“It was happy in a new sense of freedom from control, happy in the opportunity of exploration and adventure; for this child’s spirit, in bodies of its ancestors, had for thousands of years been trained to memorable feats of discovery and conquest— victories in battles whose critical moments were centuries, whose victors’ camps were cities of hewn stone.”

This explanation of the child’s character comes early on in the story. Readers learn right away that his play is something more than play, and that we are to regard it with some skepticism. The child being referred to as “it” makes him seem blank, like a mere vessel for the qualities of his ancestors; it also makes him seem helpless, like the forest animals that he later encounters. 

“Advancing from the bank of the creek he suddenly found himself confronted with a new and more formidable enemy: in the path that he was following, sat, bolt upright, with ears erect and paws suspended before it, a rabbit!”

There is some plain irony in the fact of this boy, who has been fighting a pretend battle, being suddenly frightened by a rabbit. Yet his fear also emphasizes his childishness and helplessness, beneath his brave soldier act.  

“The wood birds sang merrily above his head; the squirrels, whisking their bravery of tail, ran barking from tree to tree, unconscious of the pity of it, and somewhere far away was a strange, muffled thunder, as if the partridges were drumming in celebration of nature’s victory over the son of her immemorial enslavers.”

The “strange muffled thunder” is actually the sounds of war, as we will find out later in the story. Even so, the boy sleeps through it, soothed by the immediate sounds of the forest. The natural world often appears in this story as an element that is beyond man’s control, however even if he might try to “enslave” it. In this case, the placid singing of the birds and running of the squirrels is at odds with the battle going on not far away, and briefly puts that battle in