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II

WESTERING

For West is where we all plan to go some day. It is where you go when the land gives out and the old-​field pines encroach. It is where you go when you get the letter saying: Flee, all is discovered. It is where you go when you look down at the blade in your hand and the blood on it. It is where you go when you are told that you are a bubble on the tide of empire.

—ROBERT PENN WARREN,

ALL THE KING’S MEN

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