hearty jocular allusions to a home-coming , which , in the elder man 's eyes , seemed possibly pleasantly remote . But with a little bit of magic and some unexpected help from another holiday traveler , Toot & Puddle might be together for Christmas after all . Mark was a competent sailor , but a bit of a wild man and a drinker , which proved to be a problem .