Page:The ransom of Red Chief and other O. Henry stories for boys.djvu/16

 out, you will find yourself laughing so loudly you’ll have to tell “what’s the joke.”

Above all, you boys demand the surprise, or unexpected happening in or at the end of the story. That’s why you like detective stories so well. Run your eye down the table of contents and there greets you a goodly number of these, such as only O. Henry could write. Here again you will find the thrill, and again the rollicking fun to make you laugh. I promise you that, unless it be you are unlike other boys I know.

I might describe individual stories. But why should I? When the titles don’t tell their own stories they so provoke your curiosity you want yourself to read the story; to tell you about it would be in part to spoil it. You want to find out for yourself what “One Dollar’s Worth” is all about. And you know, of course, that “The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes” is full of laughs, as must be “The Ransom of Red Chief.”

There’s another fine thing about it, too. Here’s a book where it doesn’t matter much whether you begin at the beginning or in the middle or at the end, it’s all the same—you are bound to be immensely pleased. So, good