| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: by jabbing their knives into the hide as glacier-climbers do their
ice-picks. The head yielded barrel after barrel of oil and a fair
quantity of bone. The blubber was taken aboard the junk, minced
up with hatchets, and run into casks.
Last of all, a Chinaman cut a hole through the "case," and,
actually descending into the inside of the head, stripped away the
spermaceti (clear as crystal), and packed it into buckets, which
were hauled up on the junk's deck. The work occupied some two or
three days. During this time the "Bertha Millner" was keeled over
to nearly twenty degrees by the weight of the dead monster.
However, neither Wilbur nor Moran made protest. The Chinamen
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: later with the teapot and hot water. As he turned to go:
"Bring me the tray that's on the billiard-table," said Berry.
"Carry it carefully."
"Yes, sir.
"Without moving, we all observed one another, the eyes looking
sideways. You see, the tray bore a jig-saw. When I had left on
the previous Saturday for a week-end visit, we had done the top
right-hand corner and half what looked as if it must be the left
side. Most of this we had done on Friday evening; but artificial
light is inclined to militate against the labourer, and at eleven
o'clock Berry had sworn twice, shown us which pieces were
The Brother of Daphne |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: I was amazed to see the ship still afloat, the poop-deck
whole--and, most of all, to see anybody alive. Also
the peace of the sky and the serenity of the sea were
istinctly surprising. I suppose I expected to see them
convulsed with horror. . . . Pass the bottle.
"There was a voice hailing the ship from somewhere
--in the air, in the sky--I couldn't tell. Presently I
saw the captain--and he was mad. He asked me eagerly,
'Where's the cabin-table?' and to hear such a question
was a frightful shock. I had just been blown up, you
understand, and vibrated with that experience,--I wasn't
Youth |
