A White Heron (Sarah Orne Jewett) — graded reader B1–B2

A White Heron

A graded reader · Sarah Orne Jewett · B1–B2

Warm-up

• Did you grow up in a city or in the countryside? Which do you prefer now?

• Do you have a favourite place in nature? What do you love about it?

• Were you a shy child? What helped you feel braver?

• Have you ever climbed a tree, a hill or a tower just for the view?

The author and the book

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909)

Sarah Orne Jewett was born in 1849 in South Berwick, a small town in Maine, in the north-east of the United States. Her father was a country doctor, and as a girl she often went with him when he visited his patients. She got to know the farming families of the area, and later she filled her stories with people like them.

As a child, she suffered from arthritis, and part of her treatment was frequent walks. They gave her a lifelong love of woods and fields.

She published her first story in 1868, while she was still a teenager. Her best-known book is The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). The novelist Willa Cather said that Jewett had a great influence on her, and dedicated O Pioneers! to her.

Jewett wrote to a friend that "A White Heron" was not a very good magazine story, but that she loved it. So she kept it, and it became the first story in her book A White Heron and Other Stories in 1886. She died in South Berwick in 1909.

Key words

heron

ornithologist

marsh

a tall bird with long legs and a long neck that lives near water

a scientist who studies birds

an area of soft, wet land, often near a river or the sea

stuffed

loyalty

(of a dead animal) filled and kept so that it still looks alive

staying faithful to someone or something, even when it costs you

Let's talk

• Jewett learned about people by visiting them with her father. Where do you learn most about people?

• Some people collect stamps, coins or shells. Why do people love collecting things?

• Have you ever kept a secret, even when telling it would have helped you?

• The story is called "A White Heron". Why might a single bird be at the centre of a story?

PART 1 OF 4

A whistle in the woods

PART 1 · A WHISTLE IN THE WOODS

The woods were already full of shadows one June evening, just before eight o'clock. A little girl was driving her cow home. The cow was slow and difficult, but a valued companion all the same.

Almost every night, the old cow hid among the tall huckleberry bushes. She wore a loud bell, but she had discovered that if she stood perfectly still, it did not ring. So Sylvia had to hunt for her, calling "Co'! Co'!" until her patience was gone. Sylvia had no playmates, so sometimes she pretended it was hide-and-seek.

Sylvia was nine. A year ago, she had lived in a crowded factory town. Then her grandmother, Mrs Tilley, chose her from her daughter's houseful of children and brought her to the lonely farm.

"'Afraid of people,' they said!" the old woman laughed to herself. "Well, she won't be troubled much by people up at the old place!"

On the first day, Sylvia whispered that this was a beautiful place to live, and she never wanted to go home. She felt she had never really been alive before.

Tonight, at the brook, Sylvia cooled her bare feet in the water. The thrushes were singing, and her heart beat fast with pleasure. She felt part of the grey shadows and the moving leaves. Then she remembered the great red-faced boy in town who used to chase and frighten her, and she hurried on.

Suddenly she heard a whistle. Not a bird's friendly whistle, but a boy's: determined, and a little aggressive. Sylvia left the cow to its fate and stepped into the bushes.

PART 1 · A WHISTLE IN THE WOODS

But she was too late.

"Hello, little girl," called a cheerful voice. "How far is it to the road?"

"A good way," Sylvia answered, trembling.

She did not dare to look at the tall young man with the gun.

"I've been hunting birds," he said kindly, "and I've lost my way. Don't be afraid. Tell me your name. Can I spend the night at your house?"

Sylvia hung her head like a flower with a broken stem. At last she managed to say, "Sylvy."

At the farm, Mrs Tilley welcomed the stranger. "You're welcome to what we've got. Sylvy, set a plate for the gentleman!"

After supper, as the moon came up, Mrs Tilley talked proudly.

"Sylvia knows every foot of ground here. The wild creatures think she's one of them. She tames squirrels and birds to eat from her hand."

"So Sylvy knows all about birds?" said the young man. "I'm making a collection of birds myself."

"Do you keep them in cages?" asked Mrs Tilley doubtfully.

"Oh, no. They're stuffed, dozens of them, and I shot every one myself. On Saturday I saw a white heron, three miles from here. You'd know it if you saw it, Sylvy. A strange, tall white bird, with soft feathers and long thin legs. Its nest is probably at the top of a high tree."

Sylvia's heart gave a wild beat. She knew that strange white bird.

