"I tried to poke little twigs through it, and it's not permeable," he said.

The next year you could just break those little twigs off.

It was full of little twigs and dirt.

The sergeant picked up a little twig, dug at a grass root with it.

"How you manage with that little twig, I don't know."

He sat for a while not speaking, throwing little twigs on the fire.

Again he sat thinking, breaking the little twigs.

I said, squatting there by the fire, feeding it little twigs, watching them flame up now.

All so many snatches of memory rose up like little twigs on a whirlpool.

Both men kept their eyes on the little twig on the water's edge.