Whirligigs. E-book. Formato PDF - 9781387079575

Whirligigs. E-book. Formato PDF. A collectior of 24 short stories: The World and the Door; The Theory and the Hound; The Hypotheses of Failure; Calloway&#39;s Code; A Matter of Mean Elevation; Girl; Sociology in Serge and Straw; The Ransom of Red Chief; The Marry Month of May; A Technical Error; Suite Homes and Their Romance; The Whirligig of Life; A Sacrifice Hit; The Roads We Take; A Blackjack Bargainer; The Song and the Sergeant; One Dollar&#39;s Worth; A Newspaper Story; Tommy&#39;s Burglar; A Chaparral Christmas Gift; A Little Local Colour; Georgia&#39;s Ruling; Blind Man&#39;s Holiday; and Madame Bo Peep of the Ranches.<br /><br /><b>THE WHIRLIGIG OF LIFE</b> (excerpt)<br /><br />Justice-of-the-Peace Benaja Widdup sat in the door of his office smoking his elder-stem pipe. Half-way to the zenith the Cumberland range rose blue-gray in the afternoon haze. A speckled hen swaggered down the main street of the &quot;settlement,&quot; cackling foolishly.<br /><br />Up the road came a sound of creaking axles, and then a slow cloud of dust, and then a bull-cart bearing Ransie Bilbro and his wife. The cart stopped at the Justice&#39;s door, and the two climbed down. Ransie was a narrow six feet of sallow brown skin and yellow hair. The imperturbability of the mountains hung upon him like a suit of armour. The woman was calicoed, angled, snuff-brushed, and weary with unknown desires. Through it all gleamed a faint protest of cheated youth unconscious of its loss.<br /><br />The Justice of the Peace slipped his feet into his shoes, for the sake of dignity, and moved to let them enter.<br /><br />&quot;We-all,&quot; said the woman, in a voice like the wind blowing through pine boughs, &quot;wants a divo&#39;ce.&quot; She looked at Ransie to see if he noted any flaw or ambiguity or evasion or partiality or self-partisanship in her statement of their business.<br /><br />&quot;A divo&#39;ce,&quot; repeated Ransie, with a solemn nod. &quot;We-all can&#39;t git along together nohow. It&#39;s lonesome enough fur to live in the mount&#39;ins when a man and a woman keers fur one another. But when she&#39;s a-spittin&#39; like a wildcat or a-sullenin&#39; like a hoot-owl in the cabin, a man ain&#39;t got no call to live with her.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;When he&#39;s a no-&#39;count varmint,&quot; said the woman, &quot;without any especial warmth, a-traipsin&#39; along of scalawags and moonshiners and a-layin&#39; on his back pizen &#39;ith co&#39;n whiskey, and a-pesterin&#39; folks with a pack o&#39; hungry, triflin&#39; houn&#39;s to feed!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;When she keeps a-throwin&#39; skillet lids,&quot; came Ransie&#39;s antiphony, &quot;and slings b&#39;ilin&#39; water on the best coon-dog in the Cumberlands, and sets herself agin&#39; cookin&#39; a man&#39;s victuals, and keeps him awake o&#39; nights accusin&#39; him of a sight of doin&#39;s!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;When he&#39;s al&#39;ays a-fightin&#39; the revenues, and gits a hard name in the mount&#39;ins fur a mean man, who&#39;s gwine to be able fur to sleep o&#39; nights?&quot;<br /><br />The Justice of the Peace stirred deliberately to his duties. He placed his one chair and a wooden stool for his petitioners. He opened his book of statutes on the table and scanned the index. Presently he wiped his spectacles and shifted his inkstand...<br /><br /><b>William Sydney Porter</b> (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. O. Henry&#39;s short stories are known for their surprise endings.<br /><br />He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898.