Class 12 English: The Rattrap — Literature Question Set

Correct option: (a). He "went around selling small rattraps of wire", which he made himself at odd moments.

Correct option: (c). Since the rattrap business was "not especially profitable", he had to resort to both begging and petty thievery to survive.

Correct option: (d). The idiom refers to barely staying alive — the peddler's earnings only just kept him from starvation.

Correct option: (c). The rags, sunken cheeks and gleam of hunger show a half-starved, destitute vagabond.

Correct option: (b). He made them himself "from the material he got by begging in the stores or at the big farms".

Correct option: (a). The unprofitable business forced him to these means "to keep body and soul together" — need, not greed.

Correct option: (c). While plodding along and "thinking of his rattraps", he was "suddenly struck by the idea that the whole world... was nothing but a big rattrap".

Correct option: (a). The world "offered riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing", exactly as the rattrap offered cheese and pork.

Correct option: (d). He compares the world's baits to "cheese and pork" — the classic bait of a literal rattrap.

Correct option: (a). "As soon as anyone let himself be tempted to touch the bait, it closed in on him, and then everything came to an end."

Correct option: (d). A monotonous life is one of weary, unvarying sameness — the daily lot of the plodding vagabond.

Correct option: (d). The world is directly called "nothing but a big rattrap", and the comparison is developed across the passage — an extended metaphor.

Correct option: (d). "The world had, of course, never been very kind to him, so it gave him unwonted joy to think ill of it in this way."

Correct option: (a). "Unwonted" means not habitual — a pleasure he was not used to feeling.

Correct option: (d). It "became a cherished pastime of his... to think of people he knew who had let themselves be caught in the dangerous snare, and of others who were still circling around the bait."

Correct option: (c). They hover about the bait — still drawn to riches, food and shelter — but have not yet let the trap close on them.

Correct option: (d). He takes satisfaction in imagining the world punishing others as it never rewarded him — the world's unkindness has bred resentment.

Correct option: (d). A "snare" is a trap; here, the dangerous temptation that catches people in the world's rattrap.

Correct option: (a). On a dark evening he "knocked on the door to ask shelter for the night".

Correct option: (b). The old man was "without wife or child" and "was happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness".

Correct option: (a). He gave supper, tobacco and a game of cards — money is not mentioned in this extract.

Correct option: (c). To trudge is to walk on with slow, laborious steps — fitting for a tired vagabond on a dark evening.

Correct option: (b). "Finally he got out an old pack of cards and played 'mjolis' with his guest until bedtime."

Correct option: (b). Instead of "the sour faces which ordinarily met him", the peddler found warmth and welcome — the contrast highlights the crofter's kindness.

Correct option: (d). "Now that he was no longer able to do day labour, it was his cow which supported him."

Correct option: (c). He "had received all of thirty kronor in payment" — shown as three wrinkled ten-kronor bills.

Correct option: (d). He took down "a leather pouch which hung on a nail in the very window frame" and picked out the bills to show.

Correct option: (b). "The stranger must have seemed incredulous, for the old man got up and went to the window" to prove his story by showing the notes.

Correct option: (c). "Incredulous" describes someone who doubts what he hears — which is why the crofter displayed the notes as proof.

Correct option: (d). He opened both his larder and his life to the stranger — an open-hearted trust that made him vulnerable.

Correct option: (c). He went back "to the window, smashed a pane, stuck in his hand, and got hold of the pouch with the thirty kronor".

Correct option: (c). Since the crofter had locked the door and pocketed the key, the peddler "smashed a pane, stuck in his hand" and took the pouch from its nail.

Correct option: (b). Replacing the pouch exactly on its nail would delay the old man's realising that the money was gone.

Correct option: (b). Both men left the cottage together; the crofter locked the door and they parted, leaving the house empty for the thief's return.

Correct option: (a). The lonely old man had fed him and shared his confidences, yet the peddler robbed him — kindness repaid with treachery.

Correct option: (c). To "thrust" is to push abruptly and forcefully — the haste of a guilty man grabbing his loot.

Correct option: (c). He knew that "at first he dared not continue on the public highway, but must turn off the road, into the woods".

Correct option: (c). He congratulated himself on his cunning — he had taken the money and carefully restored the pouch without being seen.

Correct option: (a). Here "smartness" is the peddler's self-satisfied cunning about the theft — not a compliment to his brains.

Correct option: (c). "Later in the day it became worse, for it was a big and confusing forest which he had gotten into."

Correct option: (d). The easy escape route becomes a bewildering maze — the beginning of the trap closing on him.

Correct option: (b). The paths "twisted back and forth so strangely" that he finally realised he was circling the same part of the wood.

Correct option: (b). He had "let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught" — his own rattrap philosophy had turned upon him.

Correct option: (b). The forest is compared to a prison using "like", which makes the image a simile.

Correct option: (a). An impenetrable prison cannot be entered or escaped from — exactly how the forest walls now seemed to the peddler.

Correct option: (d). He who had amused himself thinking of others as trapped rats is now the trapped one — his own idea closes in on him.

Correct option: (d). "He had let himself be fooled by a bait" — the money whose temptation lured him, as cheese lures a rat, and cost him his freedom of the road.

Correct option: (a). The extract begins, "It was late in December. Darkness was already descending over the forest."

Correct option: (a). He heard "a hard regular thumping" and thought, "Those are the hammer strokes from an iron mill."

Correct option: (d). With darkness descending over the forest, he "saw no way out" and sank down thinking his last moment had come.

