| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "I don't want another!" wailed the young man.
By this time Trot and Cap'n Bill arrived at the spot
and the girl leaned over and said in a sympathetic voice:
"Tell us your troubles and perhaps we may help you."
The youth sat up, then, and bowed politely. Afterward
he got upon his feet, but still kept wringing his hands
as he tried to choke down his sobs. Trot thought he was
very brave to control such awful agony so well.
"My name is Pon," he began. "I'm the gardener's boy."
"Then the gardener of the King is your father, I
suppose," said Trot.
 The Scarecrow of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: three times to look at my watch, but when a woman with whom I had played
chess for three weeks cut me dead, I took heart and joined a circle.
We lay curled on the ground while a Hungarian lady of immense proportions
told us what a beautiful tomb she had bought for her second husband.
"A vault it is," she said, "with nice black railings. And so large that I
can go down there and walk about. Both their photographs are there, with
two very handsome wreaths sent me by my first husband's brother. There is
an enlargement of a family group photograph, too, and an illuminated
address presented to my first husband on his marriage. I am often there;
it makes such a pleasant excursion for a fine Saturday afternoon."
She suddenly lay down flat on her back, took in six long breaths, and sat
|