| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: discouragement, "but it is difficult to take them. Do you not find
it so?"
In the back of my fly-book I discovered a tiny phantom minnow--a
dainty affair of varnished silk, as light as a feather--and quietly
attached it to the leader in place of the tail-fly. Then the fun
began.
One after another the big fish dashed at that deception, and we
played and netted them, until our score was thirteen, weighing
altogether thirty-five pounds, and the largest five pounds and a
half. The guardian was mystified and disgusted. He looked on for
a while in silence, and then pulled up anchor and clattered ashore.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: and guardian, and were to seize a sword and, going to the doors of his
house, were to enquire if he were at home, meaning to slay only him and no
one else:--the servants reply, 'Yes': (Mind, I do not mean that you would
really do such a thing; but there is nothing, you think, to prevent a man
who is ignorant of the best, having occasionally the whim that what is
worst is best?
ALCIBIADES: No.)
SOCRATES:--If, then, you went indoors, and seeing him, did not know him,
but thought that he was some one else, would you venture to slay him?
ALCIBIADES: Most decidedly not (it seems to me). (These words are omitted
in several MSS.)
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: to accuse him of it. Search him, if you like, but
you won't find the clover; look in his basket and
you'll find it's not there. He hasn't got it, so I
demand that you set this poor Munchkin boy free."
The people of Oz listened to this defiance in
amazement and wondered at the queer Patchwork Girl
who dared talk so boldly to their Ruler. But Ozma
sat silent and motionless and it was the little
Wizard who answered Scraps.
"So the clover hasn't been picked, eh?" he said.
"I think it has. I think the boy hid it in his
 The Patchwork Girl of Oz |