Correct option: (b). "There must be people near by", he thought — sounds meant human habitation and hope of survival.

Correct option: (a). Utterly exhausted and "tired to death", he could only stumble towards the sound of the mill.

Correct option: (d). "He summoned all his strength, got up, and staggered in the direction of the sound" — the instinct to survive was still alive in him.

Correct option: (a). It was "a large plant, with smelter, rolling mill, and forge", though it is now closed down.

Correct option: (a). "The roads near the mill were black from all the coal dust which sifted down from the big charcoal crates."

Correct option: (c). "In the summertime long lines of heavily loaded barges and scows slid down the canal" to the inland lake.

Correct option: (b). The scene takes place "during one of the long dark evenings just before Christmas".

Correct option: (d). They sat "waiting for the pig iron, which had been put in the fire, to be ready to put on the anvil".

Correct option: (b). The plant, its canal, its coal-blackened roads and busy forge set the scene where the exhausted peddler will seek warmth.

Correct option: (d). He worked at the glowing furnace "dripping with perspiration, though, as was the custom, he wore nothing but a long shirt and a pair of wooden shoes".

Correct option: (b). "Outside roared the waterfall, and a sharp north wind whipped the rain against the brick-tiled roof."

Correct option: (d). "The fire boy shovelled charcoal into the maw of the furnace with a great deal of clatter."

Correct option: (c). The bellows is given the human ability to "groan" — an instance of personification in the soundscape of the forge.

Correct option: (b). "Maw" literally means the mouth of a beast; the furnace devours charcoal like a hungry animal.

Correct option: (c). Groaning bellows, cracking coal, clattering shovel and roaring wind outside paint a hot, noisy, hard-working scene.

Correct option: (a). "It was probably on account of all this noise that the blacksmith did not notice that a man had opened the gate and entered the forge."

Correct option: (b). They were "attracted to the forge by the glow of light which escaped through the sooty panes, and... came in to warm themselves in front of the fire."

Correct option: (d). "The blacksmiths glanced only casually and indifferently at the intruder" — one more tramp among many.

Correct option: (b). He looked "dirty, ragged, and with a bunch of rattraps dangling on his chest."

Correct option: (a). An intruder enters uninvited — the tramp had let himself into the forge without permission.

Correct option: (d). To them he was just the usual long-bearded, dirty vagabond — a casual judgement by outward appearance.

Correct option: (b). He "nodded a haughty consent without honouring him with a single word."

Correct option: (b). "He had not come there to talk but only to warm himself and sleep."

Correct option: (a). The "very prominent ironmaster" had as "his greatest ambition... to ship out good iron to the market".

Correct option: (d). A haughty nod is one of proud disdain — consent given as though from above.

Correct option: (b). He "watched both night and day to see that the work was done as well as possible", and "at this very moment he came into the forge on one of his nightly rounds of inspection."

Correct option: (c). The stage is set: the obscure tramp by the fire is about to meet the vigilant master of the works — the meeting that drives the rest of the story.

Correct option: (c). He tore off the man's hat to see his face and cried, "But of course it is you, Nils Olof! How you do look!"

Correct option: (a). The "tall ragamuffin" was the tramp, from whose wet rags steam rose in the furnace heat.

Correct option: (a). Unlike the blacksmiths "who had hardly deigned to look at the stranger", he examined him closely — which led to the mistake.

Correct option: (c). "If the fine gentleman thought he was an old acquaintance, he might perhaps throw him a couple of kronor", so he let the mistake stand.

Correct option: (d). He "had eased his way so close to the furnace that steam rose from his wet rags."

Correct option: (a). The smiths who barely glanced were right in ignoring him; the ironmaster who "looked him over very carefully" mistook a total stranger for an old comrade.

Correct option: (c). "You should not have resigned from the regiment", said the ironmaster, "That was the mistake."

Correct option: (a). "He thought of the thirty kronor" — going to the manor would risk exposure as a thief.

Correct option: (a). "To go up to the manor house would be like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion's den" — an explicit comparison with "like", hence a simile.

Correct option: (c). "He only wanted a chance to sleep here in the forge and then sneak away as inconspicuously as possible."

Correct option: (a). What displeased him was the prospect of "go[ing] along up to the manor house and be[ing] received by the owner like an old regimental comrade".

Correct option: (c). A lion's den is where one risks being devoured — the manor house meant the danger of being exposed and handed to the sheriff.

Correct option: (b). "The ironmaster assumed that he felt embarrassed because of his miserable clothing" and reassured him about his home.

Correct option: (b). "Elizabeth is dead, as you may already have heard. My boys are abroad, and there is no one at home except my oldest daughter and myself."

Correct option: (b). The humorous phrase means joining the family at the table — eating the Christmas fare with them.

Correct option: (b). "We were just saying that it was too bad we didn't have any company for Christmas" — a lonely father and daughter.

Correct option: (d). He politely plays down his "fine home", shares family news, and jokes about the Christmas food — warm and humorous hospitality.

Correct option: (a). He clearly states there is "no one at home except my oldest daughter and myself".

Correct option: (c). "But the stranger said no, and no, and again no" — a thrice-repeated refusal.

Correct option: (b). He said, "It looks as though Captain von Stahle preferred to stay with you tonight, Stjernstrom."

Correct option: (b). The remark, naming both Captain von Stahle and Stjernstrom, was "said to the master blacksmith".

Correct option: (d). He "laughed to himself as he went away", and the blacksmith who knew him understood he had "not said his last word".

