Summary of the Story

The introduction of the story starts about the narrator's father and the description of his labor and job. Her father is a fox-farmer who raises foxes which are skinned so that their pelt can be sold to fur traders. At the cellar of their house, the narrator and her brother (Laird) would observe their father doing skinning in an inquisitive admiring sort of way. The scenery of the narrators surrounding seems to be in a small white-washed house in a prairie. Her room in the unfinished second floor is daunting with the stairs coming up in the middle of the floor surrounded by a wooden rail. The street of the town is ranged with large durable pens. The major characters in the story are; the unnamed female narrator, her father, Henry Bailey, a farmhand who is like a part of the narrator's family and her brother, Laird. Minor characters in the story are; the narrators mother, her grandmother, and the two horses, Mack and Flora.

The step that leads into the climax concludes the passage that leads into womanhood. Foxes were fed horsemeat. At that present time farmers were buying tractors which gradually steers the horses for sale. Currently, the narrator's father bought two of them who were eventually named; Mack and Flora. Mack was a slow, steady easy ridden horse while Flora was a tottering, alarmed horse but still was remarkable for her speed. Second step that leads into the climax is when Mack is going to get shot. The narrator's curiosity leads her and her brother to secretly watch their father and Henry to kill him. They successfully watched the slaughter of the horse unnoticed. Later, the narrator finds out Flora is going to get shot in two weeks, although she is already convinced on watching and does not plan to watch it again. Fourth and final step leads into Flora breaking loose just before being taken to the private stable to get shot. The children hurdle outside to see what the commotion was. During the climax, Flora has escaped and was running toward the end of the open gate. Meanwhile, the girl was the nearest to the gate, so she was ordered to go shut the gate before Flora runs loose. She ran as fast as she could and reached by the time Flora was still galloping toward it. There was enough time to close but instead lets Flora go free. This rebellion against her father's orders to cage the horse illustrates the narrator's last final attempt at avoiding her stereotype.

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