- The whole story of Lencho, the hailstorm and his two letters, stage by stage
- What kind of people Lencho and the postmaster are, with a side-by-side comparison
- The chapter’s big ideas: faith, kindness, irony and two kinds of conflict
- The key lines of the story, quoted exactly, with what each one means
- The metaphors, grammar points and storm words the book itself teaches
- Short answers to every “Oral Comprehension Check” and “Thinking about the Text” question
1Getting Ready for the Story
1.1 The Writer
The contents page of First Flight names the writer of this story as G.L. Fuentes. The story is set among poor farmers in a Latin American country: the money in it is the peso, which the book explains as the “currency of several Latin American countries”.
1.2 The Question the Book Asks First
Before the story begins, the book reminds us of a saying, “faith can move mountains”, and then asks a sharper question: what should we put our faith in? Keep that question in mind. By the last line you will see that the answer the story suggests is not simple.
The book opens with a Money Order form, because the post office is where the whole story turns. A money order is a cheap way to send money by post. The form has three parts: the Money Order form itself, a part for official use, and the Acknowledgement, which the receiver signs and the post office sends back to the sender. The counterfoil is the small slip the sender keeps as a record. The book asks you to learn these words: counter, counter clerk, appropriate, acknowledgement, counterfoil, record.
2The Story, Stage by Stage
Here is the whole story in one line of boxes. Each box is explained below it.
2.1 Stage 1: Waiting for Rain
No other home stands anywhere in Lencho’s valley: his family lives alone, in a house on top of a low hill (the book’s word for the top is crest). From up there the river and the field of ripe corn are both in view. The corn is dotted with flowers, which always promised a good harvest. Only one thing is missing: the earth needs “a downpour or at least a shower”.
Lencho knows his fields very well. All morning he does nothing but watch the sky towards the north-east, where rain clouds would come from. He tells his wife, “Now we’re really going to get some water, woman.” She is cooking supper and replies, “Yes, God willing”. The older boys are working in the field and the smaller children are playing near the house.
2.2 Stage 2: Raindrops Like New Coins
During dinner, just as Lencho had predicted, big drops of rain begin to fall. Huge clouds, like mountains, come in from the north-east. Lencho steps outside only for the pleasure of feeling the rain on his body. He is so happy that the rain looks like money to him:
“These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins. The big drops are ten cent pieces and the little ones are fives.”
Lencho, delighted by the rain
To a farmer, rain means a good crop, and a good crop means money. That is why each drop feels like a coin to him.
2.3 Stage 3: The Hailstorm
Suddenly a strong wind starts and very large hailstones fall with the rain. Now the comparison becomes painful: the hailstones “truly did resemble new silver coins”. The boys run out in the rain to collect “the frozen pearls”, not understanding the danger. Lencho says, “It’s really getting bad now” and hopes it will pass quickly. It does not.
For an hour the hail falls on the house, the garden, the hillside, the cornfield and the whole valley. When it stops:
- the field is white, “as if covered with salt”;
- not a single leaf is left on the trees;
- the corn is totally destroyed and the flowers are gone.
“A plague of locusts would have left more than this. The hail has left nothing. This year we will have no corn.”
Lencho to his sons, standing in the ruined field
That night is full of sorrow. The family says, “All our work, for nothing” and “We’ll all go hungry this year.”
- Lencho hoped for a good rain, a downpour or at least a shower, for his ripe corn.
- Rain meant a good harvest and so money, so he called the big drops ten cent pieces and the small ones fives.
- A strong wind came and the rain turned into a hailstorm that lasted an hour; the corn was totally destroyed.
- He was filled with sadness: his whole year’s work was lost and the family faced hunger.
2.4 Stage 4: A Letter to God
In that lonely house, everyone has one single hope: help from God. Someone comforts the others: “Remember, no one dies of hunger.” All night Lencho thinks only of God, whose eyes, he had been taught, “see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience”. (Conscience means the inner sense of right and wrong.)
The book calls Lencho “an ox of a man”: he works like an animal in the fields. Yet he knows how to write. On the following Sunday at daybreak he writes a letter, and it is addressed to God Himself:
“God, if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year. I need a hundred pesos in order to sow my field again and to live until the crop comes, because the hailstorm…”
Lencho’s first letter
He writes “To God” on the envelope, walks to town still worried, puts a stamp on it and drops it in the mailbox.
2.5 Stage 5: The Postmaster’s Kind Plan
A postman who also helps at the post office laughs loudly and shows the letter to his boss. In his whole career he had never seen such an address. The postmaster, “a fat, amiable fellow” (amiable means friendly and pleasant), also laughs at first, but almost at once he becomes serious. Tapping the letter on his desk, he says:
“What faith! I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter. Starting up a correspondence with God!”
The postmaster
He decides to answer the letter, so that the writer’s faith in God is not shaken. But answering needs more than goodwill, ink and paper: it needs money. He sticks to his decision:
- Lencho had faith in God. He wrote a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos and posted it.
