| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: and managed with average discipline. Even the HAZING that took
place after the California coast was reached, was of the average
sort. The Pilgrim savoured not in any way of a hell-ship. The
captain, while not the sweetest-natured man in the world, was only
an average down-east driver, neither brilliant nor slovenly in his
seamanship, neither cruel nor sentimental in the treatment of his
men. While, on the one hand, there were no extra liberty days, no
delicacies added to the meagre forecastle fare, nor grog or hot
coffee on double watches, on the other hand the crew were not
chronically crippled by the continual play of knuckle-dusters and
belaying pins. Once, and once only, were men flogged or ironed--a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: debating the duplicity of men or searching for a supreme test to
prove this cavalier.
"Does oo love my new mower?" she asked, with bewildering
suddenness.
Jane Withersteen laughed, and for the first time in many a day
she felt a stir of her pulse and warmth in her cheek.
It was a still drowsy summer of afternoon, and the three were
sitting in the shade of the wooded knoll that faced the
sage-slope Little Fay's brief spell of unhappy longing for her
mother--the childish, mystic gloom--had passed, and now where Fay
was there were prattle and laughter and glee. She had emerged
Riders of the Purple Sage |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: Cherokee with a watch-chain made of nuggets.
Three hours after the presentation ceremonies Cherokee's claim played
out. He had located a pocket instead of a vein. He abandoned it and
staked others one by one. Luck had kissed her hand to him. Never
afterward did he turn up enough dust in Yellowhammer to pay his bar
bill. But his thousand invited guests were mostly prospering, and
Cherokee smiled and congratulated them.
Yellowhammer was made up of men who took off their hats to a smiling
loser; so they invited Cherokee to say what he wanted.
"Me?" said Cherokee, "oh, grubstakes will be about the thing. I reckon
I'll prospect along up in the Mariposas. If I strike it up there I
Heart of the West |