Book club

PART 1 · A WHISTLE IN THE WOODS

1. Why did Sylvia often have to hunt for the cow?

2. How was Sylvia's life different before she came to the farm?

3. How did Sylvia react when she heard the whistle?

4. Mrs Tilley chose the child who was "afraid of people". Was the lonely farm good for her?

5. The young man shoots birds to study them. How do you feel about that?

6. Sylvia knows the white heron. Do you think she will tell him?

PART 2 OF 4

Ten dollars

PART 2 · TEN DOLLARS

Once, she had crept quietly close to the white heron, where it stood in bright green swamp grass on the far side of the woods. Beyond were the salt marshes, and beyond those was the sea. Sylvia dreamed about the sea, but she had never seen it.

"I'd like to find that heron's nest more than anything," the handsome stranger was saying. "I'd give ten dollars to anybody who could show it to me. I'll spend my whole holiday hunting for it if I have to."

Mrs Tilley listened, amazed. Sylvia said nothing. But that night, she could not decide how many wonderful things ten dollars would buy.

The next day, Sylvia went with him through the woods. She had lost her fear.

He was kind, and he told her many things about birds and how they lived. He gave her a jack-knife, a great treasure.

All day long, he only frightened her when he shot some singing bird from a branch. Sylvia would have liked him much better without his gun. She could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to love so much.

But as the day ended, Sylvia still watched him with loving admiration. She had never seen anyone so charming. The woman's heart, asleep in the child, was stirred by a dream of love. They moved softly through the woods, stopping to listen to birdsong, speaking only in whispers.

PART 2 · TEN DOLLARS

The young man went first, and Sylvia followed, her grey eyes dark with excitement.

She was sad that the white heron stayed hidden. But she did not lead. She only followed. The sound of her own voice would have terrified her.

Half a mile from home, where the land was highest, there stood a great pine tree, the last of its generation. Woodcutters had cut down all the others long ago, and a new forest had grown. But the head of the old pine rose above everything, and could be seen from far out at sea.

She had always believed that from the top, you could see the sea. Now she thought of the tree with new excitement. If she climbed it at dawn, couldn't she see the whole world?

Couldn't she see where the white heron flew, and find the hidden nest?

What an adventure! What wild ambition! What joy and glory, later that morning, when she told the secret!

All night the door of the little house stood open, and the whippoorwills came and sang on the step. The young man and the old woman were fast asleep, but Sylvia lay wide awake. The short summer night felt as long as winter. At last the birds went quiet, and, afraid the morning would come too soon, she crept out of the house.

Oh, what if this first great wave of human feeling in her small, quiet life washed away her happiness with nature and the silent life of the forest?

Book club

PART 2 · TEN DOLLARS

1. What did the young man offer to anyone who could show him the nest?

2. What did Sylvia like about him, and what could she not understand?

3. Why did Sylvia want to climb the great pine tree?

4. Can you love someone and still hate something they do?

5. At nine years old, would ten dollars have tempted you? What would you have bought?

6. What do you think Sylvia will see from the top of the tree?

PART 3 OF 4

The great pine

PART 3 · THE GREAT PINE

There was the huge tree, still asleep in the fading moonlight. Small and hopeful, Sylvia bravely began to climb, her bare feet and fingers holding on like a bird's claws.

First she climbed the white oak that grew beside it. A bird flew off its nest, and a red squirrel ran up and down, scolding the harmless burglar. High up, one of the oak's branches touched the pine's trunk. The dangerous step across was where the great adventure would really begin.

At last she crept along the swaying branch and stepped across into the old pine. It was harder than she had thought. Sharp, dry twigs caught her and scratched her like angry claws.

The sticky sap made her thin little fingers stiff and clumsy as she went round and round the great trunk, higher and higher. Below, the sparrows and robins were waking. She had to hurry.

The tree seemed to grow longer as she climbed, like the tall mast of a ship, with the whole earth sailing beneath it. The old pine must have been amazed to feel this brave little spark of human life climbing it. It must have loved her, more than all the hawks and bats and moths, more even than the thrushes. And the tree stood still and held back the winds that June morning, while the dawn grew bright in the east.

PART 3 · THE GREAT PINE

At last the last thorny branch was behind her. Sylvia stood at the top, trembling and tired, but full of triumph.

Yes, there was the sea, with the rising sun making a golden dazzle on it. Two hawks flew slowly below her, and she felt she could fly too. To the west, woods and farms stretched for miles, with church towers and white villages. It was a huge and wonderful world.

Sylvia could see the white sails of ships. But where was the heron's nest? Was this wonderful view her only reward?

Now look down again, Sylvia, at the green marsh among the shining birches and dark hemlocks. There, where you saw the white heron once, you will see him again. Look, look!

A white spot, like a single floating feather, rises from the dead hemlock tree. It grows larger, and comes closer, and flies past the old pine with steady wings and long slender neck. And wait! Wait! Do not move a foot or a finger, little girl! The heron has landed on a pine branch near yours. He calls to his mate on the nest, and cleans his feathers for the new day.

