| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: exaggerated tone. Kearns was coolly dispassionate and
noncommittal, while Elam Harnish appeared as quizzical and
jocular as ever. Eleven thousand dollars were already in the
pot, and the markers were heaped in a confused pile in the centre
of the table.
"I ain't go no more markers," Kearns remarked plaintively. "We'd
best begin I.O.U.'s."
"Glad you're going to stay," was MacDonald's cordial response.
"I ain't stayed yet. I've got a thousand in already. How's it
stand now?"
"It'll cost you three thousand for a look in, but nobody will
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: for instance, had cost I should be afraid to say how many
bucks - the currency in which he paid his way: it was all
befringed, after the Indian fashion, and it was dear to his
heart. The pictorial side of his daily business was never
forgotten. He was even anxious to stand for his picture in
those buckskin hunting clothes; and I remember how he once
warmed almost into enthusiasm, his dark blue eyes growing
perceptibly larger, as he planned the composition in which he
should appear, "with the horns of some real big bucks, and
dogs, and a camp on a crick" (creek, stream).
There was no trace in Irvine of this woodland poetry. He did
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