"Emma gave him her handkerchief, which was heavily scented with My Sin. 'That wasn't a dog,' she said with disgust, 'that was a Buick!'" Chapter 1, Barnabas, pg. 2

"This could be perilous. He remembered two or three other gifts to the church that had caused the widest consternation. One was a mounted moose head, said by the donor to be one of God's creatures, after all, and therefore fit for the parish house wall, if not the nave." Chapter 2, A Dubious Gift, pg. 19

"'You need house help,' Emma had told him, again and again.
But then he was often told that he needed one thing or another: a cat, a bird, a gazebo, earmuffs, English garden tools, a word processor, a vacation, a bicycle, a wife, and, until Barnabas, a dog. Several people had even made the unwelcome suggestion that he get a microwave."
Chapter 3, Company...