A minute later, a crowd of noisy catbirds arrives, and the heron flies away, back to his home in the green world below. Sylvia gives a long sigh. She knows his secret now.

Then she makes her dangerous way down, her fingers aching, her feet slipping, and wondering all the way what the stranger will say when she tells him how to find the nest.

Book club

PART 3 · THE GREAT PINE

1. How did Sylvia get from the oak tree into the pine?

2. What could Sylvia see from the top of the tree?

3. Where did the heron come from, and what did it do near her?

4. The narrator says the tree loved Sylvia and helped her. Do you ever feel nature is alive like that?

5. What is the most beautiful view you have ever seen? How did you get there?

6. Sylvia is going to tell the young man everything. Will she? What will happen?

PART 4 OF 4

The secret

PART 4 · THE SECRET

"Sylvy! Sylvy!" the busy grandmother called again and again. But nobody answered. The small bed was empty, and Sylvia had disappeared.

The young man woke from a dream and dressed quickly, happy to begin the day. From the way the shy little girl had looked once or twice yesterday, he was sure she had seen the white heron. Today she must really be persuaded to tell.

Here she comes now, paler than ever. Her old dress is torn and dirty and sticky with pine sap. The grandmother and the young man stand together in the doorway and question her.

The splendid moment has come to tell them about the dead hemlock tree by the green marsh.

But Sylvia does not speak after all. Her grandmother scolds her crossly, and the young man's kind eyes look straight into hers. He can make them rich. He has promised the money, and they are poor. He is so well worth making happy, and he is waiting to hear the story she can tell.

No, she must keep silent! What is it that suddenly stops her, and takes away her voice?

PART 4 · THE SECRET

She has been nine years growing, and now, when the great world puts out its hand to her for the first time, must she push it away for a bird's sake?

She hears the murmur of the pine's green branches. She remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air, and how they watched the sea and the morning together. And Sylvia cannot speak. She cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away.

Dear loyalty, that suffered a sharp pain as the guest went away disappointed later that day! She could have served him and followed him and loved him as a dog loves!

Many nights afterwards, as Sylvia came home along the pasture path with the slow old cow, she heard the echo of his whistle. She even forgot her sadness at the sharp crack of his gun, and the terrible sight of thrushes and sparrows falling silent to the ground, their songs stopped and their pretty feathers wet with blood.

Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been? Who can tell? Whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summer-time, remember! Bring your gifts and graces, and tell your secrets to this lonely country child!

Book club

PART 4 · THE SECRET

1. What did Sylvia look like when she came home?

2. What reasons did Sylvia have to tell the young man the secret?

3. Why couldn't Sylvia speak in the end?

4. Was Sylvia right to keep the secret, even though she and her grandmother are poor?

5. The narrator asks if the birds were better friends than the hunter. What do you think?

Big questions

1

What did Sylvia lose by keeping the secret, and what did she gain?

2

The young man is kind, but he kills the birds he loves. Is he the villain of the story?

3

Is this a story about growing up? What does Sylvia learn about herself?

4

The ending asks the woods to give Sylvia their secrets. Is that enough for a lonely child?

5

Have you ever said no to something you really wanted, because it felt wrong?

6

Scientists once studied birds by shooting them. How should people study and protect nature today?

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

Part 1 · 1 The cow liked to hide in the huckleberry bushes and stand perfectly still, so her bell did not ring.

Part 1 · 2 She lived in a crowded factory town, where people said she was "afraid of people" and a red-faced boy chased and frightened her.

Part 1 · 3 She was frightened. She stepped into the bushes to hide, and when he found her, she answered in a trembling voice.

Part 2 · 1 Ten dollars.

Part 2 · 2 He was kind and charming, and he taught her about birds. She could not understand why he killed the birds he seemed to love.

Part 2 · 3 She believed she could see the whole world from the top, even the sea, and find where the white heron flew and its hidden nest.

Part 3 · 1 She climbed the white oak beside it, crept along a branch that touched the pine's trunk, and stepped across.

Part 3 · 2 The sea with the rising sun on it, two hawks flying below her, ships' sails, and woods, farms, church towers and white villages for miles.

Part 3 · 3 It rose from a dead hemlock tree by the green marsh. It landed on a branch near her, called to its mate on the nest, and cleaned its feathers.

Part 4 · 1 Pale, with her old dress torn, dirty and sticky with pine sap.

Part 4 · 2 The young man had promised ten dollars and they were poor; he was kind, she admired him, and he was waiting for her story.

Part 4 · 3 She remembered the pine, the heron flying through the golden air and the sea and morning they watched together. She could not give the heron's life away.