Correct option: (d). To turn on one's heel is to spin round and depart abruptly — the ironmaster left the forge after his remark.

Correct option: (b). His silent laugh and "not said his last word" hint that he has a further plan — sending someone with better powers of persuasion.

Correct option: (c). "This time it was not the ironmaster. He had sent his daughter" — she entered, followed by a valet carrying a big fur coat.

Correct option: (d). He sent her "apparently hoping that she would have better powers of persuasion than he himself".

Correct option: (d). "She entered, followed by a valet, carrying on his arm a big fur coat."

Correct option: (c). "She was not at all pretty, but seemed modest and quite shy."

Correct option: (d). Persuasion is winning someone over by gentle argument and appeal rather than force.

Correct option: (d). The unchanged scene — smiths on their bench, iron and charcoal still glowing — sets the stage for the girl to find the stranger asleep by the fire.

Correct option: (c). "The stranger had stretched himself out on the floor and lay with a piece of pig iron under his head and his hat pulled down over his eyes."

Correct option: (c). "As soon as the young girl caught sight of him, she went up and lifted his hat."

Correct option: (a). The tramp was "evidently used to sleeping with one eye open" — the lifelong wariness of a vagabond's life.

Correct option: (d). Unused to being approached gently, the touch on his hat startled his suspicious instincts awake.

Correct option: (a). A cold lump of pig iron for a pillow shows how rough and comfortless his nights normally were.

Correct option: (d). Unlike the ironmaster who had torn off the hat, she simply lifts it — a mild, humane gesture to see the face of the man she has come to help.

Correct option: (c). She introduces herself: "My name is Edla Willmansson."

Correct option: (d). "Either he has stolen something or else he has escaped from jail", she thought — yet she did not turn him away.

Correct option: (a). "You may be sure, Captain, that you will be allowed to leave us just as freely as you came", she said, asking him only to stay over Christmas Eve.

Correct option: (d). She told him, "I asked permission to come and bring you home to us."

Correct option: (d). "She said this in such a friendly manner that the rattrap peddler must have felt confidence in her."

Correct option: (c). Even while guessing he had stolen something, she felt sorry for his hard time and asked him to stay for Christmas Eve — kindness outweighing doubt.

Correct option: (c). "He accepted the fur coat, which the valet handed him with a deep bow, threw it over his rags."

Correct option: (a). Riding up to the manor, "he had evil forebodings" and thought, "Why the devil did I take that fellow's money?"

Correct option: (a). Having accepted the stolen money, he now felt snared by it — his own rattrap metaphor come true.

Correct option: (d). "Evil forebodings" are dark premonitions — his sense that trouble lay ahead at the manor.

Correct option: (a). He followed the young lady out "without granting the astonished blacksmiths so much as a glance".

Correct option: (d). A genteel young woman personally coming to fetch a ragged vagabond was, in his experience of the world's unkindness, unheard of.

Correct option: (d). "The next day was Christmas Eve", when the ironmaster came into the dining room for breakfast.

Correct option: (d). "First of all we must see to it that he gets a little flesh on his bones", he said — feeding the starving man came first.

Correct option: (b). "And then we must see that he gets something else to do than to run around the country selling rattraps."

Correct option: (c). He "probably thought with satisfaction of his old regimental comrade whom he had run across so unexpectedly."

Correct option: (a). His generosity — feeding the man and finding him better work — flows entirely from his mistaken belief that this is his old regimental comrade.

Correct option: (c). The thin, starving tramp must be fed until some flesh covers his bones — a homely image of nourishment.

Correct option: (a). It is the daughter who says, "It is queer that things have gone downhill with him as badly as that... Last night I did not think there was anything about him to show that he had once been an educated man."

Correct option: (d). She could see no trace in him of the educated gentleman her father believed him to be.

Correct option: (a). "Last night he was naturally embarrassed", said the father, adding that "the tramp manners will fall away from him with the tramp clothes".

Correct option: (d). "As soon as he gets clean and dressed up, you will see something different", he assured his daughter.

Correct option: (b). The daughter found it strange that an old comrade could have sunk so low, with no trace of education left.

Correct option: (a). He believes clothes make the man — clean up the tramp and the gentleman will appear — a judgement by externals that will shortly be overturned.

Correct option: (c). "The valet had bathed him, cut his hair, and shaved him."

Correct option: (b). "He was dressed in a good-looking suit of clothes which belonged to the ironmaster" — white shirt, starched collar and whole shoes.

Correct option: (a). He now realised that in "the uncertain reflection from the furnace he might have made a mistake", but in daylight the stranger was clearly no comrade of his.

Correct option: (c). Washed, shaved, haircut and well dressed, the stranger looked a different, neat man.

Correct option: (a). The ironmaster understood that the dim furnace light of the forge had led him to see an old acquaintance where there was none.

Correct option: (b). The transformation did reveal something different, but not the gentleman the father expected — it revealed the truth that the guest was a total stranger.

Correct option: (a). Standing in daylight before the cleaned-up stranger, the ironmaster "thundered", demanding an explanation.

Correct option: (d). "I never pretended to be anything but a poor trader, and I pleaded and begged to be allowed to stay in the forge."

Correct option: (d). The stranger "made no attempt to dissimulate" — he hid nothing and put his real position plainly.

Correct option: (d). "At worst I can put on my rags again and go away", he said.

Correct option: (a). "It was not quite honest, either. You must admit that, and I should not be surprised if the sheriff would like to have something to say in the matter."

