| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: touched him somewhere beneath his ice and iron.
"I don't know what I've been thinking about, Mex,"
he remarked in his usual mild drawl, "to have forgot all
about a Christmas present I got to give. I'm going to
ride over to-morrow night and shoot Madison Lane in
his own house. He got my girl -- Rosita would have
had me if he hadn't cut into the game. I wonder why I
happened to overlook it up to now?"
"Ah, shucks, Kid," said Mexican, "don't talk foolish-
ness. You know you can't get within a mile of Mad
Lane's house to-morrow night. I see old man Allen
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others.
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our
friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all
our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength to
encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of
fortune, and, down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to
another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind,
as children of their sire, we beseech of Thee this help and mercy
for Christ's sake.
FOR GRACE
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: then marched in orderly form toward the maple grove where the service was
always held in pleasant weather. This movement brought the Indians within
several hundred yards of the cliff where Zane and Wetzel lay concealed.
"There's Heckewelder walking with old man Wells," whispered Jonathan. "There's
Young and Edwards, and, yes, there's the young missionary, brother of Joe.
'Pears to me they're foolish to hold service in the face of all those riled
Injuns."
"Wuss'n foolish," answered Wetzel.
"Look! By gum! As I'm a livin' sinner there comes the whole crowd of hostile
redskins. They've got their guns, and--by Gum! they're painted. Looks bad,
bad! Not much friendliness about that bunch!"
The Spirit of the Border |
