Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry

Home > Other > Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry > Page 258
Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry Page 258

by O. Henry

AN AFTERNOON MIRACLE

  AN APOLOGY

  AN UNFINISHED CHRISTMAS STORY

  AN UNFINISHED STORY

  ARISTOCRACY VERSUS HASH

  ART AND THE BRONCO

  AT ARMS WITH MORPHEUS

  BABES IN THE JUNGLE

  BENTON SHARP MEETS HIS MATCH

  BEST-SELLER

  BETWEEN ROUNDS

  BEXAR SCRIP NO. 2692

  BLIND MAN’S HOLIDAY

  BRICKDUST ROW

  BULGER’S FRIEND

  BURIED TREASURE

  BY COURIER

  CALLOWAY’S CODE

  CAUGHT

  CHERCHEZ LA FEMME

  CHRISTMAS BY INJUNCTION

  COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON

  CONFESSIONS OF A HUMORIST

  CONSCIENCE IN ART

  CUPID A LA CARTE

  CUPID’S EXILE NUMBER TWO

  DICKY

  DOUGHERTY’S EYE-OPENER

  ELSIE IN NEW YORK

  EXTRADITED FROM BOHEMIA

  FICKLE FORTUNE OR HOW GLADYS HUSTLED

  FOX-IN-THE-MORNING

  FRIENDS IN SAN ROSARIO

  FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY

  FROM THE CABBY’S SEAT

  GEORGIA’S RULING

  GIRL

  HE ALSO SERVES

  HEARTS AND CROSSES

  HEARTS AND HANDS

  HELPING THE OTHER FELLOW

  HOLDING UP A TRAIN

  HOSTAGES TO MOMUS

  HYGEIA AT THE SOLITO

  INNOCENTS OF BROADWAY

  JEFF PETERS AS A PERSONAL MAGNET

  JIMMY HAYES AND MURIEL

  LAW AND ORDER

  LET ME FEEL YOUR PULSE

  LITTLE SPECK IN GARNERED FRUIT

  LORD OAKHURST’S CURSE

  LOST ON DRESS PARADE

  MADAME BO-PEEP, OF THE RANCHES

  MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD KIN

  MAMMON AND THE ARCHER

  MAN ABOUT TOWN

  MASTERS OF ARTS

  MEMOIRS OF A YELLOW DOG

  MODERN RURAL SPORTS

  MONEY MAZE

  NEMESIS AND THE CANDY MAN

  NEW YORK BY CAMP FIRE LIGHT

  NEXT TO READING MATTER

  NO STORY

  OCTOBER AND JUNE

  ON BEHALF OF THE MANAGEMENT

  ONE DOLLAR’S WORTH

  ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS

  OUT OF NAZARETH

  PAST ONE AT ROONEY’S

  PHŒBE

  PROOF OF THE PUDDING

  PSYCHE AND THE PSKYSCRAPER

  QUERIES AND ANSWERS

  ROADS OF DESTINY

  ROSES, RUSES AND ROMANCE

  ROUGE ET NOIR

  ROUND THE CIRCLE

  RUS IN URBE

  SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLS

  SEATS OF THE HAUGHTY

  SHEARING THE WOLF

  SHIPS

  SHOES

  SISTERS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

  SMITH

  SOCIOLOGY IN SERGE AND STRAW

  SOUND AND FURY

  SPRINGTIME À LA CARTE

  SQUARING THE CIRCLE

  STRICTLY BUSINESS

  SUITE HOMES AND THEIR ROMANCE

  SUPPLY AND DEMAND

  TELEMACHUS, FRIEND

  THE ADMIRAL

  THE ADVENTURES OF SHAMROCK JOLNES

  THE ASSESSOR OF SUCCESS

  THE ATAVISM OF JOHN TOM LITTLE BEAR

  THE BADGE OF POLICEMAN O’ROON

  THE BRIEF DÉBUT OF TILDY

  THE BUYER FROM CACTUS CITY

  THE CABALLERO’S WAY

  THE CACTUS

  THE CALIPH AND THE CAD

  THE CALIPH, CUPID AND THE CLOCK

  THE CALL OF THE TAME

  THE CHAIR OF PHILANTHROMATHEMATICS

  THE CHAMPION OF THE WEATHER

  THE CHURCH WITH AN OVERSHOT-WHEEL

  THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT

  THE CLARION CALL

  THE COMING-OUT OF MAGGIE

  THE COMPLETE LIFE OF JOHN HOPKINS

  THE COP AND THE ANTHEM

  THE COUNT AND THE WEDDING GUEST

  THE COUNTRY OF ELUSION

  THE CRUCIBLE

  THE DAY RESURGENT

  THE DAY WE CELEBRATE

