| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: short stay in the country, had fully persuaded himself that it was
his duty to bring this solemn matter to an issue. A duty that he
individually owed, as a gentleman, to the parents of Ambulinia,
a duty in itself involving not only his own happiness and his own
standing in society, but one that called aloud the act of the parties
to make it perfect and complete. How he should communicate his
intentions to get a favorable reply, he was at a loss to know;
he knew not whether to address Esq. Valeer in prose or in poetry,
in a jocular or an argumentative manner, or whether he should use
moral suasion, legal injunction, or seizure and take by reprisal;
if it was to do the latter, he would have no difficulty in deciding
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: glad you liked the doggerel: I have already had a liberal cheque,
over which I licked my fingers with a sound conscience. I had not
meant to make money by these stumbling feet, but if it comes, it is
only too welcome in my handsome but impecunious house.
Let me know soon what is to be expected - as far as it does not
hang by that inconstant quantity, my want of health. Remember me
to Madam with the best thanks and wishes; and believe me your
friend,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Letter: TO MRS. FLEEMING JENKIN
[SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH, APRIL 1886.]
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: storehouse, where supplies are kept for the lumbermen and the new
settlers. Here also we found the tiny, lame steam launch that was
to carry us back to the Hotel Roberval. Our canoes were stowed
upon the roof of the cabin, and we embarked for the last stage of
our long journey.
As we came out of the river-mouth, the opposite shore of the lake
was invisible, and a stiff "Nor'wester" was rolling big waves
across the bar. It was like putting out into the open sea. The
launch laboured and puffed along for four or five miles, growing
more and more asthmatic with every breath. Then there was an
explosion in the engine-room. Some necessary part of the
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