Correct option: (a). Recognised as a mere tramp, the man knew the good food, fine clothes and kindly treatment could not continue.

Correct option: (a). Striking the table, he announced, "This whole world is nothing but a big rattrap."

Correct option: (b). All the good things offered are "nothing but cheese rinds and bits of pork, set out to drag a poor fellow into trouble".

Correct option: (b). "A day may come when you yourself may want to get a big piece of pork, and then you will get caught in the trap."

Correct option: (c). "The ironmaster began to laugh. 'That was not so badly said, my good fellow. Perhaps we should let the sheriff alone on Christmas Eve. But now get out of here as fast as you can.'"

Correct option: (d). The gesture gives weight to his words — the despised vagabond stands his ground and addresses the ironmaster as an equal.

Correct option: (c). He laughs at the tramp's impudence and half-admires the philosophy, while still dismissing him with "my good fellow".

Correct option: (b). "The daughter said, 'I think he ought to stay with us today. I don't want him to go.' And with that she went and closed the door."

Correct option: (c). To intercede is to step in and plead for another — exactly what the daughter did for the vagabond.

Correct option: (b). "That morning she had felt so happy when she thought how homelike and Christmassy she was going to make things for the poor hungry wretch."

Correct option: (c). She "stood there quite embarrassed and hardly knew what to answer" — she could not get away from the idea of the Christmas she had planned.

Correct option: (d). Her words and her act together — "I don't want him to go" and shutting the door — show her firm resolve to keep him.

Correct option: (c). The vagabond is the rattrap peddler, the stranger whose Christmas the daughter was determined to rescue.

Correct option: (b). "He walks and walks the whole year long, and there is probably not a single place in the whole country where he is welcome and can feel at home."

Correct option: (d). "Wherever he turns he is chased away. Always he is afraid of being arrested and cross-examined."

Correct option: (a). "I should like to have him enjoy a day of peace with us here — just one in the whole year."

Correct option: (a). That a single day of peace is a gift worth pleading for shows how unrelieved his hardship and rejection are.

Correct option: (c). The vagabond dreads being stopped by the law and closely questioned about who he is and what he has done.

Correct option: (c). She speaks with feeling for his homeless, hunted life — compassion pressing her father to relent.

Correct option: (b). "The ironmaster mumbled something in his beard. He could not bring himself to oppose her."

Correct option: (c). "It was all a mistake, of course. But anyway I don't think we ought to chase away a human being whom we have asked to come here, and to whom we have promised Christmas cheer."

Correct option: (b). A parson is a clergyman; he is teasing her that her moral pleading is more earnest than a sermon.

Correct option: (a). "I only hope you won't have to regret this", he said — a father's misgiving about her misplaced trust.

Correct option: (c). "The young girl took the stranger by the hand and led him up to the table. 'Now sit down and eat', she said, for she could see that her father had given in."

Correct option: (d). A parson is a parish priest or clergyman, known for preaching sermons.

Correct option: (b). "Time after time he looked at the young girl who had interceded for him. Why had she done it? What could the crazy idea be?"

Correct option: (c). "The stranger did not cause any trouble because he did nothing but sleep" — first on the sofa, then again after the noon meal.

Correct option: (c). A vagabond's sleep is wary and exposed; the manor's peace let him sleep as he had not slept "for many years".

Correct option: (c). He slept "the whole forenoon... at one stretch" and was woken at noon for the Christmas fare.

Correct option: (b). His long, safe sleep — unlike anything in years — kept him from any disturbance.

Correct option: (c). Having known only a world that "set baits", he cannot fathom why anyone would help him for nothing — kindness seems madness to him.

Correct option: (d). "In the evening, when the Christmas tree was lighted, they woke him up again."

Correct option: (a). The warm candlelight of a Christmas celebration was foreign to a man used to dark roads and forge shadows.

Correct option: (b). "Two hours later he was aroused once more. He then had to go down into the dining room and eat the Christmas fish and porridge."

Correct option: (c). After he "disappeared again" from the drawing room, "two hours later he was aroused once more".

Correct option: (c). He stands blinking, then disappears, then must be fetched again — a man not yet at home in comfort.

Correct option: (b). The lighted Christmas tree, the candle glow, the fish and porridge all create the gentle Christmas peace Edla had wished to give him.

Correct option: (b). "She gave him to understand that it was her father's intention that the suit which he wore was to be a Christmas present — he did not have to return it."

Correct option: (b). If he wished, he would "be welcomed back again" to a place of peace and safety.

Correct option: (c). Given a free suit, an open invitation and the promise of safety, the suspected thief was overwhelmed by unprecedented generosity.

Correct option: (a). "As soon as they got up from the table he went around to each one present and said thank you and good night."

Correct option: (a). To a man "always... afraid of being arrested", a Christmas Eve free of danger was the greatest gift they could offer.

Correct option: (a). She offers not just one meal but a standing welcome — trust that would later prove to have redeemed him.

Correct option: (c). "The next morning the ironmaster and his daughter got up in good season to go to the early Christmas service."

Correct option: (a). "Their guest was still asleep, and they did not disturb him."

Correct option: (c). She "had learned that one of the old crofters of the ironworks had been robbed by a man who went around selling rattraps."

Correct option: (c). The news at church identified her Christmas guest as the robber of the old crofter — her trust seemed betrayed.

Correct option: (d). "When, at about ten o'clock, they drove back from the church", she sat with hanging head.

Correct option: (b). To hang one's head is to droop in shame or dejection — she believed her kindness had been repaid with theft.

