| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: it before, and what led you so much to the woods; but you hunt
no more in such company. No more May games and Gamwell feasts.
My lands and castle would be the forfeit of a few more such pranks;
and I think they are as well in my hands as the king's,
quite as well."
"You know, father," said Matilda, "the condition of keeping me at home:
I get out if I can, and not on parole."
"Ay! ay!" said the baron, "if you can; very true:
watch and ward, Mawd, watch and ward is my word: if you can,
is yours. The mark is set, and so start fair."
The baron would have gone on in this way for an hour; but the friar
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering
about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine
descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a
cornfield.
His schoolhouse was a low building of one large room, rudely
constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and partly
patched with leaves of old copybooks. It was most ingeniously
secured at vacant hours, by a *withe twisted in the handle of the
door, and stakes set against the window shutters; so that though
a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find some
embarrassment in getting out, --an idea most probably borrowed by
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: believed that the adept, whose dark features wore a half-formed
smile, could in reality read even her most secret reflections. A
solemn pause then ensued, until Lady Forester gathered courage
enough to reply to the physician, as he termed himself, that she
would abide with firmness and silence the sight which he had
promised to exhibit to them. Upon this, he made them a low
obeisance, and saying he went to prepare matters to meet their
wish, left the apartment. The two sisters, hand in hand, as if
seeking by that close union to divert any danger which might
threaten them, sat down on two seats in immediate contact with
each other--Jemima seeking support in the manly and habitual
|
