| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: family resemblance not to be denied. This man looked like his
cousin, the sheepman, as the latter might have done if all his
life he had given a free rein to evil passions.
The height, the build, the elastic tread of each, made further
contributions to this effect of similarity.
"What are you doing here?" They were the first words spoken by
the man on the lounge and they rang with a curt challenge.
"Come to inquire after the health of my dear cousin," came the
prompt silken answer.
"You villain!"
"My dear cousin, y'u speak with such conviction that y'u almost
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: echoing and interlacing in endless curves of sound,
"Orb within orb, intricate, wonderful."
Other bird-songs can be translated into words, but not this. There
is no interpretation. It is music,--as Sidney Lanier defines it,--
"Love in search of a word."
But it is not only to the real life of birds and flowers that the
little rivers introduce you. They lead you often into familiarity
with human nature in undress, rejoicing in the liberty of old
clothes, or of none at all. People do not mince along the banks of
streams in patent-leather shoes or crepitating silks. Corduroy and
home-spun and flannel are the stuffs that suit this region; and the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: beggar-woman.'
And the woman answered him, 'I am thy mother.'
'Thou art mad to say so,' cried the Star-Child angrily. 'I am no
son of thine, for thou art a beggar, and ugly, and in rags.
Therefore get thee hence, and let me see thy foul face no more.'
'Nay, but thou art indeed my little son, whom I bare in the
forest,' she cried, and she fell on her knees, and held out her
arms to him. 'The robbers stole thee from me, and left thee to
die,' she murmured, 'but I recognised thee when I saw thee, and the
signs also have I recognised, the cloak of golden tissue and the
amber chain. Therefore I pray thee come with me, for over the
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