Correct option: (c). "I only wonder how many silver spoons are left in the cupboard by this time", he said sarcastically.

Correct option: (c). "The fellow had gone and that he had not taken anything with him at all. On the contrary, he had left behind a little package which Miss Willmansson was to be kind enough to accept as a Christmas present."

Correct option: (b). "He added that he had heard at church that the man was a thief."

Correct option: (d). The ironmaster mocks his daughter's judgement — "a fine fellow" means exactly the opposite.

Correct option: (a). Father and daughter braced themselves for loss, but the suspected thief took nothing and left a gift for Edla.

Correct option: (d). Believing his guest to be a thief, he naturally expected the household silver to have disappeared.

Correct option: (b). "She found a small rattrap, and in it lay three wrinkled ten-kronor notes."

Correct option: (d). The rattrap holding the crofter's thirty kronor told her that the peddler had repaid his debt and redeemed himself.

Correct option: (c). "Since you have been so nice to me all day long, as if I was a captain, I want to be nice to you, in return, as if I was a real captain."

Correct option: (a). In the rattrap "lay also a letter written in large, jagged characters."

Correct option: (a). Even while fleeing, his thought is to spare Edla the shame of having sheltered a thief — gratitude expressed as consideration.

Correct option: (c). A clumsy vagabond's parcel, open almost of itself, so that the rattrap, the notes and the confession might speak instantly to her.

Correct option: (a). "But you can give back the money to the old man on the roadside, who has the money pouch hanging on the window frame as a bait for poor wanderers."

Correct option: (b). The letter ends "Written with friendship and high regard, Captain von Stahle."

Correct option: (b). The stolen money was the bait that had caught him; being "raised to captain" gave him the power to clear himself.

Correct option: (a). He would have been caught in the world's rattrap "if he had not been raised to captain, because in that way he got power to clear himself."

Correct option: (d). The peddler's own philosophy returns: the visible money was the bait that lured him into theft, just as the world's baits catch everyone.

Correct option: (a). The letter's warm closing, the returned money and the signing as "Captain von Stahle" all express his gratitude for the trust that redeemed him.

The peddler went around selling small rattraps of wire, which he made himself at odd moments from material got by begging in stores and at big farms. Since the business was not especially profitable, he had to resort to both begging and petty thievery to keep body and soul together.

Walking alone along the roads, sunk in his own meditations, he was one day suddenly struck by the idea — born naturally from thinking of his own rattraps — that the whole world with its lands and seas, cities and villages was nothing but a big rattrap, existing only to set baits for people.

The world had never been very kind to him, so it gave him unwonted joy to think ill of it in this way. It became his cherished pastime during dreary ploddings to think of people he knew who had been caught in the dangerous snare, and of others still circling around the bait.

The world offers riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing — just as a rattrap offers cheese and pork. As soon as anyone lets himself be tempted to touch the bait, the trap closes in on him, and then everything comes to an end.

The old crofter was without wife or child and lived alone in his cottage. In his loneliness he was happy to get someone to talk to. That is why, instead of the sour faces the peddler usually met, he received warmth, supper, tobacco and a game of 'mjolis' until bedtime.

He betrayed it. The next morning, after they left the cottage together, he returned half an hour later, smashed a window pane, and stole the thirty kronor from the leather pouch. He even hung the pouch carefully back in its place so the theft would not be discovered quickly.

The crofter told his guest proudly that his extraordinary cow earned him thirty kronor a month from the creamery. When the stranger seemed incredulous, the old man took down the leather pouch from the window frame, held up the three wrinkled ten-kronor bills, and then put them back.

Half an hour after they parted, the peddler returned to the empty cottage. He did not try to get in through the locked door; he smashed a pane in the window, stuck in his hand, took the pouch with the thirty kronor, and thrust the money into his own pocket before hanging the pouch back carefully in its place.

After the theft, he dared not stay on the public highway and turned into the woods, where the big, confusing forest with its twisting paths trapped him completely. All at once he recalled his thoughts about the world and the rattrap: he had let himself be fooled by a bait — the thirty kronor — and had been caught.

Lost, exhausted and despairing in the dark December forest, the peddler had sunk down thinking his last moment had come. Then he heard a hard, regular thumping and recognised it as hammer strokes from an iron mill, which meant people were near by. He summoned all his strength and staggered towards the sound, reaching the Ramsjö forge.

The master blacksmith and his helper glanced only casually and indifferently at the intruder, granting him a haughty nod without a single word. The ironmaster, on his nightly round of inspection, walked close up to him, looked him over carefully, and even tore off his hat to see his face — because he mistook him for an old regimental comrade.

In the dark forge, by the uncertain reflection from the furnace, the tall ragged stranger's face reminded the ironmaster of a regimental comrade named Nils Olof whom he believed had fallen on hard days. He cried out in recognition, and the peddler did not correct him.

The peddler had never seen the ironmaster before and did not even know his name. But it occurred to him that if the fine gentleman thought he was an old acquaintance, he might perhaps throw him a couple of kronor. Therefore he did not want to undeceive him all at once.

The peddler thought of the thirty kronor he had stolen; to go up to the manor house would be like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion's den. He only wanted to sleep in the forge and then sneak away as inconspicuously as possible.

The ironmaster had failed to persuade the stranger to come home with him, and the blacksmith knew he had not said his last word. He sent his daughter Edla to the forge, apparently hoping that she would have better powers of persuasion than he himself had.

