FLINT AND FIRE
1. What does the title mean?
2. How does the author strike the keynote of the story in the opening paragraph?
3. Where is the first hint of the real theme of the story?
4. Point out some of the dialect expressions. Why is dialect used?
5. What turn of surprise comes at the end of the story? Is it probable?
6. What characteristics of New England country people are brought out in this story? How does the author contrast them with "city people"?
7. Does this story read as if the author knew the scenes she describes? Read the description of Niram plowing (page 191), and point out touches in it that could not have been written by one who had always lived in the city.
8. Read the account of how this story was written, (page 210). What first suggested the idea? What work remained after the story was first written? How did the author feel while writing it? Compare what William Allen White says about his work, (page 75).
9. Other stories of New England life that you will enjoy reading are found in the following books: New England Nun, Mary E. Wilkins; Cape Cod Folks, S. P. McLean Greene; Pratt Portraits, Anna Fuller; The Country Road, Alice Brown; Tales of New England, Sarah Orne Jewett.