"A Circle in the Fire" Summary

Mrs. Cope, the owner of the farm, and Mrs. Pritchard, the wife of the hired hand, are gossiping in the front lawn while Mrs. Cope tugs at nut grass and weeds. Mrs. Pritchard has a morbid fascination with death and goes out of her way to attend visitations at the funeral home. She mentions the latest body she has seen, a young woman who had been in an iron lung but who also got pregnant after being put into the lung. The two older women raise eyebrows over the obvious implications that pertain to conceiving under such circumstances.

Mrs. Cope's twelve-year-old daughter is always peeking outside from an upstairs window, preferring her books to socializing with anyone, but she doesn't miss much. She thinks the sunset looks like a fire in the woods...