| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: of his family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He
was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went
off like a thunderclap just behind him. A hot wind knocked him
senseless and red fire singed his fur. The big man had been
wakened by the noise, and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into
Nag just behind the hood.
Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite
sure he was dead. But the head did not move, and the big man
picked him up and said, "It's the mongoose again, Alice. The
little chap has saved our lives now."
Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw
The Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: Trist" of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite
of Usher's more in sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there
is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could
have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my
friend. It was, however, the only book immediately at hand; and
I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now agitated
the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history of mental
disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness of
the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by
the wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he
hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: next week? Otherwise aren't you comfortable? Isn't your house in
order? Do you want to sell a pony in order to have the library
done over in mission or the drawing-room in gold? Do you want
somebody to count the empty cigarette boxes lying around every
morning?"
Lay it to the long idle afternoon, to the new environment, to
anything you like, but I began to think that perhaps I did. I
was confoundedly lonely. For the first time in my life its even
course began to waver: the needle registered warning marks on the
matrimonial seismograph, lines vague enough, but lines.
My alligator bag lay at my feet, still locked. While I waited for
The Man in Lower Ten |
