| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: to lay a spell upon her. The ground seemed to hold her as if by
roots. Her knees were soft under her. She felt as if she could
not bear separation from her old sorrows, from her old discontent.
They were dear to her, they had kept her alive, they were
a part of her. There would be nothing left of her if she were
wrenched away from them. Never could she pass beyond that skyline
against which her restlessness had beat so many times. She felt
as if her soul had built itself a nest there on that horizon at
which she looked every morning and every evening, and it was dear
to her, inexpressibly dear. She pressed her fingers against her
eyeballs to shut it out. Beside her she heard the tramping of
 The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: physician had appeared during the time he was in the house, nor had
Barbara used the telephone, almost at her elbow as she sat by her
sister's couch, to summon Dr. Stone. Kent had only waited long
enough to convince himself that Helen was out of danger, and then
had departed.
It was nearly one o'clock when he finally stepped inside his office,
and he found his clerk and a dressy female bending eagerly over a
newspaper. They looked up at his approach and Sylvester came
forward.
"This is my wife, sir," he explained, and Kent bowed courteously to
Mrs. Sylvester. "We were just reading this account of Mr. Rochester's
 The Red Seal |