48. What does the free bird represent?

taking into account that a theme is the central topic a text treats and can be developed through a story, play, poem etc. the following are themes that can be further developed:  

my best friend jeffrey has many unusual interests. (the story could be about each of the unususal interests)

once a man gives his soul over to evil, he can never go back. (this could be a saying or a proverb)

the three sheepdogs lay around the yard all day. (it could be developed detailing how each of these sheepdogs lay around)

a priest's collar has an unusual effect upon people. (it could be developed detailing the different effect upon people)

innocence is a powerful force in a world full of corruption. (it could be developed detailing how is a world full of corruption)

king lear is a play shakespeare wrote later. (it is just a sentence and doesnt give any idea or topic to be discussed in details.

evil often wears the disguise of innocence. (this could be a saying or a proverb)

cabeza de vaca was an spanish explorer and n his long exploration of 11,000.km. from florida to present-day mexico, he went through a series of calamities and setbacks that only added to his deeds. he applied his religious creed with the humanist idea, always current and universal, that all men were equal before god and destiny without any discrimination. as an explorer, he became a slave to the tipinoga, then his shaman pointer, later and after an operation of heart to an indian (from which both came alive) he achieved stardom and became a hero followed by a crowd that professed unusual respect and admiration.

b. cronkite, a trusted television personality, declared that the war was unwinnable and told the american people that the government had better find a way out

even though it went against everything the news anchors typically stood for, cronkite voiced an opinion and took a stance, telling the us that there was no way they were going to win, the war was going to end in a stalemate. 

  this riddles' answer is library.

  the "leaves" are a reference to the books' pages that the library contains; the branches are a network of libraries that connect multiple libraries' collections, resources, and items in a system of a common database, integrating them; the branches' organization are a useful management tool for coordinating the multiple collections many libraries have.