| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: would make a mess of it, for there isn't anyway to shorten sail -
like reefing, you know - you have to take it ALL in - shut your
feathers down flat to your sides. That would LAND you, of course.
You could lay to, with your head to the wind - that is the best you
could do, and right hard work you'd find it, too. If you tried any
other game, you would founder, sure.
I judge it was about a couple of weeks or so after this that I
dropped old Sandy McWilliams a note one day - it was a Tuesday -
and asked him to come over and take his manna and quails with me
next day; and the first thing he did when he stepped in was to
twinkle his eye in a sly way, and say, -
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: perversely tempting, sorrowful, wisp of white mist drifting in the
complicated bad dream of existence. Neither did she look like a
forsaken elf. I stammered out stupidly, "Again in the country, Miss
. . . Mrs . . . " She was very good, returned the pressure of my
hand, but we were slightly embarrassed. Then we laughed a little.
Then we became grave.
I am no lover of day-breaks. You know how thin, equivocal, is the
light of the dawn. But she was now her true self, she was like a
fine tranquil afternoon--and not so very far advanced either. A
woman not much over thirty, with a dazzling complexion and a little
colour, a lot of hair, a smooth brow, a fine chin, and only the eyes
Chance |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: had too much hay, and not enough of grain; or he
had too much grain, and not enough of hay; instead
of old Barney's attending to the horse, he had very
improperly left it to his son." To all these com-
plaints, no matter how unjust, the slave must an-
swer never a word. Colonel Lloyd could not brook
any contradiction from a slave. When he spoke, a
slave must stand, listen, and tremble; and such was
literally the case. I have seen Colonel Lloyd make
old Barney, a man between fifty and sixty years of
age, uncover his bald head, kneel down upon the
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
