A perfect night … comprehension questions

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson

And yet even while I was exulting in my solitude I became aware of a strange lack. I

wished a companion to lie near me in the starlight, silent and not moving, but ever

within touch. For there is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly

understood, is solitude made perfect. And to live out of doors with the woman a man

loves is of all lives the most complete and free.

As I thus lay, between content and longing, a faint noise stole towards me through the

pines. I thought, at first, it was the crowing of cocks or the barking of dogs at some very

distant farm; but steadily and gradually it took articulate shape in my ears, until I

became aware that a passenger was going by upon the high-road in the valley, and

singing loudly as he went. There was more of good-will than grace in his performance;

but he trolled with ample lungs; and the sound of his voice took hold upon the hillside

and set the air shaking in the leafy glens. I have heard people passing by night in

sleeping cities; some of them sang; one, I remember, played loudly on the bagpipes. I

have heard the rattle of a cart or carriage spring up suddenly after hours of stillness,

and pass, for some minutes, within the range of my hearing as I lay abed. There is a

romance about all who are abroad in the black hours, and with something of a thrill we

try to guess their business. But here the romance was double: first, this glad passenger,

lighted internally with wine, who sent up his voice in music through the night; and then

I, on the other hand, buckled into my sack, and smoking alone in the pine-woods

between four and five thousand feet towards the stars.

When I awoke again, many of the stars had disappeared; only the stronger companions

of the night still burned visibly overhead; and away towards the east I saw a faint

haze of light upon the horizon, such as had been the Milky Way when I was last awake.

Day
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was at hand. I lighted my lantern, and by its glow-worm light put on my boots and

gaiters; then I broke up some bread for Modestine, filled my can at the water-tap, and

lit my spirit-lamp to boil myself some chocolate. The blue darkness lay long in the glade

where I had so sweetly slumbered; but soon there was a broad streak of orange melting

into gold along the mountain-tops of Vivarais. A solemn glee possessed my mind at this

gradual and lovely coming in of day. Nothing had altered but the light, and that,

indeed, shed over all a spirit of life and of breathing peace, and moved me to a strange

exhilaration.

… I strolled here and there, and up and down about the glade. While I was thus

delaying, a gush of steady wind, as long as a heavy sigh, poured direct out of the quarter

of the morning. It was cold, and set me sneezing … I could see the thin distant spires of

pine along the edge of the hill rock slightly to and fro against the golden east. Ten

minutes after, the sunlight spread at a gallop along the hillside, scattering shadows, and

the day had come completely.

I hastened to prepare my pack, and tackle the steep ascent that lay before me; but I

had something on my mind … I had been most hospitably received and punctually served

in my green caravanserai. The room was airy, the water excellent. I say nothing of the

tapestries or the inimitable ceiling, nor yet of the view which I commanded from the

windows; but I felt I was in some one’s debt for all this. And so it pleased me, in a half-

laughing way, to leave pieces of money on the turf as I went along, until I had left

enough for my night’s lodging. I trust that they did not fall to some rich or churlish

drover.
 Read and answer the questions (a-f) on this page.

The number after each question shows you how much detail you should go into in your
answer:

1 = a very brief answer

5 = an answer you should explain carefully, referring to details in the text to

Questions

a) Look at the word stole in the first sentence. Stevenson (the writer and narrator) could
have used another word, such as ‘crept’ or ‘came’. Why do you think the writer used the
word stole? (2)

ANS:TO create strong impact on the reader and show the writer’s feelings of solitary
and isolation. The noise seem to come to him slowly increasing in amplitude as he
felt someone coming towards him.

b) What is the noise that Stevenson hears? (1)

ANS: Faint noise, the voice a person singing song long away.
c) How do we know that the man is singing badly? (2)

ANS: Because the writer have described the voice of the man as the “ Cowing of cocks or the
barking of dogs”.

d) Carefully read paragraph three. (This paragraph begins, ‘When I awoke again
...’.) Describe how Stevenson is feeling in this paragraph. Use your own words as
far as possible, but do refer to words that Stevenson uses. (4)

ANS: Stevenson have described the stars as “stronger companions …” so he is saying that the
stars have helped him to leave at night in that dark place and as they have disappeared so he is feeling
sad. The writer have used the word “light” it shows his hope to get. “then I broke up some …”it tells
that he is preparing food for Modestine and making some of the things that would help him in the
upcoming journey. The description of the sunlight as “gold” demonstrates the positive feeling of the
writer as he’s connoting the day as a way of obtaining success. However the phase “blue dark”
illustrates the contrasting feelings of the writer as he could not determine his exact feelings after
losing his “stronger companions”(starts) and rising of the sun.
e) Carefully read the last paragraph. (This paragraph begins, ‘I hastened to prepare my
pack...’) In your own words, explain what Stevenson decides to do, and why he does it.
(h
ANS: He decided to keep some money over there in caravanserai, because he was curved very
nicely like an important person so he get some feeling as if he under someone’s dept as the person
have given him warm and comfortable welcome so he keep there some money in return even though
he felt is amusing “half-laughing”.

f) Read back over the whole passage. Explain the effect the night has had on Stevenson,
and how the words he uses help us to understand the effect on him. (5)

The darkness of the night illustrates the isolation of the writer which could be
demonstrated through his use of phase “whished for a companion”. The longing of the
writer for companion is further demonstrated as he wrote “ever within touch”. This phase
shows that the land is never reached by any other human being. The repetition of the first
personal pronoun “I” throughout the text further underlines the solitary feelings of the
writer as there is no one around him and he seems to be talking to himself. “more quite”
emphasis on the segregated surrounding of the writer. “crowing of cocks or the barking of
dogs” it reflects the frightened feelings of the writer. “faint sound” further reflects the alien land
as the writer was able to listen the sound coming from miles away. The use of lexical such as
“sleeping cities” demonstrates the depressed feeling of the writer”. The phase used for stars
“stronger companions” emphasis on the quarantine feelings of the writer as he seemed to be
isolated from the whole world.