- The postman saw it first and showed it to the postmaster, who opened and read it.
- He collected money from his employees, his own salary and his friends, and sent it to Lencho in an envelope signed “God”.
2.6 Stage 6: Lencho’s Anger and the Second Letter
The next Sunday, Lencho comes a little earlier than usual to ask for a letter. The postman hands it to him, while the postmaster watches from his office with “the contentment of a man who has performed a good deed”.
Lencho shows “not the slightest surprise” at the money, because he was so sure God would answer. But when he counts it, he becomes angry. In his mind, God could not have made a mistake, and God could not have refused what Lencho asked. So someone else must be to blame.
He asks at the window for paper and ink and writes at the public writing-table, wrinkling his brow with the effort of putting his ideas into words. He buys a stamp, licks it and fixes it on the envelope “with a blow of his fist”, which shows his anger. As soon as the letter falls into the mailbox, the postmaster opens it:
“God: Of the money that I asked for, only seventy pesos reached me. Send me the rest, since I need it very much. But don’t send it to me through the mail because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks. Lencho.”
Lencho’s second letter: the last lines of the story
- No. His faith was so complete that he expected the money and was not surprised at all.
- The amount was less than the hundred pesos he had asked for; he believed God could not send less, so he thought someone had stolen the rest.
Do not write that the postmaster “sent seventy pesos” or “handed the money to Lencho”. The book says he sent “a little more than half” of a hundred pesos, and that the postman handed over the letter. The figure seventy comes only from Lencho’s own second letter.
3The Characters
3.1 Who Is Who
Lencho
A poor, hard-working farmer, “an ox of a man”, who can still write. He trusts God completely and without a single doubt. His faith is simple and child-like: he never asks who really sent the money, and he cannot imagine God sending less. That same faith makes him suspicious and ungrateful towards the very people who helped him.
The postmaster
A fat, friendly and pleasant man. He laughs at the letter but quickly respects Lencho’s faith. He is kind and generous (he gives part of his own salary), determined (he sticks to his plan) and modest (he signs the letter “God” and takes no credit). He feels the quiet satisfaction of a good deed.
The family and the postman
Lencho’s wife (unnamed) answers “Yes, God willing”; the older sons work in the field and the younger children play and collect hailstones. The postman, who also helps at the post office, first finds the letter and later hands Lencho the reply.
3.2 Lencho and the Postmaster, Side by Side
| Point | Lencho | The postmaster |
|---|---|---|
| Faith | Complete, unquestioning faith in God | Admires that faith: “I wish I had the faith…” |
| Main quality | Hard work and simple trust | Kindness and generosity |
| Reaction to the money | No surprise; then anger on counting | Contentment at having done a good deed |
| How he sees the post office staff | “a bunch of crooks” | Asks them to give money, and they do |
| What he finally gets | Help, which he takes as theft | No thanks: he opens Lencho’s second letter and finds himself and his staff called crooks |
4Themes and Message
Faith is complete trust in someone or something without asking for proof. Lencho’s faith in God is total: he writes to God as if to a person and expects an answer by post.
Irony is an unexpected side of a situation: what happens is the opposite of what we expect. In this story, the people who helped Lencho are the ones he calls “a bunch of crooks”.
A conflict is a struggle between two forces in a story. The book names two here: humans against nature, and humans against humans.
4.1 The Big Ideas
- Faith: Lencho’s faith gives him hope when everything is lost, and it even moves a stranger to help him.
- Kindness of ordinary people: the postmaster, his staff and friends give their own money to a man they have never met, only to keep his faith alive.
- Irony: the helpers are called thieves; the “answer from God” was really written by humans.
- Blind faith has limits: Lencho’s trust in God is so complete that he cannot see the goodness of the people around him. This brings back the opening question: what should we put our faith in?
- Nature’s power over farmers: one hour of hail wipes out a whole year’s work.
4.2 The Two Conflicts
Humans and nature
- Lencho needs rain for his ripe corn
- The rain he prayed for turns into a hailstorm
- The crop is destroyed and the family faces hunger
Humans and humans
- Lencho gets less money than he asked for
- He blames the post office employees
- He calls his own helpers “a bunch of crooks”
Faith in God gives strength, but goodness also lives in ordinary people. True kindness asks for no thanks: the postmaster helps without credit, even though the man he helped insults him.
