Still, many of his ambling sentences offer miniature lessons in patience  and perception: "They rode back all day to the Columbia, traversed it on  the Colockum Ferry, and at dusk came into their orchard tired, on empty  stomachs, their hats tipped back, to walk the horses between the rows of  trees in a silent kind of processional, and Aidan ran his hands over limbs  as he passed them with his horse behind him, the limbs trembling in the  wake of his passing, and on, then, to the barn