| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "And I'll whop your old big sister Solly, too."
There was a tiny sob.
"I will," declared Jim. "Now you mind!"
The next day Jim cornered little Lucy Rose under
a cedar-tree before school began. He paid no atten-
tion to Bubby Harvey and Tom Simmons, who were
openly sniggering at him. Little Lucy gazed up
at Jim, and the blue-green shade of the cedar seemed
to bring out only more clearly the white-rose softness
of her dear little face. Jim bent over her.
"Want you to do something for me," he whis-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: which followed the mysterious title, as the commissioner had done.
He began instead at the very first words.
"Ah! she is still young," he murmured, when he had read the first
lines. "Young, in easy circumstances, happy and contented."
These first pages told of pleasure trips, of visits from and to good
friends, of many little events of every-day life. Then came some
accounts, written in pencil, of shopping expeditions to the city.
Costly laces and jewels had been bought, and linen garments for
children by the dozen. "She is rich, generous, and charitable,"
thought the detective, for the book showed that the considerable
sums which had been spent here had not been for the writer herself.
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