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.

THE ORDEAL AT MT. HOPE

1. This story contains three characters who are typical of many colored people, and as such are worth study. Howard Dokesbury is the educated colored man of the North. What are the chief traits of this character?

2. Aunt Caroline is the old-fashioned darky who suggests slavery days. What are her chief characteristics?

3. 'Lias is the new generation of the Southern negro of the towns. What are his characteristics?

4. Is the colored American given the same rights as others? Read carefully the opening paragraph of the story.

5. What were the weaknesses of the colored people of Mt. Hope? How far are they true of the race? How were they overcome in this case?

6. There are two theories about the proper solution of what is called "The Negro Problem." One is, that the hope of the race lies in industrial training; the other theory, that they should have higher intellectual training, so as to develope great leaders. Which theory do you think Dunbar held? Why do you think so?

7. Other stories dealing with the life of the colored people are: Free Joe, and Tales of the Home Folks, by Joel Chandler Harris; Polished Ebony, by Octavius R. Cohen; Aunt Amity's Silver Wedding, by Ruth McEnery Stuart; In Ole Virginia, by Thomas Nelson Page.

ISRAEL DRAKE

The Pennsylvania State Police have made a wonderful record for maintaining law and order in the rural sections of the state. The history of this organization was told by Katherine Mayo in a book called Justice to All. In a later book, The Standard Bearers, she tells various incidents which show how these men do their work. The book is not fiction—the story here told happened just as it is set down, even the names of the troopers are their real names.

1. Do you get a clear picture of Drake from the description? Why are several pages given to telling his past career?

2. Where does the real story begin?

3. Who was the tramp at the Carlisle Station? When did you guess it?

4. What are the principles of the State Police, as you see them in this story?

5. Why was such an organization necessary? Is there one in your state?

6. What new words did you find in this story? Define aura, primeval, grisly.

THE STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH OF ISIDRO

In this story the author introduces a number of unfamiliar words, chiefly of Spanish origin, which are current in the Philippines. The meanings are given below.

baguio, hurricane.
barrio, ward; district.
carabao, a kind of buffalo, used as a work animal.
cabo, head officer.
cibay, a boys' game.
daledale, hurry up!
de los Reyes, of the King.
de la Cruz, of the cross.
hacienda, a large plantation.
ladrones, robbers.
maestro, teacher.
nipa, a palm tree or the thatch made from it.
palay, rice.
pronto, quickly.
pueblo, town.
que barbaridad!—what an atrocious thing!
volador, kite.

1. Why does the story end with Isidro's crying? What did this signify? What is the relation of this to the beginning of the story?

2. Has this story a central idea? What is it?

3. This might be called a story of local color, in that it gives in some detail the atmosphere of an unfamiliar locality. What are the best descriptive passages in the story?

4. Judging from this story, what are some of the difficulties a school teacher meets with in the Philippines? What must he be besides a teacher?

5. What other school stories are there in this book? The pupils in Emmy Lou's school, (in Louisville, Ky.) are those with several generations of American ancestry behind them; in Myra Kelly's story, they are the children of foreign parents; in this story they are still in a foreign land—that is, a land where they are not surrounded by American influences. The public school is the one experience that is common to them all, and therefore the greatest single force in bringing them all to share in a common ideal, to reverence the great men of our country's history, and to comprehend the meaning of democracy. How does it do these things?