  THE DEFEAT OF THE CITY

  THE DETECTIVE DETECTOR

  THE DIAMOND OF KALI

  THE DISCOUNTERS OF MONEY

  THE DOG AND THE PLAYLET

  THE DOOR OF UNREST

  THE DREAM

  THE DUEL

  THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES

  THE EASTER OF THE SOUL

  THE ELUSIVE TENDERLOIN

  THE EMANCIPATION OF BILLY

  THE ENCHANTED KISS

  THE ENCHANTED PROFILE

  THE ETHICS OF PIG

  THE EXACT SCIENCE OF MATRIMONY

  THE FERRY OF UNFULFILMENT

  THE FIFTH WHEEL

  THE FLAG PARAMOUNT

  THE FOOL-KILLER

  THE FOREIGN POLICY OF COMPANY 99

  THE FOURTH IN SALVADOR

  THE FRIENDLY CALL

  THE FURNISHED ROOM

  THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

  THE GIRL AND THE GRAFT

  THE GIRL AND THE HABIT

  THE GOLD THAT GLITTERED

  THE GREATER CONEY

  THE GREEN DOOR

  THE GUARDIAN OF THE ACCOLADE

  THE GUILTY PARTY

  THE HALBERDIER OF THE LITTLE RHEINSCHLOSS

  THE HAND THAT RILES THE WORLD

  THE HANDBOOK OF HYMEN

  THE HARBINGER

  THE HEAD-HUNTER

  THE HIDING OF BLACK BILL

  THE HIGHER ABDICATION

  THE HIGHER PRAGMATISM

  THE HYPOTHESES OF FAILURE

  THE INDIAN SUMMER OF DRY VALLEY JOHNSON

  THE LADY HIGHER UP

  THE LAST LEAF

  THE LAST OF THE TROUBADOURS

  THE LEFT BRANCH

  THE LONESOME ROAD

  THE LOST BLEND

  THE LOTUS AND THE BOTTLE

  THE LOVE-PHILTRE OF IKEY SCHOENSTEIN

  THE MAIN ROAD

  THE MAKING OF A NEW YORKER

  THE MAN HIGHER UP

  THE MARIONETTES

  THE MARQUIS AND MISS SALLY

  THE MARRY MONTH OF MAY

  THE MEMENTO

  THE MISSING CHORD

  THE MOMENT OF VICTORY

  THE OCTOPUS MAROONED

  THE ONE: A FOG IN SANTONE

  THE OTHER: A MEDLEY OF MOODS

  THE PASSING OF BLACK EAGLE

  THE PENDULUM

  THE PHONOGRAPH AND THE GRAFT

  THE PIMIENTA PANCAKES

  THE PLUTONIAN FIRE

  THE POET AND THE PEASANT

  THE PRIDE OF THE CITIES

  THE PRINCESS AND THE PUMA

  THE PRISONER OF ZEMBLA

  THE PROEM BY THE CARPENTER

  THE PURPLE DRESS

  THE RANSOM OF MACK

  THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF

  THE RATHSKELLER AND THE ROSE

  THE RED ROSES OF TONIA

  THE REFORMATION OF CALLIOPE

  THE REMNANTS OF THE CODE

  THE RENAISSANCE AT CHARLEROI

  THE RIGHT BRANCH

  THE ROADS WE TAKE

  THE ROBE OF PEACE

  THE ROMANCE OF A BUSY BROKER

  THE ROSE OF DIXIE

  THE RUBAIYAT OF A SCOTCH HIGHBALL

  THE RUBBER PLANT’S STORY

  THE SHAMROCK AND THE PALM

  THE SHOCKS OF DOOM

  THE SKYLIGHT ROOM

  THE SLEUTHS

  THE SNOW MAN

  THE SOCIAL TRIANGLE

  THE SONG AND THE SERGEANT

  THE SPARROWS IN MADISON SQUARE

  THE SPHINX APPLE

  THE STRUGGLE OF THE OUTLIERS

  THE TALE OF A TAINTED TENNER

  THE THEORY AND THE HOUND

  THE THING’S THE PLAY

  THE THIRD INGREDIENT

  THE TRIMMED LAMP

  THE UNKN
OWN QUANTITY

  THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT

  THE VENTURERS

  THE VITAGRAPHOSCOPE

  THE VOICE OF THE CITY

  THE WHIRLIGIG OF LIFE

  THE WORLD AND THE DOOR

  THIMBLE, THIMBLE

  THREE PARAGRAPHS

  TICTOCQ

  TO HIM WHO WAITS

  TOBIN’S PALM

  TOMMY’S BURGLAR

  TRACKED TO DOOM

  TRANSFORMATION OF MARTIN BURNEY

  TRANSIENTS IN ARCADIA

  TWO RECALLS

  TWO RENEGADES

  TWO THANKSGIVING DAY GENTLEMEN

  ULYSSES AND THE DOGMAN

  VANITY AND SOME SABLES

  WHAT YOU WANT

  WHILE THE AUTO WAITS

  WHISTLING DICK’S CHRISTMAS STOCKING

