Edward Plaisance Jr Dec 5, 2013:

comments (2)... Willa Cather's short story "Paul's Case" was published in May, 1905.

This was before the usage of "faggot" as a slang word to mean male homosexual.

It is clear that the meaning here is "like wood/sticks burning in a strong wind".

Edward Plaisance Jr Dec 5, 2013:

comments (1).. The only meaning for faggot here is a "bundle of sticks".

See this etymology:

faggot
late 13c., "bundle of twigs bound up," from O.Fr. fagot "bundle of sticks," from It. faggotto, dim. of V.L. *facus, from L. fascis "bundle of wood" (see fasces). Especially used for burning heretics (a sense attested from 1550s), so that phrase fire and faggot was used to
mean "punishment of a heretic." Heretics who recanted were required to wear an embroidered figure of a faggot on their sleeve, as an emblem and reminder of what they deserved.

faggot
"male homosexual," 1914, Amer.Eng. slang (shortened form fag is from 1921), probably from earlier contemptuous term for "woman" (1591), especially an old and unpleasant one, in reference to faggot (1) "bundle of sticks," as something awkward that has to be carried (cf. baggage).
It was used in this sense in 20c. by D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, among others. It may also be reinforced by Yiddish faygele "homosexual," lit. "little bird." It also may have roots in Brit. public school slang fag "a junior who does certain duties for a senior" (1785), with suggestions of "catamite," from fag (v.). This was also used as a verb.