a bit of lit

From Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God:

"Some people could look at a mud-puddle and see an ocean with ships. But Nanny belonged to that other kind that loved to deal in scraps. Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon -- for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you -- and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter's neck tight enough to choke her."