Sarah Jewett. A White Heron (short story in English for beginners)

A White Heron by Sarah Jewett. Part 2

(a short story in English for beginners / pre-intermediate)

New words for the story:

1. drove (от drive — вести)
2. fall asleep — заснуть
3. be awake — не спать
4. grab —  обхватить
5. scratch — царапать
6. flash — вспышка
7. smooth — приглаживать
8. bleed — кровоточить
9. appear — появиться
10. diappointed — разочарованный

Listen to the story online. The narrator was Kay Gallant.

At last evening came. They drove the cow home together. Long after the moon came out and the young man had fallen asleep Sylvie was still awake. She had a plan that would get the $10 for her grandmother and make the young man happy. When it was almost time for the sun to rise, she quietly left her house and hurried through the forest. She finally reached a huge pine tree, so tall it could be seen for many miles around. Her plan was to climb to the top of the pine tree. She could see the whole forest from there. She was sure she would be able to see where the white heron had hidden its nest.

Sylvie’s bare feet and tiny fingers grabbed the tree’s rough trunk. Sharp dry branches scratched at her like cat’s claws. The pine tree’s sticky sap made her fingers feel stiff and clumsy as she climbed higher and higher.

sticky sap — смола

The pine tree seemed to grow taller, the higher that Sylvie climbed. The sky began to brighten in the east. Sylvie’s face was like a pale star when, at last, she reached the tree’s highest branch. The golden sun’s rays hit the green forest. Two hawks flew together in slow-moving circles far below Sylvie. Sylvie felt as if she could go flying among the clouds, too. To the west she could see other farms and forests.

Suddenly Sylvie’s dark gray eyes caught a flash of white that grew larger and larger. A bird with broad white wings and a long slender neck flew past Sylvie and landed on a pine branch below her. The white heron smoothed its feathers and called to its mate, sitting on their nest in a nearby tree. Then it lifted its wings and flew away.

Sylvie gave a long sigh. She knew the wild bird’s secret now. Slowly she began her dangerous trip down the ancient pine tree. She did not dare to look down and tried to forget that her fingers hurt and her feet were bleeding. All she wanted to think about was what the stranger would say to her when she told him where to find the heron’s nest.

As Sylvie climbed slowly down the pine tree, the stranger was waking up back at the farm. He was smiling because he was sure from the way the shy little girl had looked at him that she had seen the white heron.

About an hour later Sylvie appeared. Both her grandmother and the young man stood up as she came into the kitchen. The splendid moment to speak about her secret had come. But Sylvie was silent. Her grandmother was angry with her. Where had she been? The young man’s kind eyes looked deeply into Sylvie’s own dark gray ones. He could give Sylvie and her grandmother $10 dollars. He had promised to do this, and they needed the money. Besides, Sylvie wanted to make him happy.

But Sylvie was silent. She remembered how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sun rise together from the top of the world. Sylvie could not speak. She could not tell the heron’s secret and give its life away.

The young man went away disappointed later that day. Sylvie was sad. She wanted to be his friend. He never returned. But many nights Sylvie heard the sound of his whistle as she came home with her grandmother’s cow.

Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been? Who can know?

The END