Read the paragraphs below and answer the questions.
Rhayader is an artist who has bought an old lighthouse and the marshland around so he can live alone, away from other people. He is very kind but because he is disabled he thinks people do not like him and so spends his time painting and looking after the sea birds.
One November afternoon, three years after Rhayader had come to the Great Marsh, a child approached the lighthouse studio by means of the sea wall. In her arms she carried a burden.
She was no more than twelve; slender, dirty, nervous and timid as a bird, but beneath the grime as eerily beautiful as a marsh fairy. She was pure Saxon, large boned, fair, with a head to which her body was yet to grow, and deep-set, violet-coloured eyes.
She was desperately frightened of the ugly man she had come to see, for legend had already begun to gather about Rhayader, and the native wild-fowlers hated him for interfering with their sport.
1. What was the burden that the girl was carrying?
2. What feelings does the girl have when she first approaches Rhayader's lighthouse?
3. Why, according to the passage, did the wild-fowlers hate Rhayader?
But greater than her fear was the need of that which she bore. For locked in her child's heart was the knowledge, picked up somewhere in the swampland, that this ogre who lived in the lighthouse had magic that could heal injured things.
She had never seen Rhayader before and was close to fleeing in panic at the dark apparition that appeared at the studio door, drawn by her footsteps — the black head and beard, the sinister hump, and the crooked claw.
She stood there staring, poised like a disturbed marsh bird for instant flight.
But his voice was deep and kind when he spoke to her. "What is it, child?"
She stood her ground, and then edged timidly forward. The thing she carried in her arms was a large white bird and it was quite still. There were still stains of blood on its whiteness and on the dress where she had held it to her. The girl placed it in his arms. "I found it, sir. It's hurted. Is it still alive?"
4. What signs tell the girl that the bird is injured?
5. What does 'She stood there poised like a disturbed marsh bird for instant flight' mean?
6. How does Rhayader's voice affect the girl when he first speaks to her?
"Yes. Yes, I think so. Come in, child, come in."
The bird fluttered. With his good hand Rhayader spread one of its immense pinions. The end was beautifully tipped with black. Rhayader looked and marvelled and said, "Child, where did you find it?"
"In t'marsh, sir, where fowlers had been. What — what is it, sir?"
"It's a snow goose from Canada. But how in all heavens came it here?"
Her deep violet eyes, shining out of the dirt on her thin face, were fixed with concern on the injured bird. She said, "Can'ee heal it, sir?"
"Yes, yes," said Rhayader. "We will try. Come, you shall help me."
There were scissors and bandages and splints on a shelf and he was marvellously deft, even with the crooked claw that managed to hold things.
He said, "Ah, she has been shot, poor thing. Her leg is broken and the wing tip! But not badly. See, we will clip her feathers so we can bandage it, but in the spring the feathers will grow and she will be able to fly again. We'll bandage it close to her body, so that she cannot move it until it has set, and then make a splint for her leg."
Her fears forgotten, the child watched, fascinated, as he worked, and all the more so because while he fixed a fine splint to the shattered leg he told her the most wonderful story.
The child laughed in delight, and then suddenly caught her breath in alarm as the full importance of where she was pressed in upon her and without a word she turned and fled out of the door.
7. Why does Rhayader tell the girl a story while treating the bird?
8. How does Rhayader look after the bird?
9. Why does the girl run away at the end?
10. How do Rhayader's feelings change during the girl's visit?