question_answer

Answer any one of the following:

(i) Imagine that you are the poet. You have come to your native valley to meet a famous preacher called Ernest. Narrate the incident of your first meeting with him.

OR

(ii) What had happened in the Sappleton family as narrated by the niece?

           

Answer:

           

I was born in the valley more than fifty years ago. I left the place at the age of fourteen. I spent many years of my life in distant cities. I developed interest in writing poems which contained gems of wisdom and lofty ideals, of grand dreams and flights of imagination. My poems became popular and I became a renowned person.

While I was nearing sixty, I heard of Ernest. I was impressed by his character and humanitarian zeal. One summer day I reached my native valley and met the good old man Ernest. He sat reading a book and looking lovingly at the mountain from time to time.

I asked the man if he would let me stay at his cottage for a night. ?Gladly? answered Ernest with a smile. I sat down beside him and talked till late in the night. I felt I had never met a man like Ernest before, so wise, gentle and kind. Ernest enquired of me who I was. I told him that I was there in the book of poems he was reading. Ernest declared that I was perhaps the man with the likeness of Stone Face. He praised me for my thoughts in the book. But I admitted my drawbacks frankly. I said that I had failed to live according to my own thoughts, and my dreams were just dreams. I called him the pure seeker of the good and truth.

OR

The narration by the girl (niece) about the Sappleton family was connected to the tragedy which happened just three years ago. The niece described how through the window, three years ago, Mrs. Sappleton?s husband and her two younger brothers went off for their day?s shooting but never came back. While crossing the moor to their favourite shooting ground, all three of them were engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog, even their bodies were not recovered. The niece further stated that her aunt fascinated their entry through the window so it was always kept open every evening till it was dusk.

Her aunt always awaited for their return.