The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: it so often. There's an ounce bottle of carbolic on the
shelf behind the empty coffee can. Drink hearty."
Mr. Peters reflected. What next! The old ex-
pedients had failed. The two musty musketeers were
awaiting him hard by the ruined chateau -- that is
to say, on a park bench with rickety cast-iron legs.
His honor was at stake. He had engaged to storm
the castle single-handed and bring back the treas-
ure that was to furnish them wassail and solace. And
all that stood between him and the coveted dollar
was his wife, once a little girl whom he could -- aha!
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: while something vanquished was howling and wailing. . . . A
plaintive lament sobbed at the window, on the roof, or in the
stove. It sounded not like a call for help, but like a cry of
misery, a consciousness that it was too late, that there was no
salvation. The snowdrifts were covered with a thin coating of
ice; tears quivered on them and on the trees; a dark slush of mud
and melting snow flowed along the roads and paths. In short, it
was thawing, but through the dark night the heavens failed to see
it, and flung flakes of fresh snow upon the melting earth at a
terrific rate. And the wind staggered like a drunkard. It would
not let the snow settle on the ground, and whirled it round in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: A battle and a burial vault.
Thick round me in the teeming mud
Brier and fern strove to the blood:
The hooked liana in his gin
Noosed his reluctant neighbours in:
There the green murderer throve and spread,
Upon his smothering victims fed,
And wantoned on his climbing coil.
Contending roots fought for the soil
Like frightened demons: with despair
Competing branches pushed for air.
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