| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: and the men pressed round me in turn with congratulations, the
tears came in my eyes.
"These are five-tael boxes, more than two pounds," said Nares,
weighing one in his hand. "Say two hundred and fifty dollars
to the mat. Lay into it, boys! We'll make Mr. Dodd a
millionnaire before dark."
It was strange to see with what a fury we fell to. The men had
now nothing to expect; the mere idea of great sums inspired
them with disinterested ardour. Mats were slashed and
disembowelled, the rice flowed to our knees in the ship's waist,
the sweat ran in our eyes and blinded us, our arms ached to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: put on his best Court-suit, made entirely of cat-skins, for the occasion.
"I shall escort them myself," his Majesty repeated, gently but firmly,
laying aside the Royal robes, and changing his crown for a small
coronet, "and you may stay at home."
"I are glad!" Bruno whispered to Sylvie, when they had got well out of
hearing. "He were so welly cross!" And he not only patted their Royal
escort, but even hugged him round the neck in the exuberance of his
delight.
His Majesty calmly wagged the Royal tail. "It's quite a relief,"
he said, "getting away from that Palace now and then! Royal Dogs have a
dull life of it, I can tell you! Would you mind" (this to Sylvie, in a
Sylvie and Bruno |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: table fell full upon her face.
"Is it really true, monsieur, quite true?" she asked. "I do not
know how I can live after that awful blow which struck me down a
little while since; but just now I feel calm. I want to know
everything."
"What calm!" I said to myself as I saw the ghastly pallor of her
face contrasting with her brown hair, and heard the guttural
tones of her voice. The havoc wrought in her drawn features
filled me with dumb amazement.
Those few hours had bleached her; she had lost a woman's last
glow of autumn color. Her eyes were red and swollen, nothing of
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