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What is the definition of texture as it is used in paragraph 20 in "A Mother in Mannville"?

In Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's short story, "A Mother in Mannville," the word texture in paragraph twenty is used to describe the rhythm of chopping wood when Jerry returns after the first morning. Here is the quote:



At daylight, I was half wakened by the sound of chopping. Again it was so even in texture that I went back to sleep. 



The first time Jerry chopped wood for the narrator, it is described it as rhythmic and even. 



I went back to work, closing the door. At first the sound of the boy dragging the brush annoyed me. Then he began to chop. The blows were rhythmic and steady, and shortly I had forgotten him, the sound no more an interruption than a consistent rain.



According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, texture comes from a Latin word meaning to weave. In using the context clues surrounding the word, readers understand that Rawlings is referring to the steady rhythm that Jerry is weaving with his skillful chopping.

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