| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: when he acquired an estate of his own, he man-
aged it so well that after fifteen years the waste
piece of land, consisting of three hundred acres,
became a model estate. All the buildings, from
the dwelling-house to the corn stores and the shed
for the fire engine were solidly built, had iron
roofs, and were painted at the right time. In the
tool house carts, ploughs, harrows, stood in per-
fect order, the harness was well cleaned and oiled.
The horses were not very big, but all home-bred,
grey, well fed, strong and devoid of blemish.
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: is that it refuses to grapple anybody at all--and I am sure that the dead
weight of a friend whose adoption it had tried would kill it immediately.
Never yet has it shown the slightest sign of a hoop!"
He bumped against my knees and excused himself and the cart.
"My dear little lady, you must not take the quotation literally.
Naturally, one is not physically conscious of the hoops; but hoops there
are in the soul of him or her who loves his fellow-men...Take this
afternoon, for instance. How did we start out? As strangers you might
almost say, and yet--all of us--how have we come home?"
"In a cart," said the only remaining joy, who sat upon his mother's lap and
felt sick.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: ahead of a sharp bend in the stream.
"Do we get out here?" asked Jim, seeing Jonathan turn his canoe toward
Wetzel's.
"The village lies yonder, around the bend," answered the guide. "Wetzel cannot
go there, so I'll take you all in my canoe."
"There's no room; I'll wait," replied Joe, quietly. Jim noted his look--a
strange, steady glance it was--and then saw him fix his eyes upon Nell,
watching her until the canoe passed around the green-bordered bend in the
stream.
Unmistakable signs of an Indian town were now evident. Dozens of graceful
birchen canoes lay upon the well-cleared banks; a log bridge spanned the
The Spirit of the Border |
