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“The guest did not notice this hint of family sorrows in his eager interest in something else.”

As Mrs. Tilley, Sylvia, and the hunter sit outside enjoying the evening, Mrs. Tilley begins to speak of her children who have passed away and her son, Dan, who she has not heard from since he left home, and she is clearly upset as she relates these personal details. However, the hunter ignores her raw emotions and focuses on the information that will help him get what he wants. He only adds personal details, like the fact that he has been interested in birds since he was a child, to appeal to Mrs. Tilley’s emotions for his own benefit, not to connect with her.

“No amount of thought, that night, could decide how many wished-for treasures the ten dollars, so lightly spoken of, would buy.”

One way the hunter tries to get Mrs. Tilley and Sylvia to help him is by offering ten dollars to anyone who can help him find the heron. Rural people tended to have less wealth than city people at the time, so this amount of money is trivial to the hunter, yet significant to Mrs. Tilley and Sylvia. All night, they dream of what they could buy with the money, which increases the pressure on Sylvia to tell the hunter what she knows and betray the natural world.

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