Page:The ransom of Red Chief and other O. Henry stories for boys.djvu/15

 INTRODUCTION

, meet O. Henry! That’s the proper way, it seems to me, to begin an “Introduction” for you lads. As a teller of tales and spinner of yarns, by very many he is counted our country’s greatest short story writer. The earlier in life you get acquainted with him, the longer you will enjoy him and the fewer will be your regrets that you didn’t know him sooner. He didn’t write stories for boys, but a big bunch of them might just as well have been, and after reading the ones I have chosen, you lads are likely to develop a taste for more that will make all his stories equally easy and delightful reading.

In this selection you will find stories of the wild and woolly west. Cow-punchers, Indians, desperadoes, “greasers,” good men and bad aplenty, crowd one another on and off the page. As you read, one moment you will be thrilled and the very next, if you don’t watch xi