| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Then a small but insistent cry rent the air. "The baby is
awake!" cried Eudora, and ran, or, rather, paced swiftly--Eudora
had been taught never to run--and Lawton followed. It was he who
finally quieted the child, holding the little thing in his arms.
But the baby, before that, cried so long and lustily that all the
women in the Glynn house opposite were on the alert, and also
some of the friends who were calling there. Abby Simson was one.
"Harry Lawton has been there over an hour now," said Abby, while
the wailing continued, "and I know as well as I want to that
there will be a wedding."
"I wonder he doesn't object to that adopted baby," said Julia
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: At length, on the corner of a narrow lane, through which he was
passing, he beheld the broad countenance of a British hero
swinging before the door of an inn, whence proceeded the voices
of many guests. The casement of one of the lower windows was
thrown back, and a very thin curtain permitted Robin to
distinguish a party at supper, round a well-furnished table. The
fragrance of the good cheer steamed forth into the outer air, and
the youth could not fail to recollect that the last remnant of
his travelling stock of provision had yielded to his morning
appetite, and that noon had found and left him dinnerless.
"Oh, that a parchment three-penny might give me a right to sit
The Snow Image |
