In the first part of her story, Jewitt establishes a bound between Silvia and the hunter. It is interesting how at first Silvia perceives the hunter as an "enemy". Her weariness is briefly justified by alluding to bad past experiences with "city" boys since Silvia had spent the first eight years of her life in a "crowded manufacturing town." Also the paragraphs surrounding their encoounter have a tone that suggests that Silviais in danger.
The fear in Silvia reflects the common attitude of the people from urban society of thosse days, whhich considered men outrigghht violent. This prejudice attitude was not held by Silvia's Grandmother, whom we can associate with the simpler common disposition of country folks.
When her Grandmother (Mrs Tilley) opens her home with "slumbering hospitality," the reader is surprised. The paragraphs leading to this resolutionb had suggested that something bad was about to happen. For example, one such paragraph reads: "The enemy had discovered her, and called out in a very cheerful and persuasive tone, "Halloa little girl, how far is it to the road?" and trembling Silvia answered almost inaudibly, "A good ways"." The choice of words by Jewitt clearly deceived the reader into thinking like Silvia, distrustful, like urban folks of that time.
By resolving the story passage with the opposite of what the reader expected, the contrast between "urban and country set of values" is shown.
Likewise, the hunter, another typical citizen of urban society, had its own views of country people. A paragraph which shows this reads: "It was a surprise to find so clean and comfortable a little dwelling in this New England wilderness. The young man had known the horrors of its most primitive housekeeping, and the dreary squalor of that level of society which does not rebel at the companionship of hens."
In the second part of the story, Jewitt fashions the bound between Silvia and nature. The writer makes use of metaphor and symbolism to convey the notion that Silvia is in harmony with nature and that in some way nature is aware of her. For example "...it (the old pine tree) must truly been amazed...as it felt this determined spark of human spirit... must have loved his new dependent." All of this is use to establish the new set of values Silvia has acquired at the farm, including her "female initiation", which is one of the "treasures lost to her" for choosing not to please the hunter.
It is not entirely "for a bird's sake" that she doesn't reveal the location of the white heron nest, but because of the lose she would acquire from surrendering her will and selling out her moral values. We know that later on Silvia long for his company because she thinks about him. However, she also knows that her love - and her life - would have been wasted on him because she would "love him as a dog loves!".
In this story, Jewitt reveals to us the wisdom that we should stand by our moral values, and that in the long run we will be justly rewarded.
