Mary Shelley

After I had left the laboratory,I escaped into the country outside the town.I soon felt hungry and thirsty,and my first food was fruit which I found on some trees near a river.I drank from the river and then lay down and went to sleep.

At first,my eyes and ears did not work very well,but after a while I began to see and hear clearly.

One day,snow began to fall.Of course,I had never walked in snow before,and I found that it made my feet very cold.I realized that I needed food and a place to get warm.Soon I saw a small hut where an old man was cooking his breakfast over a fire.When the old man saw me,he shouted loudly and ran away as fast as he could.I did not understand what the man was doing,but I wanted to be near the fire.So I sat down in the warm,and ate the man's breakfast.Then I walked across the empty fields for some hours until I reached a village.I went into one of the houses,but there were children inside.They began to scream when they saw me,and their mother fainted.The whole village came to see what was the trouble.Some of the people ran away when they saw me,but the others shouted and threw stones at me.They wanted to kill me.I was badly hurt,but I escaped and ran into the open country.

Later,I found an empty hut,which was built against the wall of a small house.I was afraid to go into the house after what had happened in the village,so I hid in the hut.There I was safe,and could escape from the cold,and hide from people who wished to hurt me.

And then I found that there was a small hole in the wall between the hut and the house.Through this hole I could see into the room next to the hut.Three people lived in the house—a beautiful girl,an old man,and a young man.

Day after day,I watched the three people.I saw how kind they were to each other.I wanted so much to go into the house and be with them,but I knew I must stay in the hut.I could not forget how the village people had hurt me when I tried to go into the house there.

Reading Check

What can be used to describe the monster's life in the country?

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