| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: was necessary. She made them talk of life on the open range, of
rustlers and those who lived outside the law in the upper
Shoshone country, of the deadly war waging between the cattle and
sheep industries.
"Are there any sheep near the Lazy D ranch?" she asked, intensely
interested in Soapy's tale of how cattle and sheep could no more
be got to mix than oil and water.
For an instant nobody answered her question; then Soapy replied,
with what seemed elaborate carelessness:
"Ned Bannister runs a bunch of about twelve thousand not more'n
fifteen or twenty miles from your place."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: fortune and her ancient name; and though it may seem improbable that a
Paris attorney should speak so familiarly to her, or be so much at
home in her house, the fact is nevertheless easily explained.
When Mme. de Grandlieu returned to France with the Royal family, she
came to Paris, and at first lived entirely on the pension allowed her
out of the Civil List by Louis XVIII.--an intolerable position. The
Hotel de Grandlieu had been sold by the Republic. It came to
Derville's knowledge that there were flaws in the title, and he
thought that it ought to return to the Vicomtesse. He instituted
proceedings for nullity of contract, and gained the day. Encouraged by
this success, he used legal quibbles to such purpose that he compelled
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: told by one of us each evening, had met with courtesy, but not I with
immediate enthusiasm. But Mrs. Davenport had chosen her guests with her
usual wisdom, and after the first experiment, story telling proved so
successful that none of us would have readily abandoned it. When the time
had come for Richard Field to entertain the company with the promised
tale from his life experience, his hope of escaping this ordeal had
altogether vanished.
Mrs. Field, it had been noticed as early as breakfast time, was inclined
to be nervous on her husband's account. Five years of married life had
not cured her of this amiable symptom, and she made but a light meal. He,
on the other hand, ate heartily and without signs of disturbance.
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