Whirligigs

Оглавление

O Henry. Whirligigs

I. THE WORLD AND THE DOOR

II. THE THEORY AND THE HOUND

III. THE HYPOTHESES OF FAILURE

IV. CALLOWAY'S CODE

V. A MATTER OF MEAN ELEVATION

VI "GIRL"

VII. SOCIOLOGY IN SERGE AND STRAW

VIII. THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF

IX. THE MARRY MONTH OF MAY

X. A TECHNICAL ERROR

XI. SUITE HOMES AND THEIR ROMANCE

XII. THE WHIRLIGIG OF LIFE

XIII. A SACRIFICE HIT

XIV. THE ROADS WE TAKE

XV. A BLACKJACK BARGAINER

XVI. THE SONG AND THE SERGEANT

XVII. ONE DOLLAR'S WORTH

XVIII. A NEWSPAPER STORY

XIX. TOMMY'S BURGLAR

XX. A CHAPARRAL CHRISTMAS GIFT

XXI. A LITTLE LOCAL COLOUR

XXII. GEORGIA'S RULING

XXIII. BLIND MAN'S HOLIDAY

XXIV. MADAME BO-PEEP, OF THE RANCHES

Отрывок из книги

Not many days ago my old friend from the tropics, J. P. Bridger, United States consul on the island of Ratona, was in the city. We had wassail and jubilee and saw the Flatiron building, and missed seeing the Bronxless menagerie by about a couple of nights. And then, at the ebb tide, we were walking up a street that parallels and parodies Broadway.

A woman with a comely and mundane countenance passed us, holding in leash a wheezing, vicious, waddling, brute of a yellow pug. The dog entangled himself with Bridger's legs and mumbled his ankles in a snarling, peevish, sulky bite. Bridger, with a happy smile, kicked the breath out of the brute; the woman showered us with a quick rain of well-conceived adjectives that left us in no doubt as to our place in her opinion, and we passed on. Ten yards farther an old woman with disordered white hair and her bankbook tucked well hidden beneath her tattered shawl begged. Bridger stopped and disinterred for her a quarter from his holiday waistcoat.

.....

"My dear Mr. Plunkett," cried Morgan, conquering his mirth, "the dinner is getting, cold. Let us sit down and eat. I am anxious to get my spoon into that shark-fin soup. Business afterward."

"Sit down, gentlemen, if you please," added Reeves, pleasantly. "I am sure Mr. Plunkett will not object. Perhaps a little time may be of advantage to him in identifying – the gentleman he wishes to arrest."

.....