Short Fiction by O. Henry

An X-Ray Fable

Words you’ll meet in this part (8)
fable
A short story, often with animals as characters, conveying a moral lesson.
cathode
The negatively charged electrode in a device like a battery or diode.
maid
A female domestic servant who cleans and maintains a household.
ruth
Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone.
neglected
Failed to care for properly.
abiding
Continuing without change; enduring.
enamored
Filled with love or admiration.
proprietor
The owner of a business or property.

Short Fiction by O. Henry 8 new words

An X-Ray

And it came to pass that a man with a Ray went about the country finding out and showing the people, for a consideration, the insides of folks’ heads and what they were thinking about. And he never made a mistake.

And in a certain town lived a man whose name was Reuben and a whose name was . And the two were sweethearts and were soon to be married.

And Reuben came to the man and hired him with coin to take a snap shot at ’s head, and find out whom she truly loved.

And later on Ruth came and also hired the man to find out whom Reuben truly loved. And the man did so and got two good negatives.

In the meantime Reuben and Ruth confessed to each other what they had done, and the next day they came together, hand in hand, to the man with the Ray, for their answer. The man saw them, and he wrote two names on two slips of paper and gave them into their hands.

“On these slips of paper,” he said, “you will find the name of the one whom each of you loves best in the world, as truly discovered by my wonderful Cathode Ray.”

And the man and the maid opened the pieces of paper and saw written on one “Reuben” and on the other “Ruth,” and they were filled with joy and happiness, and went away with arms about each other’s waists.

But the man with the Ray to mention the fact that the photographs he had taken showed that Reuben’s head was full of deep and love for Reuben and Ruth’s showed her to be passionately of Ruth.

The moral is that the of the Ray probably knew his business.

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