5. Make a list of the epigrammatic expressions that occur in the story. How do they add to the effect?
6. What is the principal lesson taught by the story?
7. Compare this story with Eliot’s Silas Marner, Leigh Hunt’s Abou Ben Adhem, Lowell’s The Vision of Sir Launfal, Longfellow’s The Legend Beautiful, and Henry Van Dyke’s The Other Wise Man.
8. Write an allegorical story of some length, using realistic characters from daily life, leading to an effective climax, and presenting a high ideal of conduct.
WOOD LADIES
1. Point out the different steps in the action.
2. What different persons take up the search? What is the effect of the constant additions to the number of searchers?
3. Why did the author have little children, five and seven years old, play principal parts?
4. Trace the emotions of the mother from the beginning of the story.
5. How did the mother, at different times, explain the child’s absence?