| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: heart beat so hard that you were afraid it would shatter its
little body to pieces? Well, you used to be just like that, a
slender, eager thing with a wild delight inside you. That is how
I remembered you. And I come back and find you--a bitter
woman. This is a perfect ferret fight here; you live by biting
and being bitten. Can't you remember what life used to be? Can't
you remember that old delight? I've never forgotten it, or known
its like, on land or sea."
He drew the horse under the shadow of the straw stack.
Clara felt him take her foot out of the stirrup, and she slid
softly down into his arms. He kissed her slowly. He was a
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: little place, filled with all manner of articles. Next to the fire was a
great toolbox; beyond that the little bookshelf with its well-worn books;
beyond that, in the corner, a heap of filled and empty grain-bags. From
the rafters hung down straps, riems, old boots, bits of harness, and a
string of onions. The bed was in another corner, covered by a patchwork
quilt of faded red lions, and divided from the rest of the room by a blue
curtain, now drawn back. On the mantelshelf was an endless assortment of
little bags and stones; and on the wall hung a map of South Germany, with a
red line drawn through it to show where the German had wandered. This
place was the one home the girls had known for many a year. The house
where Tant Sannie lived and ruled was a place to sleep in, to eat in, not
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: ...
And a long purple mass loomed and swelled into sight, heightened,
approached--land and trees black-shadowing, and lights that swung
... The San Marco glided into a bayou,--under a high wharfing of
timbers, where a bearded fisherman waited, and a woman. Sparicio
flung up a rope.
The bearded man caught it by the lantern-light, and tethered the
San Marco to her p]ace. Then he asked, in a deep voice:
-"Has traido al Doctor?"
-"Si, si!" answered Sparicio... "Y el viejo?"
-"Aye! pobre!" responded Feliu,--"hace tres dias que esta
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: mellow evening sky, her conversation betrayed not a trace of the
pride that a victorious fisherman would have shown. On the
contrary, she insisted that angling was an affair of chance--which
was consoling, though I knew it was not altogether true--and that
the smaller fish were just as pleasant to catch and better to eat,
after all. For a generous rival, commend me to a woman. And if I
must compete, let it be with one who has the grace to dissolve the
bitter of defeat in the honey of a mutual self-congratulation.
We had a garden, and our favourite path through it was the portage
leading around the falls. We travelled it very frequently, making
an excuse of idle errands to the steamboat-landing on the lake, and
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