Question

Of the birth and origin of Jessie-Mary no one in the parish knew anything definite. Those who passed up the unfrequented cart-road by her grandmother's thatched hovel used to see the shock-headed child among the gooseberry bushes of the old woman's garden, peering at them, like an animal, over the fence. Whether she was really the granddaughter of the old beldame inside the mud walls no one knew, neither, for that matter, did anybody care. The hovel was the last remaining house of a little settlement which had disappeared from the side of the burn. Just where it stood, a shallow stream ran across the way and plunged into a wood in which Jessie-Mary had many a time feasted on the plentiful wild raspberries, and run, like a little squirrel, among the trees. Who used to see the shock-headed child among the gooseberry bushes of the old woman's garden?

1) The people passing by the unfrequented cart-road
2) The old beldame inside the mud walls
3) The grandmother of Jessie-Mary
4) The people in the parish

Answer 1

The shock-headed child among the gooseberry bushes was seen by the people passing by the unfrequented cart-road.

Step-by-step explanation:

The shock-headed child among the gooseberry bushes of the old woman's garden was seen by the people passing by the unfrequented cart-road. This detail indicates that these individuals had the opportunity to observe the child while traveling along a road that was not commonly used, suggesting a certain level of isolation for both the child and her grandmother's hovel.

It's also implied that these passersby had only a casual or distant awareness of Jessie-Mary's existence and her connection to the woman living in the mud-wall hovel, highlighting a lack of community engagement or concern for the child's well-being or heritage.