| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: other the match had been broken off; the girl died, Goodson remained
a bachelor, and by-and-by became a soured one and a frank despiser
of the human species. Soon after the girl's death the village found
out, or thought it had found out, that she carried a spoonful of
negro blood in her veins. Richards worked at these details a good
while, and in the end he thought he remembered things concerning
them which must have gotten mislaid in his memory through long
neglect. He seemed to dimly remember that it was HE that found out
about the negro blood; that it was he that told the village; that
the village told Goodson where they got it; that he thus saved
Goodson from marrying the tainted girl; that he had done him this
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: the trick. We did not easily catch up with these experts, however.
"Never thought I'd live to be bossed by a lot of elderly lady
acrobats," Terry protested.
They had games, too, a good many of them, but we found
them rather uninteresting at first. It was like two people playing
solitaire to see who would get it first; more like a race or a--a
competitive examination, than a real game with some fight in it.
I philosophized a bit over this and told Terry it argued against
their having any men about. "There isn't a man-size game in the lot,"
I said.
"But they are interesting--I like them," Jeff objected, "and
Herland |