Edla assured him compassionately that he would be allowed to leave just as freely as he had come, and asked him only to stay over Christmas Eve. She said this in such a friendly manner that the rattrap peddler must have felt confidence in her, and he agreed to come at once.

On Christmas Eve morning, when the cleaned, well-dressed stranger entered the dining room, the ironmaster looked at him with a puckered brow. In the dark forge he might have been mistaken, but in broad daylight it was impossible to mistake the man for an old acquaintance, and he thundered, "What does this mean?"

He made no attempt to dissimulate. He said it was not his fault: he had never pretended to be anything but a poor trader, and had pleaded and begged to be allowed to stay in the forge. At worst he could put on his rags again and go away, and no harm had been done.

Edla said the man walked and walked the whole year long, was welcome nowhere, and was always afraid of being arrested. She wanted him to enjoy one day of peace in the whole year. She also felt that having asked him to come and promised him Christmas cheer, they should not chase away a human being on a mistake.

He left a small rattrap containing the thirty kronor he had stolen, and a letter asking Edla to return the money to the old crofter. He signed himself "Captain von Stahle" because she had treated him all day as if he was a captain, and he wanted to be nice to her in return, as if he was a real captain — with honour and honesty.

Through the lens of his rattrap theory, the peddler interprets all kindness as bait. The crofter's porridge, tobacco and confidences draw him in, but the thirty kronor becomes the bait he seizes, and he is caught in the forest-trap. The ironmaster's invitation, with its promise of comfort, he sees as the lion's den — a trap baited with good food and fine clothes from which a thief cannot escape. Only Edla's kindness is different: because she offers it without conditions, assuring him of his freedom, it does not trap him but releases him. In the end, her trust gives him "power to clear himself" — he returns the money and escapes the world's rattrap.

The rattrap stands for the world, and its baits — cheese and pork in a real trap — stand for the riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing that the world offers. The moment anyone lets himself be tempted to touch the bait, the trap closes in on him, and everything comes to an end. The metaphor captures the universal human predicament: everyone is a potential victim of temptation, whatever their station. The peddler is trapped by thirty kronor; even the ironmaster is warned that a day may come when he himself "may want to get a big piece of pork" and get caught. The message is that the way out of the trap is not greed or smartness but honesty and self-restraint.

Three forces worked together to reform the peddler. First, he had experienced his own philosophy from inside: caught in the forest after stealing the crofter's money, he knew the misery of being trapped by a bait. Second, and most important, was Edla's kindness — she interceded for him, fed him, let him sleep in safety, gave him the suit as a present, and invited him back for the next Christmas, trusting him completely even though she knew he was a thief. Her compassion awoke, in Selma Lagerlöf's phrase, the essential goodness in him. Finally, his own sense of honour responded: being treated as a captain, he wished to behave like one, and so he returned the stolen money and cleared himself.

The story is built on reversals. The crofter, whom the world would expect to be suspicious, welcomes the tramp with open-hearted hospitality — and is robbed for it. The blacksmiths, indifferent to the intruder, are followed by the ironmaster, who oddly takes the greatest interest in him — only because of a mistaken identity. The peddler, expecting trouble if he goes to the manor, refuses comfort and pleads to sleep in the forge. When the deception is discovered, the ironmaster laughs instead of immediately calling the sheriff. Most surprising of all, Edla defends the impostor, and the thief who has stolen a poor man's money leaves the rich man's house without taking anything — instead leaving the stolen money behind for the crofter. Each surprise deepens the story's theme that goodness is unexpected and transformative.

The contrasts are sharp throughout. The ironmaster's hospitality is conditional and mistaken — he is kind only because he believes the tramp is his old comrade Captain von Stahle; Edla is kind to the man himself, whoever he is. When the deception is exposed, the father thunders and threatens the sheriff; the daughter intercedes and asks that the stranger be allowed to stay for his one day of peace in the year. The ironmaster's invitation comes with the assumption of rank and comfort; Edla's comes with the promise of freedom to leave whenever he wishes. After the church service, the father sneers about silver spoons; the daughter, who has learned her guest is a thief, still hopes the best of him — and her trust is vindicated by the peddler's parting gift and letter.

Edla Willmansson, the ironmaster's oldest daughter, is modest, shy and not at all pretty, yet she possesses the truest goodness in the story. She is perceptive: sent to fetch the stranger, she notices at once that he is afraid and correctly guesses he has stolen something or escaped from jail. She is also compassionate — instead of using this knowledge against him, she assures him of his freedom and persuades him to come home. Her sense of honour is deep: once her family has invited a guest and promised Christmas cheer, she will not turn him out, even after the deception is exposed, because "he walks and walks the whole year long" and is welcome nowhere. Her trust transforms the peddler into the captain she imagined him to be, proving her author's belief that goodness can be awakened through understanding and love.

The peddler is a poor, lonely vagabond — ragged, sunken-cheeked, with hunger gleaming in his eyes — who sells wire rattraps and survives by begging and petty thievery. Yet he is no ordinary thief. He has imagination and a subtle sense of humour: out of his misery he constructs the entertaining philosophy that the world is a big rattrap, and he delights in thinking of the respected people he knows as either trapped or circling the bait. He is human enough to betray the one man who trusts him, but his own theory turns on him when the stolen money traps him in the forest. Beneath the rags there is latent goodness and dignity: he refuses comfort when it endangers him, admits the truth plainly when discovered, and, moved by Edla's kindness, redeems himself by returning the money and signing himself as Captain von Stahle.

