“‘Every day I say a prayer of thanksgiving,’ Mrs. Cope said. ‘Think of all we have. Lord,’ she said and sighed, ‘we have everything,’ and she looked around at her rich pastures and hills heavy with timber and shook her head as if it might all be a burden she was trying to shake off her back.

“Mrs. Pritchard studied the woods. ‘All I got is four abscess teeth,’ she remarked.

“‘Well, be thankful you don’t have five,’ Mrs. Cope snapped and threw back a clump of grass.”

–Flannery O’Connor, “A Circle in the Fire”