question_answer 17)

How does the peddler interpret the acts of kindness and hospitality shown by the crofter’ the ironmaster’ and his daughter?    

Answer:

One dark evening when the peddler took shelter in a little cottage by the roadside, the owner gave him dinner and then a generous slice from his tobacco roll. He got out an old pack of cards and played with his guest until bedtime but the next morning, the peddler betrayed his confidence and stole thirty kroner. At first the peddler was very pleased but when he lost his way in the wood, he realized that his turn had come to be trapped He had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught. The whole forest, with its trunks and branches, its undergrowth and fallen logs, closed in upon him like a prison from which he could never escape.   About the ironmaster and his daughter Edia's kindness, he feels that they are a part of the world which is nothing but a big rattrap. All the good things that it offered were nothing but cheese rind and bits of pork set out to drag a poor fellow into trouble. And if the sheriff locked him for this, then the ironmaster must remember that a day would come when he may want to get a big piece of pork but would get caught in the trap.   Thus, the peddler was convinced that any kindness shown to him was just a bait to trap him.