The writer carefully builds up an atmosphere of loneliness and grief in the story. Working in groups, pick out words/ phrases from the story that build up the atmosphere. Copy the following table in your notebook and complete it.
Loneliness
An old man was walking through the town, now and again drawing his tattered clothes tighter to shield his body from the cold and biting wind
his lonely way
Grief
the whole town was wrapped in deathly silence.
Loneliness
(a) An old man was walking through the town, now and again drawing his tattered clothes tighter to shield his body from the cold and biting wind.
(b) His lonely way.
(c) Now he understood the meaning of love and separation. He could no longer enjoy the pleasure of hunting and laughing at the bewildered terror of the young Partridges bereft of their parents.
(d) A pitiable figure a century behind his time.
(e) From some houses came the sound of grinding mills and sweet voices of women singing at their work and the sounds helped him along his lonely way.
(f) Although the hunters instinct was in his very blood and bones, such loneliness had come into his life since the day Miriam had gone away.
Grief
(a) The whole town was wrapped in deathly silence.
(b) …………. and for the last five years he had no news of his daughter for whose sake alone he dragged along a cheerless existence.
(c) He reflected deeply and came to the conclusion that the whole universe is built up through love and that the grief of separation is inescapable. And seeing this, he sat down under a tree and wept bitterly.