| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: down toward Round Lake.
A Saranac boat is one of the finest things that the skill of man
has ever produced under the inspiration of the wilderness. It is a
frail shell, so light that a guide can carry it on his shoulders
with ease, but so dexterously fashioned that it rides the heaviest
waves like a duck, and slips through the water as if by magic. You
can travel in it along the shallowest rivers and across the
broadest lakes, and make forty or fifty miles a day, if you have a
good guide.
Everything depends, in the Adirondacks, as in so many other regions
of life, upon your guide. If he is selfish, or surly, or stupid,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: years old, in a wicker-basket covered with
metallic gauze, and the child had no other
dress than a cap made of amianthine cloth.
In February, 1829, a still more striking
experiment was made in the yard of the
barracks of St. Gervais. Two towers were
erected two stories high, and were
surrounded with heaps of inflamed materials
consisting of fagots and straw. The firemen
braved the danger with impunity. In
opposition to the advice of M. Aldini, one
 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: children would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two,
an age at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each
other their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the
priest, enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie
trembled; she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all
celibates to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac
ministry came into power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the
Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high
in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied
his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As
for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as
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