The title is apt because the rattrap is both the peddler's trade and the story's central metaphor. He sells small rattraps of wire; from them he derives the idea that the whole world with its lands and seas is a big rattrap, offering baits of riches, joys, shelter, food, heat and clothing to catch people. The plot proves his theory in action: the peddler himself is caught by the bait of thirty kronor and wanders trapped in the forest; the comfort of the manor house becomes a "lion's den" he fears. The rattrap also carries the resolution — his Christmas present to Edla is a rattrap containing the returned money, the token of his escape from the world's trap. The title thus unifies trade, theme, plot and climax in a single image.

Lagerlöf's stated belief runs like a thread through the story. The peddler begins as a petty thief hardened by a world that "had never been very kind to him". The crofter's hospitality touches him but cannot overcome his hunger for money. What awakens his essential goodness is Edla's understanding and love: she reads his fear accurately, gives him security and freedom, feeds him, lets him sleep in peace, gives him the suit, and invites him back for next Christmas — all after knowing he is a thief. Treated "as if I was a captain", the peddler finally acts like one: he returns the stolen kronor so that Edla will not "be embarrassed at this Christmas season by a thief". His letter, written "with friendship and high regard", is the direct fruit of her trust — goodness awakened by love.

The lonely old crofter opened his cottage and his heart to the stranger — porridge, tobacco, a game of cards, and the proud story of his cow's thirty kronor, even showing the money from its pouch. The next morning the peddler repaid this total trust by smashing a window pane and stealing the thirty kronor while the old man was away. It shows that at this stage the peddler is a man governed by need and habit: poverty has made theft a reflex, and the world's unkindness has hardened him against gratitude. Yet the care with which he replaces the pouch, and the fact that his "smartness" immediately feels like a trap closing on him, shows a conscience already uneasy — a man not beyond reform.

After Edla led him to the table by the hand, the peddler sat down silently and helped himself to the food, glancing again and again at the girl who had interceded for him, wondering why. He caused no trouble, for he did nothing but sleep: the whole forenoon he lay on the sofa in a guest room, was woken at noon for his share of the Christmas fare, and slept again — as though for many years he had not slept so quietly and safely. In the evening he stood blinking at the lighted Christmas tree, then disappeared, and was roused two hours later to eat the Christmas fish and porridge. Going the rounds to say thank you and good night, he learned from Edla that the suit was a Christmas present and that he would be welcomed back next Christmas Eve — news he received in boundless amazement.

Rejected everywhere — the story shows him met with sour faces, indifferent glances and haughty nods — the peddler developed the defensive philosophy that the world is nothing but a big rattrap. Since it had never been kind to him, it gave him "unwonted joy" to think ill of it: every pleasure it offered was merely bait, and every comfortable person was either trapped or circling the bait. This bitterness was both a wound and a comfort; it justified his thieving, for he was only taking from a world that trapped people anyway. Only when Edla showed him unconditional kindness — the one thing his theory could not explain — did his view of the world begin to change.

The peddler's humour is the wry, self-mocking kind of the dispossessed. He amuses himself on his dreary ploddings by cataloguing the respected acquaintances who have been "caught in the dangerous snare" and those "still circling around the bait". Even in his darkest hour, lost in the forest, he sees the joke against himself: "Now his own turn had come." Later, facing the furious ironmaster, he delivers his philosophy with comic boldness — warning him that one day he too "may want to get a big piece of pork" — and the ironmaster cannot help laughing. The humour keeps the story, in the author's words, "somewhat in the manner of a fairy tale": it softens the sermon about temptation, makes the tramp an engaging rogue rather than a criminal, and makes his final redemption feel satisfying rather than sentimental.

On Christmas morning Edla and her father learned at church that one of the old crofters of the ironworks had been robbed by a man who went around selling rattraps. Edla, who had staked her word on the stranger, sat with her head hung in dejection, while her father sneered about the silver spoons. But when the valet reported that the guest had gone and taken nothing, and had left a package for her, her spirits rose. Inside was a small rattrap holding the thirty kronor — the stolen money, returned — together with a letter asking her to give it back to the crofter and signed "Captain von Stahle". She gave a little cry of joy: the man she had trusted had proved worthy of it, and her kindness had not been misplaced.

The setting is more than a backdrop; it works with the theme at every turn. The iron-rich mines of Sweden give the story its industrial world of forges, ironmasters and crofters, where wealth and poverty lie side by side — the very baits and snares of the world-rattrap. The big, confusing December forest, with darkness descending and paths twisting strangely, becomes the peddler's "impenetrable prison", the trap he has sprung on himself by stealing. Against this cold darkness stands Christmas — the season of peace, forgiveness and charity — which the story uses as its moral centre: it is Christmas Eve that softens the ironmaster's threat of the sheriff, and Edla's Christmas spirit that finally frees the peddler from his trap.

The peddler begins as a picture of misery: a lonely vagabond in rags, with sunken cheeks and hunger gleaming in his eyes, selling wire rattraps and surviving on begging and petty thievery. His one wealth is his imagination — the wry philosophy that the whole world is a big rattrap baited with riches and comforts. Yet he lives by his theory's logic: when the lonely crofter shows him thirty kronor, he smashes the window, steals the money, and congratulates himself on his smartness. The trap of the forest and his terror in it are the first turn — for the first time he is the rat. The second turn is the Ramsjö forge: mistaken for a captain, he glimpses dignity, though fear makes him refuse it. The final turn is Edla, whose unconditional kindness and trust awaken his essential goodness. Treated as a captain, he becomes one: he returns the stolen money, protects Edla from embarrassment, and signs himself "Captain von Stahle" with friendship and high regard. His arc proves that honour can be raised in a man by being presumed in him.

