| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: to curb his appetites and save the loss of time and strength that
a sowing of wild oats might have entailed, he had taken his
chief's advice, oft reiterated to his employees, and at twenty-
one had married the first woman whom he could persuade to share
his fortunes. She happened to be an angular schoolmistress, much
older than he, who also wore thick glasses, and who had now borne
him four children, all nearsighted, like herself.
The young man was relating how his chief, now cruising in
the Mediterranean, kept in touch with all the details of
the business, arranging his office hours on his yacht just as
though he were at home, and "knocking off work enough to keep two
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: which it crashed with a shock that shook the water out of it
all over the room. What was very odd, the rolling-pin no sooner
touched the cap than it flew out of Schwartz's hand, spinning like
a straw in a high wind, and fell into the corner at the further
end of the room.
"Who are you, sir?" demanded Schwartz, turning upon him.
"What's your business?" snarled Hans.
"I'm a poor old man, sir," the little gentleman began very
modestly, "and I saw your fire through the window and begged
shelter for a quarter of an hour."
"Have the goodness to walk out again, then," said Schwartz.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: proposition and said we'd have to come back to gasolene after all.
This she vetoed just as emphatically, and a deadlock obtained
until I received inspiration.
"Why not drive four horses?" I said.
"But you don't know how to drive four horses," was her objection.
I threw my chest out and my shoulders back. "What man has done, I
can do," I proclaimed grandly. "And please don't forget that when
we sailed on the Snark I knew nothing of navigation, and that I
taught myself as I sailed."
"Very well," she said. (And there's faith for you! ) "They shall
be four saddle horses, and we'll strap our saddles on behind the
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