I was everything, patriarch, priest, father and judge.

We're rolling the dice with you, judge, ... Talk to me as a father.

Thump Milton loomed over Ree, a fabled man, his face a monument of Ozark stone, with juts and angles and cold shaded parts the sun never touched.

...telling doesn't help me - it helps you. As Wilde says, It is the confession, not the priest, that gives absolution...

And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

The Indians began to be troublesome all around me, killing and wounding cattle, stealing horses, and threatening to attack us. I was obliged to make campaigns against them and punish them.