| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: over and over again:
``Wash together! We'll wash together!
And we'll be happy forever!''
When all the pink clean tiny hands were wiped dry, or as nearly dry
as little girls do wipe tiny pink hands, on the pink checked towel
held for them by Sister Angela, then Sister Angela hung the pink
checked towel on the lowest limb of the arbor-vita tree. Then the
little girls all ran to sit down in a row on the lowest step of the
back gallery, with their little feet on the gravel below. Sister
Angela walked the length of the row, and gave to each little girl in
the row a sweet tiny cake, or maybe Sister Angela walked twice down
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: faced the enemy like sentinels, winter-quiet but dauntless, and behind
them lay the wreck of the little village, quiet and empty.
"Will the men know I am here?" Sara Lee asked anxiously.
"But, yes, mademoiselle. At night they come up from the trenches, and
fresh troops take their places. They come up this street and go on to
wherever they are to rest. And when they find that a house of - mercy
is here - and soup, they will come. More than you wish."
"Belgian soldiers?"
"Only Belgian soldiers. That is as you want it to be, I think."
"If only I spoke French!"
"You will learn. And in the meantime, mademoiselle, I have taken the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: "They have liked me," her sister rejoined; "it would be more correct
to say that. And, of course, one likes that."
Bessie Alden resumed for some moments her studies in sea green.
"Well," she said, "whether they like me or not, I mean to like them.
And happily," she added, "Lord Lambeth does not owe me ten pounds."
During the first few days after their arrival at Jones's Hotel our charming
Americans were much occupied with what they would have called looking
about them. They found occasion to make a large number of purchases,
and their opportunities for conversation were such only as were offered
by the deferential London shopmen. Bessie Alden, even in driving
from the station, took an immense fancy to the British metropolis,
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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 The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: her features, Rhoda Gray emerged from the shed and the lane, and
started rapidly toward lower Sixth Avenue. And as she walked, her
mind, released for the moment from the consideration of her
immediate venture, began again, as it had so many times in the last
three days, its striving and its searching after some loophole of
escape from her own desperate situation. But only, as it ever did,
confusion came - a chaos of things, contributory things and
circumstances, and the personalities of those with whom this
impossible existence had thrown her into contact. Little by little
she was becoming acquainted with the personnel of the gang - in an
impersonal way, mostly. Apart from Danglar, there was Shluker, who
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