| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: I'll tell you, Brother Peters,' says he, 'I'm going to start a poker
room. I don't seem to care for the humdrum in swindling, such as
peddling egg-beaters and working off breakfast food on Barnum and
Bailey for sawdust to strew in their circus rings. But the gambling
business,' says he, 'from the profitable side of the table is a good
compromise between swiping silver spoons and selling penwipers at a
Waldorf-Astoria charity bazar.'
"'Then,' says I, 'Mr. Bassett, you don't care to talk over my little
business proposition?'
"'Why,' says he, 'do you know, you can't get a Pasteur institute to
start up within fifty miles of where I live. I bite so seldom.'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: the latter.
"I saw you as soon as I came in," he said, "gliding from window
to window, like a vessel hugging the shore in a storm."
"With colors at half-mast; I have no dancing partner."
"How many have observed you?"
"Several young gentlemen."
"Moths."
"Oh no, butterflies."
"They must keep away now."
"Are you Rhadamanthus?"
"And Charon, too. I would have you row in the same boat with me."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: I had all I could do with Desiree and myself. Many times I
scrambled up the steep face of some boulder and, after pulling her
up safely after me, let her down again on the other side. Then I
returned to see that Harry got over safely, and often he made it
barely by inches, while flying spears struck the rock on every
side.
It is a wonder to me now that I was able even to stand, after
my experience on the spiral stairway in the column. The soles of
my feet and the palms of my hands were baked black as the Incas
themselves. Blisters covered my body from head to foot, swelling,
indescribably painful.
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