The short story The White Heron made the biggest impact on me out of the three stories I read. I found myself almost constantly relating to young Sylvia as I was in my childhood. Her care-free attitude and apparent lack of anything stressful really takes me back to a place that I wish I could stay forever.
             The White Heron, by Sarah Orne Jewitt, is a short story about a girl of nine years who lives with her grandmother in late nineteenth century New England. One evening as Sylvia walks her cow home, she is hailed by the whistle of a young man traveling through the area in search of birds to add to his collection. Since it has been such a long time since she has been around anyone other than her grandmother, she is drawn to him. He is interesting to her not only because he is male and she knows no other males, she is also attracted to the unknown that this man represents and is mystified by him as a stranger in her land.
             He is a foreigner to Sylvia and to her woods, and Sylvia herself is somewhat a foreigner. She has not been living with her grandmother for long, but she has adapted to her new environment well. Already she knows every square foot of ground in the woods and considers the animals her friends.
             The young man, whose name we know only as "the hunter," claims an interest in collecting birds for scientific reasons, but does not have an interest in what sort of lives they live. He has a good understanding of scientific knowledge, but knows nothing of the personality and lifestyles of his subjects.
             Sylvia and her grandmother live in relative poverty, and this young man offers a reprieve in the form of a ten dollar reward for helping to find the nest of the white heron. Although they may be materially poor, it is not necessarily apparent to them because of the simplicity of their lives. They are also deficient in social contact, but do not really need or want to have the presence of o
             ...