| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: brother; how he played? It is a trout, for sure; a real trout,
almost as long as your hand."
So the two lads tramp along up the stream, chattering as if there
were no rubric of silence in the angler's code. Presently another
simple-minded troutling falls a victim to their unpremeditated art;
and they begin already, being human, to wish for something larger.
In the very last pool that they dare attempt--a dark hole under a
steep bank, where the brook issues from the woods--the boy drags
out the hoped-for prize, a splendid trout, longer than a new lead-
pencil. But he feels sure that there must be another, even larger,
in the same place. He swings his line out carefully over the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: what measures to take; at length, having implored the protection of
that Providence that superintends the whole creation, we went
forwards through the midst of them without any injury. Once we met
four young elephants, and an old one that played with them, lifting
them up with her trunk; they grew enraged on a sudden, and ran upon
us: we had no way of securing ourselves but by flight, which,
however, would have been fruitless, had not our pursuers been
stopped by a deep ditch. The elephants of Aethiopia are of so
stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could
not reach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs.
In Abyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: Your reception, beforehand, be sure to prepare for,"
Wrote the tutor of Nero; who wrote, be it said,
Better far than he acted--but peace to the dead!
He bled for his pupil: what more could he do?
But Lord Alfred, when into himself he withdrew,
Found all there in disorder. For more than an hour
He sat with his head droop'd like some stubborn flower
Beaten down by the rush of the rain--with such force
Did the thick, gushing thoughts hold upon him the course
Of their sudden descent, rapid, rushing, and dim,
From the cloud that had darken'd the evening for him.
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