Question

Answer in about 150 words.

Morris had said that the wish would be fulfilled so naturally that one might take it for a coincidence. How was Mr. White’s wish for £ 200 granted?

Answer 1

Mr. White wishes for £ 200 to clear the debt on the house. The next morning, a letter arrives, but it contains only a receipt for interest on the mortgage not the money he expected. Then Sampson, a representative from the electrical works, visits with the news that Herbert has been killed in an accident. The company offers the Whites £ 200 as compensation for their son’s death. The money comes through an ordinary workplace payment, so the wish appears to have been granted naturally, as Morris had warned. Yet the coincidence is horrifying: the exact sum is given only because Herbert has died. The wish brings the Whites money, but at the unbearable cost of their only child. In this way, the paw fulfils Mr. White’s wish while making the family wish they had never made it.