  WITCHES’ LOAVES

  The Poetry

  O. Henry with his wife and young daughter, 1892

  LIST OF POEMS

  THE PEWEE

  NOTHING TO SAY

  THE MURDERER

  SOME POSTSCRIPTS

  TWO PORTRAITS

  A CONTRIBUTION

  THE OLD FARM

  VANITY

  THE LULLABY BOY

  CHANSON DE BOHÊME

  HARD TO FORGET

  DROP A TEAR IN THIS SLOT

  TAMALES

  THE PEWEE

  In the hush of the drowsy afternoon,

  When the very wind on the breast of June

  Lies settled, and hot white tracery

  Of the shattered sunlight filters free

  Through the unstinted leaves to the pied cool sward;

  On a dead tree branch sings the saddest bard

  Of the birds that be;

  ’Tis the lone Pewee.

  Its note is a sob, and its note is pitched

  In a single key, like a soul bewitched

  To a mournful minstrelsy.

  “Pewee, Pewee,” doth it ever cry;

  A sad, sweet minor threnody

  That threads the aisles of the dim hot grove

  Like a tale of a wrong or a vanished love;

  And the fancy comes that the wee dun bird

  Perchance was a maid, and her heart was stirred

  By some lover’s rhyme

  In a golden time,

  And broke when the world turned false and cold;

  And her dreams grew dark and her faith grew cold

  In some fairy far-off clime.

  And her soul crept into the Pewee’s breast;

  And forever she cries with a strange unrest

  For something lost, in the afternoon;

  For something missed from the lavish June;

  For the heart that died in the long ago;

  For the livelong pain that pierceth so:

  Thus the Pewee cries,

  While the evening lies

  Steeped in the languorous still sunshine,

  Rapt, to the leaf and the bough and the vine

  Of some hopeless paradise.

  NOTHING TO SAY

  “You can tell your paper,” the great man said,

  “I refused an interview.

  I have nothing to say on the question, sir;

  Nothing to say to you.”

  And then he talked till the sun went down

  And the chickens went to roost;

  And he seized the collar of the poor young man,

  And never his hold he loosed.

  And the sun went down and the moon came up,

  And he talked till the dawn of day;

  Though he said, “On this subject mentioned by you,

  I have nothing whatever to say.”

  And down the reporter dropped to sleep

  And flat on the floor he lay;

  And the last he heard was the great man’s words,

  “I have nothing at all to say.”

  THE MURDERER

  “I push my boat among the reeds;

  I sit and stare about;

  Queer slimy things crawl through the weeds,

  Put to a sullen rout.

  I paddle under cypress trees;

  All fearfully I peer

  Through oozy channels when the breeze

  Comes rustling at my ear.

  “The long moss hangs perpetually;

  Gray scalps of buried years;

  Blue crabs steal out and stare at me,

  And seem to gauge my fears;

  I start to hear the eel swim by;

  I shudder when the crane

  Strikes at his prey; I turn to fly,

  At drops of sudden rain.

  “In every little cry of bird

  I hear a tracking shout;

  From every sodden leaf that’s stirred

  I see a face frown out;

  My soul shakes when the water rat

  Cowed by the blue snake flies;

  Black knots from tree holes glimmer at

  Me with accusive eyes.

  “Through all the murky silence rings

  A cry not born of earth;

  An endless, deep, unechoing thing

  That owns not human birth.

