| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: response other than a lazy grunt. Joe took the Indians' gaudy shirt, and,
lifting Loorey, slipped it around him, shoved the latter's arms through the
sleeves, and buttoned it in front. He streaked the round face with red and
white paint, and then, dexterously extracting the eagle plume from the
Indian's head-dress, stuck it in Loorey's thick shock of hair. It was all done
in a moment, after which Joe replaced the basket, and went down to the river.
Several times that morning he had visited the rude wharf where Jeff Lynn, the
grizzled old frontiersman, busied himself with preparations for the
raft-journey down the Ohio. Lynn had been employed to guide the missionary's
party to Fort Henry, and, as the brothers had acquainted him with their
intention of accompanying the travelers, he had constructed a raft for them
 The Spirit of the Border |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right
direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet
it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling
anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested
human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a
straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a
point, like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead,
as he looked up through this rift in the wood, shone great
golden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange
constellations. He was sure they were arranged in some order
which had a secret and malign significance. The wood on
 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |