1. What does it mean to be "poor"? What impacts does it have on a family? How does it shape their lifestyle?

2. How accurately does the author portray rural life? Could this story realistically take place in the real world?

3. What is it like to live in a rural area? How might one's daily routine and lifestyle choices differ from those of city residents?

4. How does the narrator feel about her father's job as a salesman for Walker Brothers? Is she proud? How much do you know about what your father does for work? How much do most people your age know about their parents' occupations?

5. At one point, the narrator observes that "[t]he tiny share we have of time appalls me, though my father seems to regard it with tranquility." What do you think she means by this, and what does it reveal about how her perspective differs from her father's?

6. At another moment in the story, the narrator asks her father about an upstairs door on a house that leads to nowhere. Her father tells her it is for sleepwalkers, and she notes, "I am offended, seeing too late that he is joking, as usual. . . . " This suggests that she often misses her father's jokes. In what other ways does Munro subtly reveal the dynamics between her characters?