The Four Million (Annotated) (ePub)

The Four Million is the second published collection of short stories by O. Henry originally released in 1906. There are twenty five stories of various lengths including several of his best known works such as "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem". The book's title refers to the then population of New York City where many of the stories are set.

Jolly, conventional, and lively tales, these, dealing, as the group-title hints, with common things and common people. The author, Mr. O. Henry, has a knack of utilizing singular coincidences, and mingles the burlesque element with true bits of life and nature in a way as surprising as it is entertaining. Coney Island, the cheap boarding-house, the East Side drug-store, the park, the young couple in the cheap flat, the Clover Leaf Social Club-all these and other phases of the life of the "four million" in New York furnish curious incidents for little stories, each with its individual point, and all pervaded with genuine fun and here and there a touch of sentiment or pathos.

Includes the following short stories: Tobin's palm -- The gift of the magi -- A cosmopolite in a café -- Between rounds -- The skylight room -- A service of love -- The coming-out of Maggie -- Man about town -- The cop and the anthem -- An adjustment of nature -- Memoirs of a yellow dog -- The love-philtre of Ikey Schoenstein -- Mammon and the archer -- Springtime à la carte -- The green door -- From the cabby's seat -- An unfinished story -- The caliph, Cupid and the clock -- Sisters of the golden circle -- The romance of a busy broker -- After twenty years -- Lost on dress parade -- By courier -- The furnished room -- The brief début of Tildy.