| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: once established. When I lift the straw, the threads come with it
and stretch to twice or three times their length, like a thread of
India-rubber. At last, when over-taut, they loosen without
breaking and resume their original form. They lengthen by
unrolling their twist, they shorten by rolling it again; lastly,
they become adhesive by taking the glaze of the gummy moisture
wherewith they are filled.
In short, the spiral thread is a capillary tube finer than any that
our physics will ever know. It is rolled into a twist so as to
possess an elasticity that allows it, without breaking, to yield to
the tugs of the captured prey; it holds a supply of sticky matter
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: He was a widowed boat-builder, whom blindness
had overtaken years before in the full flush of busi-
ness. He behaved to his daughter as if she had
been responsible for its incurable character. He
had been heard to bellow at the top of his voice,
as if to defy Heaven, that he did not care: he had
made enough money to have ham and eggs for his
breakfast every morning. He thanked God for it,
in a fiendish tone as though he were cursing.
Captain Hagberd had been so unfavourably im-
pressed by his tenant, that once he told Miss Bes-
To-morrow |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
