Chapter Eight Summary and Analysis

In the spring, Gerald and his family move to a new villa, very near the first. There is a nearby area Gerald calls "the fields" that were once salt flats and now, after having been flooded from the hills for ages, provide rich land for farming. There one day an old woman who is cultivating calls to Gerald that she has something for him and he hurries, as much as possible through the maze of ditches, to find that she has uncovered four little hedgehogs. He takes them home, noting that he already has two but that they have never been adequately tamed. He convinces his mother to buy him a doll that has an array of accessories, including a bottle which he keeps, and he gives the remainder of the set to a girl he likes. He carefully...