It blew off the mud from the roads that were mirish, / It blew off the grass from the turf where it grew, […]

And they had to be automatic (after several disasters with non-automatic systems) so that a brake failure or breakage of the coupling would not leave the train without reasonable brakes.

Jake headed upriver, fighting gusts that hit him square in the chest and stopped his skis in midglide. He felt like a boxer pummeled by a constant rain of blows, fighting to keep his balance.

After all, the meetings were held at my own house and my own mother was the queen. Doesn′t that make me some sort of Brownie princess? Apparently not. As we graduated from Brownies to Girl Scouts, Mom was again my leader.