This short, macabre story is chilling in its portrayal of the fiendish young boy.

Saki takes
the boys point of view toward the annoying, officious cousin, who, the boy believes,
delights in tormenting him. The boy lives almost entirely in his imagination. The real
world is that which is ruled by adults such as his cousin, who are most disagreeable to
him. In this aspect, Conradin seems to be a perfectly normal child at odds with the
demands of the cruel outside world. What sets Conradin apart from other children is his
almost pathological escape from reality and his achieving his revenge through the agency
of the wild animal. What is usually only imaginary to a child is carried to fruition, and the
child relishes it.
Conradins veneration of the ferret comes to take up more and more of his waking hours
after his cousin has sold his beloved hen. It becomes an obsession with him, and the
reader finally comes to understand that he prays that the beast will kill his cousin. When
the ferret actually kills the cousin, the most shocking thing is the boys nonchalant,
almost happy acceptance of the event. It is the boys reaction to the killing that takes the
story out of the realm of reality.
Although Conradins condition is unusual in that he has been diagnosed as having a short
time to live, he could, to an extent, be perceived as a typical boy escaping in his
imagination from the cold world. Even his adoration of the ferret seems to differ only in
degree from what could be considered normal. Sometimes normal children imagine
killing their adult antagonists, and in this case, it could be considered accidental that his
cousin is killed (although Conradin makes no effort to warn her, he fully expects her to
emerge from the shed victorious, as she usually does when in conflict with him).
However, the realization that his prayers have been answered and his cold, calm
acceptance of the accomplished fact are shocking.
In a sense, then, the story can be seen as a childs fantasy of getting even with the nonunderstanding world of adults. It is a kind of wish fulfilment of which many children
dream. The horror is that Saki presents it as a reality, and the boy as fully enjoying the
event.
The major theme of this story is that people have a great capacity for acting in evil ways.
We can see this in both Conradin and his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp.
The guardian treats Conradin very badly throughout the story. She is supposed to be his
parent figure yet she delights in making him feel bad. She feels triumphant whenever she
denies him something that he wants.
On the other hand, Conradin is quite bad in that he wants such horrible revenge on Mrs.
De Ropp. He does rituals to try to keep her toothache going and he prays for her death.
When she is killed, he is happy.
So the theme might be that people are cruel and evil.