I can cross out the first and last one and between the two left I think it’s the one about the friendship because the flashback includes that they were friends when younger and the person with illness only had that one friend which in my opinion adds mystery about the friendship. So basically the 3rd one about friendship.
C. because Buck stole some food
The phrases creating a tone of foreboding are:
- "strange blight;"
- "evil spell;"
- "mysterious maladies;"
- "shadow of death."
<em>Foreboding</em> means predicting or announcing that something bad is about to happen. Taking the answers one by one, you can see how they relate to the same ominous idea:
- a "strange blight" and "evil maladies" refer to a destructive condition which no-body can explain;
- an "evil spell" means that it is interpreted as a magical curse;
- the "shadow of death" is a metaphor meaning that death is coming to the crops or cattle (depending on the original text excerpt).