Edla Willmansson is the ironmaster's oldest daughter — modest, shy, and "not at all pretty" — yet she towers over every other character morally. Her gifts are quiet ones. She is perceptive: sent to the forge to persuade the stranger, she instantly reads his fear and shrewdly concludes, "Either he has stolen something or else he has escaped from jail." She is honest: she does not pretend the guest is really a captain, and admits the whole business "was all a mistake". Yet she is compassionate beyond her honesty — because the vagabond walks all year with no place where he is welcome and is always afraid of being arrested, she wants him to have one day of peace, and she refuses to chase away a human being whom her family has invited and promised Christmas cheer. Above all she is generous in spirit: she gives the peddler the suit as a present and invites him back for next Christmas. Her trust, freely given to a known thief, is what reforms him; the story's redemption flows entirely from her character.

Selma Lagerlöf's faith in the redemptive power of understanding and love is the engine of the story's plot. The peddlar is not wicked by nature but by circumstance: the world has never been kind to him, so he returns its contempt with the philosophy that it is a trap baited with cheese and pork. Two kinds of treatment test him. The crofter's hospitality is warm but indiscriminate — he trusts a stranger with his money, and the peddler's old habits win; he steals. The ironmaster's kindness is false — offered to a captain who does not exist, and withdrawn in thunder the moment the mistake is discovered; it cannot transform anyone. Only Edla combines understanding with love: she sees the thief clearly, fears what he may be, and still chooses to feed him, protect his freedom, gift him the suit and invite him back. That unconditional trust gives the peddler "power to clear himself": he returns the money, saves her Christmas from embarrassment, and leaves as a captain in spirit. Goodness, the story shows, is not preached into people; it is awakened in them.

The metaphor is the story's spine. It is born in the peddler's idle thoughts on the road: the world with its lands and seas, cities and villages exists only to set baits for people, offering riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing, exactly as a rattrap offers cheese and pork; touch the bait and the trap closes. The plot then enacts the metaphor step by step. The thirty kronor is the bait; the peddler grabs it and is caught — the forest closes on him "like an impenetrable prison from which he could never escape". The manor house becomes another suspected trap, the "lion's den" where a thief might be unmasked; he feels he is "sitting in the trap and will never get out of it". Even the high-born are not exempt: he warns the ironmaster that a day may come when he too wants "a big piece of pork" and gets caught. The resolution, too, is phrased in the metaphor — raised to captain, the rat gains "power to clear himself" and escapes the world's rattrap. The lesson is universal: temptation spares no one, and freedom lies not in grabbing the bait but in the integrity to refuse it.

The story presents three kinds of hospitality, each with a different motive and a different result. The crofter, an old man without wife or child, welcomes the peddler out of loneliness — he is "happy to get someone to talk to" — and shares without measure his porridge, his tobacco, his cards and even the knowledge of his thirty kronor. His is the hospitality of the poor: open, unquestioning, and therefore vulnerable; it is betrayed. The ironmaster's hospitality is really vanity: he is generous only to a man he believes is his old regimental comrade, Captain von Stahle, and the moment the mistake is revealed, his welcome turns to thunder and threats of the sheriff. His is the hospitality of rank, conditional on mistaken identity. Edla's is the only complete hospitality: she knows the guest is a poor tramp and probably a thief, yet she honours the promise of Christmas cheer, gives him freedom, security, food, sleep, a suit and an invitation to return. Her kindness, given with full knowledge, is the one that transforms. The story suggests that true hospitality is measured not by what is given but by the understanding with which it is given.

"The Rattrap" is, at its heart, a story of second chances told in the glow of Christmas. It begins in despair — a friendless vagabond, a betrayal, a dark December forest in which the thief waits for death. But the story is framed by Christmas: the action unfolds on the long dark evenings "just before Christmas", the ironmaster invites the stranger to help make "the Christmas food disappear a little faster", and even his threat to summon the sheriff dissolves with the admission, "Perhaps we should let the sheriff alone on Christmas Eve." The season works most powerfully through Edla, who wants to make things "homelike and Christmassy" for the poor hungry wretch and preaches, in her father's words, "worse than a parson". Her Christmas spirit — forgiveness extended to a thief — produces the miracle of the fairy tale: the tramp who slept with one eye open sleeps a whole day in safety, and on Christmas morning leaves with nothing taken, the stolen money returned, and a letter of friendship signed by a man reborn as "Captain von Stahle". In the story's world, redemption is not earned but evoked — by trust, by grace and by the season that commands charity.

When Father asked me to go to the forge, I went willingly enough, though I did not expect much of the errand. The stranger frightened me a little at first — he was clearly afraid, and I thought to myself that he had either stolen something or escaped from jail. But I could not be cruel to a man who was having such a hard time, so I promised him his freedom and brought him home. Then came the dreadful morning when Father realised his mistake, and I learned at church that this same man had robbed one of our old crofters. I sat with my head hanging while Father mocked me about the silver spoons, and I felt foolish and sad — not for myself, but because I had so wanted to give that poor wanderer one day of peace in his whole year of walking. When the valet said the stranger had left a package for me, I opened it half fearfully. Inside lay a small rattrap, and in it the thirty kronor — every bill — and a letter asking me to return the money to the old man. He had signed it "Captain von Stahle". I gave a little cry of joy. I had treated him as if he was a captain, and he had gone away and become one.