| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: and presently the other man rose and went, either to look at his own pot or
sleep under the carts; and the large Colonial man was left alone. His fire
was burning satisfactorily about fifty feet off, and he folded his arms on
the ground and rested his forehead on them, and watched lazily the little
black ants that ran about in the red sand, just under his nose.
A great stillness settled down on the camp. Now and again a stick cracked
in the fires, and the cicadas cried aloud in the tree stems; but except
where the solitary paced up and down before the little flat-topped tree in
front of the captain's tent, not a creature stirred in the whole camp; and
the snores of the trooper under the bushes might be heard half across the
camp.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: two hours the busy scenes of cutting out, roping and branding,
Helen wheeled her car and started down the canyon on their
return.
Now, a herd of wild cattle is uncertain as an April day's
behavior. Under the influence of the tame valley cattle among
which they are driven, after a little milling around, the whole
bunch may gentle almost immediately, or, on the other hand, it
may break through and go crashing away on a wild stampede at a
moment's notice. Every experienced cowman knows enough to expect
the unexpected.
At Bronco Mesa the round-up had proceeded with unusual facility.
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