Page 9 - The English Carnival 7

The

1. 1. The Ransom

Ransom
of Red Chief UNIT-1 THEME : WIT AND WHIMSICAL
of Red Chief

Be Ready!

The Ransom of Red Chief is a fine example of O. Henry’s use of irony. It

was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1902. Bill and Sam
sure didn’t anticipate the lesson they learned, “Crime sure doesn’t pay!” In
fact, it’ll cost you plenty.

Read and Understand

OIt looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South,
in Alabama--Bill Driscoll and myself-when this kidnapping idea struck us. It
was, as Bill afterward expressed it, “during a moment of temporary mental
apparition”; but we didn’t find that out till later.

There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of
course. It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class of

peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.

What you Think?ou Think?
What y
How much money was
needed by Bill and
Sam and for what ?

7
The English Carnival–8