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"Haven't you got anything else to eat with it?"

The young man considered briefly. "No," he confessed; "there's not another scrap of anything in my diggings to eat. I think old Jack is pretty hard up for grub in his shack, too. He hated to give up the onion, but I worried him into parting with it."

"Man," said Hetty, fixing him with' her world-sapient eyes, and laying a bony but impressive finger on his sleeve, "you've known trouble, too, haven't you?"

"Lots," said the onion owner, promptly. "But this onion is my own property, honestly come by. If you will excuse me, I must be going."

"Listen," said Hetty, paling a little 20 with anxiety. "Raw onion is a mighty poor diet. And so is a beef-stew without one. Now, if you're Jack Bevens's friend, I guess you're nearly right. There's a little lady-a friend of mine -in my room there at the end of the hall. Both of us are out of luck; and we had just potatoes and meat between us. They're stewing now. But it ain't got any soul. There's 30 something lacking to it. There's certain things in life that are naturally intended to fit and belong together. One is pink cheese-cloth and green roses, and one is ham and eggs, and one is Irish and trouble. And the other one is beef and potatoes with onions. And still another one is people who are up against it and other people in the same fix."

Don't eat raw onions. Chip it in toward the dinner and line yourself 50 inside with the best stew you ever licked a spoon over. Must two ladies knock a young gentleman down and drag him inside for the honor of dining with 'em? No harm shall befall you, Little Brother. Loosen up and fall into line."

The young man's pale face relaxed into a grin.

"Believe I'll go you," he said, 60 brightening. "If my onion is good as a credential, I'll accept the invitation gladly."

"It's good as that, but better as seasoning," said Hetty. "You come and stand outside the door till I ask my lady friend if she has any objections. And don't run away with that letter of recommendation before I come out."

Hetty went into her room and closed the door. The young man waited outside.

"Cecilia, kid," said the shop-girl, oiling the sharp saw of her voice as well as she could, "there's an onion. outside. With a young man attached. I've asked him in to dinner. You ain't going to kick, are you?”

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"Oh, dear!" said Cecilia, sitting up 80 and patting her artistic hair. She cast a mournful glance at the ferryboat poster on the wall.

"Nit," said Hetty. "It ain't him. You're up against real life now. I believe you said your hero friend had money and automobiles. This is a poor skeezicks that's got nothing to eat but an onion. But he's easyspoken and not a freshy. I imagine 90 he's been a gentleman, he's so low down now. And we need the onion. Shall I bring him in? I'll guarantee his behavior."

"Hetty, dear," sighed Cecilia, "I'm so hungry. What difference does it make whether he's a prince or a

burglar? I don't care. Bring him in if he's got anything to eat with him." Hetty went back into the hall. The onion man was gone. Her heart missed a beat, and a gray look settled over her face except on her nose and cheek-bones. And then the tides of life flowed in again, for she saw him leaning out of the front window at 10 the other end of the hall. She hurried there. He was shouting to someone below. The noise of the street overpowered the sound of her footsteps. She looked down over his shoulder, saw whom he was speaking to, and heard his words. He pulled himself in from the window-sill and saw her standing over him.

Hetty's eyes bored into him like 20 two steel gimlets.

"Don't lie to me," she said, calmly. "What were you going to do with that onion?"

The young man suppressed a cough and faced her resolutely. His manner was that of one who had been bearded sufficiently.

"I was going to eat it," said he, with emphatic slowness; "just as I 30 told you before."

"And you have nothing else to eat at home?"

"Not a thing."

"What kind of work do you do?" "I am not working at anything just now."

"Then why," said Hetty, with her voice set on its sharpest edge, "do you lean out of windows and give 40 orders to chauffeurs in green automobiles in the street below?"

The young man flushed, and his dull eyes began to sparkle.

"Because, madam," said he, in accelerando tones, "I pay the chauffeur's wages and I own the automobile— and also this onion-this onion, madam." He flourished the onion with44. accelerando, growing constantly faster and louder.

in an inch of Hetty's nose. The shoplady did not retreat a hair's-breadth. 50 "Then why do you eat onions," she said, with biting contempt, "and nothing else?"

