| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: meeting at the Swan and Horse Shoe, and was patronized by the
cheesemonger; the other at the Cock and Crown, under the
auspices of the apothecary; it is needless to say that the latter
was the most flourishing. I have passed an evening or two at
each, and have acquired much valuable information, as to the
best mode of being buried, the comparative merits of
churchyards, together with divers hints on the subject of
patent-iron coffins. I have heard the question discussed in all
its bearings as to the legality of prohibiting the latter on
account of their durability. The feuds occasioned by these
societies have happily died of late; but they were for a long
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: tore off and stayed between his finger and thumb. It was
some little time before the old man was sufficiently
recovered to beg the ostler to go on, and he still kept
coughing and crying and rubbing his eyes. Mr. Archer, on his
side, laid the letter down, and, putting his hands in his
pocket, listened gravely to the tale.
'Yes,' resumed Sam, 'the North Mail was stopped by a single
horseman; dash my wig, but I admire him! There were four
insides and two out, and poor Tom Oglethorpe, the guard. Tom
showed himself a man; let fly his blunderbuss at him; had him
covered, too, and could swear to that; but the Captain never
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: We shall have to be number twenty-three."
"And how do you make that out?"
"Well, there it is."
Malahin looks at the guard, reflects, and mutters mechanically as
though to himself:
"God be my judge, I have reckoned it and even jotted it down in a
notebook; we have wasted thirty-four hours standing still on the
journey. If you go on like this, either the cattle will die, or
they won't pay me two roubles for the meat when I do get there.
It's not traveling, but ruination."
The guard raises his eyebrows and sighs with an air that seems to
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
