But when she gets back to her grandmother's house, and finds the young hunter and her grandmother waiting at the door, and questioning her, and when that "...splendid moment has come to speak of the dead hemlock tree" and the treasure it holds, she "...does not speak after all, though the old grandmother fretfully rebukes her." This man can make them "rich" with his ten-dollar reward, and they are very poverty stricken.

Here is where Jewett shows the realism in her literature. Sylvia's character is very important at this point in the story because she decides against selling the white heron out for ten dollars. Sylvia isn't sure why she is doing it, and is even a bit perplexed; "...when the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake?" Jewett poses. Sylvia hears the "murmur of the...
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