| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: I glanced out of the window. Coketown was nothing more than a ragged
hillside dotted with a score of black dismal huts propped up against
dreary mounds of slag and clinkers. It rained in slanting torrents,
too, and the rills foamed and splashed down through the black mud to
the railroad-tracks.
"You won't sell much plate-glass here, John," said I. "Why do you get
off at this end-o'-the-world?"
"Why," said Pescud, "the other day I took Jessie for a little trip to
Philadelphia, and coming back she thought she saw some petunias in a
pot in one of those windows over there just like some she used to
raise down in the old Virginia home. So I thought I'd drop off here
Options |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: I fancied I was running in the fields. Ah! I had a future," he said,
suddenly interrupting himself; "and now, twelve men, a sub-lieutenant
shouting 'Carry-arms, aim, fire!' a roll of drums, and infamy! that's
my future now. Oh! there must be a God, or it would all be too
senseless."
Then he took me in his arms and pressed me to him with all his
strength.
"You are the last man, the last friend to whom I can show my soul. You
will be set at liberty, you will see your mother! I don't know whether
you are rich or poor, but no matter! you are all the world to me. They
won't fight always, 'ceux-ci.' Well, when there's peace, will you go
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: hope the horse is not too spirited."--"Who does she go riding
with?" asked Mrs. Bell. "She doesn't say, Sarah. Why?"--"Nothing.
She has a queer way of not mentioning things, now and
then."--"Sarah!" exclaimed Mrs. Wood, reproachfully. "Oh, well,
mother, you know just as well as I do that she can be very
independent and unconventional."--"Yes; but not in that way. She
wouldn't ride with poor Sam Bannett, and after all he is a
suitable person."
Nevertheless, in her next letter, Mrs. Wood cautioned her
daughter about trusting herself with any one of whom Mrs. Balaam
did not thoroughly approve. The good lady could never grasp that
The Virginian |
