Harlot's Child

1.  From the start of the story, we have an unexpected man intruding upon a woman's sleep.  The man's daughter was about to give birth soon.  When the woman, Sadie, gets ready to leave and help the daughter, her son begins to fill us in on the details.  We learn that the daughter is a young unmarried girl, something the son does not take kindly.  However, Sadie, gives the girl her best and does not judge her.  When the daughter says that she is a bad person, Sadie is quick to refute her and never once asks for a reward for her troubles.
2.  After spending copious amounts of time trying to bring the baby into life, Sadie succeeds and wastes no time in baptizing the infant.  After the baby is baptized, he or she dies and is placed in a makeshift coffin from a wardrobe.  The saving act from the midwife is the baptism.  Baptism is meant to cleanse us from original sin and make it possible for us to be considered as children of God.  Babies are incapable of sin but they have original sin.  Therefore, the baby in this story, born with sin, had it erased before he could pass on into the next life.
3.  Twice during the story, Sadie makes two four mile long treks.  The first is very late night, up a steep hill, and very foggy- which on a steep hill with tors and ledges could be very dangerous.  The second is a less dangerous, and due to the "God's blessing" of a sunrise, portrayed as quite pleasant.  This could be seen as symbolic of the baby's unclean spirit progressing into a clean heaven-bound one.  These journeys are important in describing the woman because there is much emphasis on God and how much she trusts in Him to help her live as Jesus did.