Vocabulary List, entry #2
I'm already finding more words I don't know in Steinbeck's book:augury: The art, ability, or practice of auguring; divination.
"When, after one of her mystic recitations, the scissors were not discovered under the second board of the shed floor, they pretended to find them there anyway; for, had she lost the robe of augury, there would have remained only a little wrinkled old woman soon to die."What a great way to show, don't tell... one sentence... seemingly off-topic from the main theme of the novel... is there to show this woman was loved by her family.
In the very next sentence:
claque: A group of persons hired to applaud at a performance, or a group of fawning admirers.
"This play of claque to a simpleton was a harsh tax on the convictions of Mother Morgan."
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