| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: sounds of the unknown bell with wonderful distinctness. They all immediately
felt a wish to go thither; all except three. One of them had to go home to try
on a ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her
to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would not have come; the other
was a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and boots to be confirmed in from
the innkeeper's son, and he was to give them back by a certain hour; the third
said that he never went to a strange place if his parents were not with
him--that he had always been a good boy hitherto, and would still be so now
that he was confirmed, and that one ought not to laugh at him for it: the
others, however, did make fun of him, after all.
There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on. The sun
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: sending me out to my grandparents, who lived in Nebraska.
I travelled in the care of a mountain boy, Jake Marpole,
one of the `hands' on my father's old farm under the Blue Ridge,
who was now going West to work for my grandfather.
Jake's experience of the world was not much wider than mine.
He had never been in a railway train until the morning when we
set out together to try our fortunes in a new world.
We went all the way in day-coaches, becoming more sticky and
grimy with each stage of the journey. Jake bought everything
the newsboys offered him: candy, oranges, brass collar buttons,
a watch-charm, and for me a `Life of Jesse James,' which I
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: received her warmly; inquiring for her mother and the
rest of the family--(though this as a matter of form
merely, for in reality he had not been aware of Mrs
Durbeyfield's existence till apprised of the fact by a
brief business-letter about Tess).
"Oh--ay, as a lad I knowed your part o' the country
very well," he said terminatively. "Though I've never
been there since. And a aged woman of ninety that use
to live nigh here, but is dead and gone long ago, told
me that a family of some such name as yours in
Blackmoor Vale came originally from these parts, and
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
