| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: sell anything that he wants to keep. Have you got the carving with
you, Profess?'
"I shows it to Scudder. He examines it careful all over.
"'It's the article,' says he. 'It's a duplicate of mine, every line
and curve of it. Tell you what I'll do,' he says. 'I won't sell, but
I'll buy. Give you $2,500 for yours.'
"'Since you won't sell, I will,' says I. 'Large bills, please. I'm a
man of few words. I must return to New York to-night. I lecture
to-morrow at the aquarium.'
"Scudder sends a check down and the hotel cashes it. He goes off with
his piece of antiquity and I hurry back to Andy's hotel, according to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: took his leave, to help rehearse the new music with the choir. He would
be a missionary, too: a perfectly new experience.
"And you still forgive Verdi the sins of his youth?" he said to his host.
"I wonder if you could forgive mine?"
"Verdi has left his behind him," retorted the Padre.
"But I am only twenty-five!" exclaimed Gaston, pathetically.
"Ah, don't go away soon!" pleaded the exile. It was the first unconcealed
complaint that had escaped him, and he felt instant shame.
But Gaston was too much elated with the enjoyment of each new day to
comprehend the Padre's soul. The shafts of another's pain might hardly
pierce the bright armor of his gaiety. He mistook the priest's entreaty,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Bessie Bell wondered how to tell which were Mamas, and which were
Ladies--just Ladies.
Very often after that day she watched those who passed the cabin
where she and Sister Helen Vincula lived, and wondered which were
Mamas--
And which were Ladies.
There was no rule of old or young by which Bessie Bell could tell.
Nor was it as one could tell Sisters from Just-Ladies by a way of
dress. For Sisters, like Sister Helen Vincula, wore a soft white
around the face, and soft long black veils, and a small cross on the
breast of the dress: so that even had any not known the difference
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