jelly-jar smile pretended innocence.
cut and run to flee.
camphor a volatile, crystalline ketone with a strong characteristic odor, derived from the wood of the camphor tree or synthetically from pinene: used in medicine as an irritant and stimulant.
the singing would have begun at once If Sethe had been less proud, her neighbors would have begun the soothing songs they instinctively began to mourn the dead. Instead, they hum but intone no words of blessing or comfort.
