| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a
woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the
uniform tranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in
squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades
one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when
all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of
my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was
prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should
wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its
distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: yours as far as I could throw Beppo by the tail."
"Wait!" exclaimed The Oskaloosa Kid. "I have it!"
"What have you?" asked Bridge.
"Listen!" cried the boy excitedly. "This boy has been
offered a hundred dollars for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the men who robbed and mur-
dered in Oakdale last night. I'll give him a hundred
dollars if he'll go away and say nothing about us."
"Look here, son," said Bridge, "every time you open
your mouth you put your foot in it. The less you adver-
tise the fact that you have a hundred dollars the better
The Oakdale Affair |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: complete. The result may be anything but perfect; yet better--to
give it the very lowest praise--than the antique rule of the
herald's office, or the modern one of the tax-gatherer, whereby
the accidents and superficial attributes with which the real
nature of individuals has least to do, are acted upon as the
deepest characteristics of mankind. Our task is done! Now let the
grand procession move!
Yet pause a while! We had forgotten the Chief Marshal.
Hark! That world-wide swell of solemn music, with the clang of a
mighty bell breaking forth through its regulated uproar,
announces his approach. He comes; a severe, sedate, immovable,
Mosses From An Old Manse |
