A Divine Gesture
Ernest HemingwayIn a garden cluttered with bathtubs and boot jacks, a very busy God tries to keep order.
3 min · Humorous
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Banal Story
Ernest HemingwayA writer reads a magazine’s promises of Romance while, far away, a famous bullfighter dies and is reduced to souvenir pictures.
3 min · Humorous
Che Ti Dice La Patria?
Ernest HemingwayA road trip through Italy becomes a tour of suspicious officials, theatrical hospitality, and the small absurdities of a country under Fascism.
15 min · Humorous
Mr. and Mrs. Elliot
Ernest HemingwayA young Harvard poet and his older bride cross the Atlantic determined to begin a perfect marriage, but Europe has other distractions.
7 min · Humorous
Out of Season
Ernest HemingwayA young couple follows a drunken local guide out of Cortina for an illegal trout-fishing trip that keeps slipping further out of reach.
10 min · Humorous
A Municipal Report
O. HenryA traveling journalist arrives in supposedly uneventful Nashville and discovers that its quiet streets conceal tangled loyalties and danger.
28 min · Humorous
Conscience in Art
O. HenryTwo veteran swindlers target a Pittsburgh millionaire’s passion for antiquities, while one partner tries to keep his conscience intact.
10 min · Humorous
Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet
O. HenryA traveling medicine seller uses personal magnetism to outwit a town's mayor, its doctor, and the law itself.
11 min · Humorous
Mammon and the Archer
O. HenryA millionaire father bets that money can solve his son's romantic dilemma, while the young lover searches for one uninterrupted moment.
11 min · Romantic
Memoirs of a Yellow Dog
O. HenryA yellow dog surveys his unhappy New York home and decides that he and his henpecked master both deserve a better life.
8 min · Humorous
The Coming-Out of Maggie
O. HenryA shy paper-box worker arrives at her Saturday dance with a glamorous escort and suddenly becomes the center of attention.
11 min · Humorous
The Cop and the Anthem
O. HenryA homeless New Yorker tries every trick he can think of to secure a warm winter bed behind bars.
10 min · Humorous
The Count and the Wedding Guest
O. HenryA boarder in mourning attracts a would-be suitor with a tale of a dead count, but wedding plans bring other secrets to light.
11 min · Humorous
The Ethics of Pig
O. HenryA traveling swindler recruits a mountain hog thief, only to discover that even a comic partnership has its own ethics.
16 min · Humorous
The Handbook of Hymen
O. HenryTwo snowbound prospectors educate themselves with very different books, then put their new knowledge to work in a small Montana town.
20 min · Humorous
The Hiding of Black Bill
O. HenryA talkative sheepherder takes a job on a lonely Texas ranch where a notorious train robber may be hiding nearby.
21 min · Suspenseful
The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein
O. HenryA timid pharmacist helps his rival elope with the woman they both love by preparing a very questionable love potion.
8 min · Humorous
The Man Higher Up
O. HenryJeff Peters explains the ethics of graft after teaming up with a burglar and a ruined financier in a town with one tempting bank.
23 min · Humorous
The Octopus Marooned
O. HenryTwo confidence men corner a flood-bound town, but their monopoly faces an unexpected challenge from inside the partnership.
12 min · Humorous
The Pendulum
O. HenryWhen his wife unexpectedly leaves for the night, a bored husband discovers how much of his ordinary life he has taken for granted.
8 min · Humorous
The Pimienta Pancakes
O. HenryA sidelined cowboy asks his camp cook for pancakes and hears the wild story of a recipe, a romance, and a very successful deception.
17 min · Humorous
The Ransom of Red Chief
O. HenryTwo bungling kidnappers discover that their captive is far more trouble than the ransom is worth.
19 min · Humorous
The Romance of a Busy Broker
O. HenryA relentlessly busy Wall Street broker finally pauses long enough to make a romantic gesture to his quiet stenographer.
6 min · Humorous
The Whirligig of Life
O. HenryA mountain couple arrives at a makeshift court demanding a divorce, only to discover that separation may be harder than marriage.
10 min · Humorous