  I see no colors in the sky

  Save red, as blood is red;

  I pray to God to still that cry

  From pallid lips and dead.

  “One spot in all that stagnant waste

  I shun as moles shun light,

  And turn my prow to make all haste

  To fly before the night.

  A poisonous mound hid from the sun,

  Where crabs hold revelry;

  Where eels and fishes feed upon

  The Thing that once was He.

  “At night I steal along the shore;

  Within my hut I creep;

  But awful stars blink through the door,

  To hold me from my sleep.

  The river gurgles like his throat,

  In little choking coves,

  And loudly dins that phantom note

  From out the awful groves.

  “I shout with laughter through the night:

  I rage in greatest glee;

  My fears all vanish with the light

  Oh! splendid nights they be!

  I see her weep; she calls his name;

  He answers not, nor will;

  My soul with joy is all aflame;

  I laugh, and laugh, and thrill.

  “I count her teardrops as they fall;

  I flout my daytime fears;

  I mumble thanks to God for all

  These gibes and happy jeers.

  But, when the warning dawn awakes,

  Begins my wandering;

  With stealthy strokes through tangled brakes,

  A wasted, frightened thing.”

  SOME POSTSCRIPTS

  TWO PORTRAITS

  Wild hair flying, in a matted maze,

  Hand firm as iron, eyes all ablaze;

  Bystanders timidly, breathlessly gaze,

  As o’er the keno board boldly he plays.

  — That’s Texas Bill.

  Wild hair flying, in a matted maze,

  Hand firm as iron, eyes all ablaze;

  Bystanders timidly, breathlessly gaze,

  As o’er the keyboard boldly he plays.

  — That’s Paderewski.

  A CONTRIBUTION

  There came unto ye editor

  A poet, pale and wan,

  And at the table sate him down,

  A roll within his hand.

  Ye editor accepted it,

  And thanked his lucky fates;

  Ye poet had to yield it up

  To a king full on eights.

  THE OLD FARM

  Just now when the whitening blossoms flare

  On the apple trees and the growing grass

  Creeps forth, and a balm is in the air;

  With my lighted pipe and well-filled glass

  Of the old farm I am dreaming,

  And softly smiling, seeming

  To see
the bright sun beaming

  Upon the old home farm.

  And when I think how we milked the cows,

  And hauled the hay from the meadows low;

  And walked the furrows behind the plows,

  And chopped the cotton to make it grow

  I’d much rather be here dreaming

  And smiling, only seeming

  To see the hot sun gleaming

  Upon the old home farm.

  VANITY

  A Poet sang so wondrous sweet

  That toiling thousands paused and listened long;

  So lofty, strong and noble were his themes,

  It seemed that strength supernal swayed his song.

  He, god-like, chided poor, weak, weeping man,

  And bade him dry his foolish, shameful tears;

  Taught that each soul on its proud self should lean,

  And from that rampart scorn all earth-born fears.

  The Poet grovelled on a fresh heaped mound,

  Raised o’er the clay of one he’d fondly loved;

  And cursed the world, and drenched the sod with tears

  And all the flimsy mockery of his precepts proved.

  THE LULLABY BOY

  The lullaby boy to the same old tune

  Who abandons his drum and toys

  For the purpose of dying in early June

  Is the kind the public enjoys.

  But, just for a change, please sing us a song,

  Of the sore-toed boy that’s fly,

  And freckled and mean, and ugly, and bad,

  And positively will not die.

  CHANSON DE BOHÊME

  Lives of great men all remind us

  Rose is red and violet’s blue;

  Johnny’s got his gun behind us

  ‘Cause the lamb loved Mary too.

  — Robert Burns’ “Hocht Time in the aud Town.”

  I’d rather write this, as bad as it is

  Than be Will Shakespeare’s shade;

  I’d rather be known as an F. F. V.

  Than in Mount Vernon laid.

  I’d rather count ties from Denver to Troy

  Than to head Booth’s old programme;

  I’d rather be special for the New York World

  Than to lie with Abraham.

  For there’s stuff in the can, there’s Dolly and Fan,

  And a hundred things to choose;

  There’s a kiss in the ring, and every old thing

  That a real live man can use.

  I’d rather fight flies in a boarding house

  Than fill Napoleon’s grave,

  And snuggle up warm in my three slat bed

 

‹ Prev