A famous American short
story writer William Sydney Porter
is known to the literary world as O.
Henry.
When he was 22, he moved to New York and published over three hundred short
stories under the pen name of O.
Henry. His short stories are marked with realistic details culminated with
effective surprising endings.
“Springtime” is a beautiful romantic love story between Sarah, a
typist at a restaurant in New York and Walter Franklin, a farmer in the
country. Sarah, a beautiful young lady with fine figure working as a typist in Schulenberg Home Restaurant.
It was just next door to the red-brick building where she had a living room.
Sarah has to type menu cards and bills of fare every day for 21 tables of
Schulenberg Home Restaurant.
Sarah, an intelligent
young lady, chose to work on a typewriter. Though she did not type very quickly
yet she did her work skillfully and pleasantly. Mr. Schulenberg was delighted
at her work and willingly agreed to send her room three meals a day. Sarah had
to prepare menu cards for 21 tables of the restaurant every day. She listed the dishes so temptingly in each
of the menu to catch the eye of the costumer. However, she did not feel quite
happy despite her comfortable life.
In the summer of the last
year, Sarah had gone into the country and had fallen in love with a young
farmer, Walter Franklin. Together they sat and wove a crown of dandelions to
her nut brown hair. He praised the effect of those yellow flowers against to
her nut brown hair. They decided to marry at the very signs of the next spring.
Sarah returned to New
York to hit the typewriter. One afternoon she was shaking with cold in her
room. A waiter came to her and handed the list of the menu written in
unreadable hand writing. There were many changes in the menu than usual. She
classified all dishes properly. When she was typing the list of fruits she
reminded the arrival of the spring. Tears welled up in her eyes by remembering
her lover, Walter. She had not received any letter from him for more than two
weeks. The lonely time proves to be depressing for Sarah. The memories of
Walter tormenting her ceaselessly.
One-day, as Sarah began
her typing work for the day, one item among the list of menu that read
Dandelions with Eggs. This upset her as
she remembered Walter’s offer of the crown made of dandelions. Immediately
tears welled up in her eyes by the memory of dandelions. Sarah tried to force
back her tears to type the menu cards.
At six O’clock the waiter
brought her dinner and carried away the typewritten menu. She ate her food
sadly and after a while she sat for reading. As settled down for reading the
front-door bell rang. The landlady answered it. Sarah left her book and
listened. The farmer Walter Franklin had come there in search of Sarah. Listening to this Sarah rushed to meet him
and cried “Why haven’t you written?”
Franklin had come to New
York a week ago and went to her old address. But she had left that house. He
searched for her. She told him that she had written to him but that had not
reached him. In the course of his search for her he had somehow come to the
restaurant that evening. When he saw the typewritten menu-card, he observed
certain clues in it and instantly he shouted for the owner and got her address.
The capital letter ‘W’ in
the menu card was above the line. In the upper right-hand corner a tear had
fallen between two titles of dishes on the list was description: ‘Dearest
Walter, with hard-boiled Egg’. It was the surest sign that the lovelorn Sarah
had typed it. Through the owner’s help, he lands in Sarah’s room. For Sarah and
Walter, it is a God-sent gift.
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