5Key Lines and What They Mean
| Line from the book | Who says it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| “Now we’re really going to get some water, woman.” | Lencho | His confident hope of rain |
| “Yes, God willing” | Lencho’s wife | The family’s habit of trusting God |
| “These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins.” | Lencho | Rain means money to a farmer |
| “It’s really getting bad now” | Lencho | Joy turning into worry |
| “A plague of locusts would have left more than this.” | Lencho | The hail did more damage than even locusts could |
| “Remember, no one dies of hunger.” | A family member | Comfort and hope in a hopeless night |
| “What faith! I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter.” | The postmaster | He admires and respects Lencho’s faith |
| “the post office employees are a bunch of crooks” | Lencho, in his second letter | The irony of the story |
6Language Points from the Book
6.1 Metaphors
A metaphor compares two things by carrying a quality of one over to the other, without using “like” or “as”. The book says the word comes from a Greek word meaning “transfer”.
| Object | Metaphor in the story | Quality compared |
|---|---|---|
| Clouds | huge mountains | their mass and hugeness |
| Raindrops | new coins | their value: rain brings a crop, the crop brings money |
| Hailstones | frozen pearls | their shape, shine and colour |
| Locusts | a plague | like a deadly epidemic, they spread fast and destroy everything |
| Lencho | an ox of a man | he works as hard as an ox in the fields |
6.2 Non-defining Relative Clauses
A relative clause gives more information about a noun and begins with a relative pronoun: who, whom, whose, which. It is non-defining when we already know who is meant, as in “The woman, who was preparing supper, replied…”. Such a clause usually has commas on both sides (the story sometimes uses dashes). Sometimes the pronoun is hidden: “The house, the only one in the entire valley, …” means “The house, which was the only one in the entire valley, …”.
6.3 Negatives Used for Emphasis
Words like no, not and nothing can stress an idea instead of denying it:
- “had done nothing else but see the sky” = he did only this
- “for no other reason than to have the pleasure of feeling the rain” = this was his only reason
- “showed not the slightest surprise” = no surprise at all
- “Not a leaf remained on the trees” = the trees lost all their leaves
- “It was nothing less than a letter to God” = it was addressed to God Himself
- “Never in his career as a postman had he known that address” = he saw it for the first time
6.4 Two Uses of “Hope” and Six Storm Words
In “I hope it passes quickly”, hope is a verb (to wish for something). In “there was a single hope: help from God”, it is a noun (a chance that something will happen).
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cyclone | violent tropical storm with winds moving in a circle |
| Gale | an extremely strong wind |
| Typhoon | violent tropical storm with very strong winds |
| Tornado | violent storm whose centre is a funnel-shaped cloud |
| Hurricane | violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic Ocean |
| Whirlwind | very strong, fast, spinning wind that causes a lot of damage |
7Thinking about the Text: Short Answers
- Who does Lencho have complete faith in? In God. Lines that show it: “there was a single hope: help from God”; he thought only of “the help of God, whose eyes… see everything”; he wrote “To God” on the envelope; “God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.”
- Why does the postmaster send money and sign it ‘God’? So that Lencho’s faith in God is not shaken. Signing “God” makes Lencho believe God Himself has answered.
- Did Lencho try to find out who sent the money? No. He was certain God had sent it, so the question never came to his mind.
- Who does he think took the rest? What is the irony? The post office employees. The irony is that they are the very people who collected the money for him, yet he calls them “a bunch of crooks”.
- What kind of person is Lencho? Such simple believers do exist. From the book’s word box, he is best described as naive and unquestioning in his faith, and ungrateful to his real helpers, though without knowing it.
- How are the two conflicts shown? Humans and nature: the hailstorm destroys the crop Lencho depends on. Humans and humans: Lencho distrusts and insults the post office staff who helped him.
8Words to Know
| Word | Meaning given in the book |
|---|---|
| crest | top of a hill |
| draped | covered (with cloth) |
| locusts | insects which fly in big swarms (groups) and destroy crops |
| conscience | an inner sense of right and wrong |
| peso | currency of several Latin American countries |
| amiable | friendly and pleasant |
| contentment | satisfaction |
- Writer: G.L. Fuentes. Lencho’s house is the only one in the valley, on the crest of a low hill
- Lencho waits for rain; the drops are “new coins” (big = ten cent pieces, small = fives)
- A hailstorm lasts an hour; the field is white “as if covered with salt”; the corn is totally destroyed
- “A plague of locusts would have left more than this.”
- One hope is left: help from God. On Sunday Lencho writes to God for a hundred pesos and posts it “To God”
- The amiable postmaster laughs, then admires the faith; collects money from staff, his salary and friends “for an act of charity”
- He sends “a little more than half”, signed “God”; the postman hands it over; the postmaster feels contentment
- Lencho shows no surprise, but is angry on counting; says only seventy pesos reached him
- Second letter: send the rest, but not by mail, as the employees are “a bunch of crooks” (the irony)
- Conflicts: humans vs nature (hailstorm), humans vs humans (Lencho vs post office staff)
- Can I tell the story in order, from waiting for rain to the second letter?
- Can I explain why Lencho calls the raindrops “new coins”?
- Can I say exactly how the postmaster collected the money and how much he sent?
- Can I explain the irony in the last line?
- Can I name the two conflicts with one example each?
- Can I list the five metaphors and what each compares?