| 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: and I named them in an instant--FLAMES--and I was right, too,
though these were the very first flames that had ever been
in the world. They climbed the trees, then flashed splendidly
in and out of the vast and increasing volume of tumbling smoke,
and I had to clap my hands and laugh and dance in my rapture,
it was so new and strange and so wonderful and so beautiful!
He came running, and stopped and gazed, and said not a word for
many minutes. Then he asked what it was. Ah, it was too bad that he
should ask such a direct question. I had to answer it, of course,
and I did. I said it was fire. If it annoyed him that I should know
and he must ask; that was not my fault; I had no desire to annoy him.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: can explain only thus: pay was due him--"time," as it was called
in cow-land; if he would have this money, he must stay under the
Virginian's command until the Judge's ranch on Sunk Creek should
be reached; meanwhile, each day's work added to the wages in
store for him; and finally, once at Sunk Creek, it would be no
more the Virginian who commanded him; it would be the real ranch
foreman. At the ranch he would be the Virginian's equal again,
both of them taking orders from their officially recognized
superior, this foreman. Shorty's word about "revenge" seemed to
me like putting the thing backwards. Revenge, as I told Scipio,
was what I should be thinking about if I were Trampas.
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: miserable end, flinging himself into every kind of dissipation. You
understand?
" 'On the day when he left, Madame la Comtesse had quitted la Grand
Breteche, having dismantled it. Some people even say that she had
burnt all the furniture, the hangings--in short, all the chattels and
furniture whatever used in furnishing the premises now let by the said
M.--(Dear, what am I saying? I beg your pardon, I thought I was
dictating a lease.)--In short, that she burnt everything in the meadow
at Merret. Have you been to Merret, monsieur?--No,' said he, answering
himself, 'Ah, it is a very fine place.'
" 'For about three months previously,' he went on, with a jerk of his
La Grande Breteche |
