NCERT Book Class 12 English (Flamingo) Prose 4 The Rattrap

4 The Rattrap
About the author
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a Swedish writer whose stories
have been translated into many languages. A universal theme
runs through all of them — a belief that the essential goodness
in a human being can be awakened through understanding and
love. This story is set amidst the mines of Sweden, rich in iron
ore, which figure large in the history and legends of that country.
The story is told somewhat in the manner of a fairy tale.

Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
 keep body and soul together  hunger gleamed in his eyes
 plods along the road  unwonted joy
 impenetrable prison  nodded a haughty consent
 eased his way  fallen into a line of thought
 things have gone downhill

Once upon a time there was a man who went around selling small
rattraps of wire. He made them himself at odd moments, from the
material he got by begging in the stores or at the big farms. But
even so, the business was not especially profitable, so he had to
resort to both begging and petty thievery to keep body and soul
together. Even so, his clothes were in rags, his cheeks were sunken,
and hunger gleamed in his eyes.
No one can imagine how sad and monotonous life can appear
to such a vagabond, who plods along the road, left to his own
meditations. But one day this man had fallen into a line of thought,
which really seemed to him entertaining. He had naturally been
thinking of his rattraps when suddenly he was struck by the idea
that the whole world about him — the whole world with its lands and
seas, its cities and villages — was nothing but a big rattrap. It had
never existed for any other purpose than to set baits for people. It