| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: I had extended the stage, the military character of our affairs
with Mr. Bellamy, and the bad example I had set before him at the
archdeacon's, something exceptional was certainly to be done. But
these are always nice questions, to a foreigner above all: a shade
too little will suggest niggardliness, a shilling too much smells
of hush-money. Fresh from the scene at the archdeacon's, and
flushed by the idea that I was now nearly done with the
responsibilities of the claret-coloured chaise, I put into his
hands five guineas; and the amount served only to waken his
cupidity.
'O, come, sir, you ain't going to fob me of with this? Why, I seen
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: coachman. Several livery-stable keepers were in attendance, but
nothing was settled, till I suggested that Aunt Eliza should send
for her own carriage. James was sent back the next day, and
returned on Thursday with coach, horses, and William her coachman.
That matter being finished, and the trunks being unpacked, she
decided to take her first bath in the sea, expecting me to support
her through the trying ordeal of the surf. As we were returning
from the beach we met a carriage containing a number of persons
with a family resemblance.
When Aunt Eliza saw them she angrily exclaimed, "Am I to see
those Uxbridges every day?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: not known that he lived in so wild a region. There was
something uncanny in the revelation.
By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. The
thought of his wife and children urged him on. At last he
found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right
direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet
it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling
anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested
human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a
straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a
point, like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead,
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
