'The Four Million' Summary

An impoverished but loving young couple sacrifices their most precious possessions to buy Christmas gifts for each other. A tramp who is desperate to be sent to prison so he can escape the winter cold. Two depressed laborers get their palms read by a Coney Island mountebank. A yellow dog who relates the story of a fat lady and her hen pecked husband. These and other unforgettable characters form part of absolutely delightful and unforgettable short story collection, The Four Million by O Henry.

As the master of the “twist in the tail/tale” and the completely unexpected endings, O. Henry is unrivaled. His penchant for word-play, creating utterly charming characters, the deep humanism and romance portrayed in his stories make him one of the most read and loved short story writers. In fact, he has almost appropriated the genre and no classic anthology of English language short stories is considered complete without an O. Henry story.