"I never said I did," retorted the young man, heatedly. "I said I had nothing else to eat where I live. I am not a delicatessen storekeeper."

"Then why," pursued Hetty, inflexibly, "were you going to eat a raw onion?"

"My mother," said the young man, "always made me eat one for a cold. Pardon my referring to a physical infirmity; but you may have noticed that I have a very, very severe cold. I was going to eat the onion and go to bed. I wonder why I am standing here and apologizing to you for it."

"How did you catch this cold?" went on Hetty, suspiciously.

The young man seemed to have arrived at some extreme height of feeling. There were two modes of descent open to him-a burst of rage or a surrender to the ridiculous. He chose wisely; and the empty hall echoed his hoarse laughter.

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EXPLANATORY NOTES

1. The idea that interesting events and characters are found only in far-away lands is dispelled in the stories written by William Sidney Porter (1867-1910), who used the penname O. Henry. A varied experience with all kinds of fortunes, persons, places, ranging from small towns of the South, across ranches and forests of Central America, back to the crowded streets of New York, made him believe that romance-the themes from which great stories are extracted-lies exactly where the writer happens to be. In one story, "The Best Seller," in the volume entitled Options, he definitely propounds this theory of the fascination of the present and the ordinary. If you read it you will have a perfect illustration of this principle of getting material for short stories.

2. When O. Henry wrote he did not keep his eyes on books or other authors; he kept his eyes on people. Interesting persons are about us continually. In New York there are so many that O. Henry called one of his books The Four Million. He talked to chance acquaintances on park benches, to riders in the cars, to loungers in the streets. He absorbed the lives of individuals which he then recombined and retold for his appreciative readers. As his characters talk, they make you feel their reality. Many of his stories are short. Nearly every one is alive with the humor of quaint, appealing characterization. Exactly as in life, pathos lies close to humor, sadness to joy. And as in real life the conclusion of an incident, the solution of a problem, arrives suddenly, so in his stories, the conclusions are often surprises, unexpected yet perfectly logical.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. How does the word treatise suggest humor in this story? Why is the scene of the story interesting? Why did O. Henry choose such a place? Why does he speak of Hetty's biography as "thumb-nail"? Cite several other unusual uses of words. Why had Hetty been employed? Was the reason a good one? Why did the author not tell of her wages? Do you

like Hetty? Why? Show how repetition is skillfully used. Why are you not told what the "other four cents" would have done? Does this arouse interest?

2. What is meant by Who's What? What comparison between real artisans and artists did Hetty make in her own mind? Did Hetty know much? Explain your answer. How can you justify the author's use of slang and racy speech? Why is the picture of a ferryboat hung in Hetty's room? Does its effect mystify you for a while? Did the author intend this? Is the attempted suicide well told? Is there any detail which seems more like the cleverness of the author than the natural manner of speaking of the artist? 3. What word did Hetty think salvage was? Show how the author makes the conversation of the two girls humorous. What does he mean by saying that Hetty had cast off the rôles of Job and Little-Red-Riding-Hood?

4. Why was the young man carrying an onion? Did you feel at first that this coincidence was beyond belief? What was Hetty's opinion of the author upstairs? Why was the young man so affected by Hetty's declaration of what various things belong together? Which detail surprised you most? Did you feel a temporary disappointment? Tell how the facts are disclosed to Hetty. Why does so little come out at a time? What did Hetty's last remark mean? Is a man with a cold in his head a romantic hero?

5. Where did you begin to see the end of the story? What gave you the clue? Did you like the ending? Would you prefer to have the author tell of the meeting in Hetty's room? Which is the more artistic ending? Who is really the most important character in the story? Whom do you like most? How does the author make you feel thus?

Why?

Theme Topic. Discuss this comment: "O. Henry's stories are usually romantic, but his settings and treatment are realistic." In your discussion indicate elements from this story as romantic or realistic.

Library Reading. Other O. Henry stories from Options or The Four Million.