ged
that he was afraid that he would be convicted, so he fled to Central
America. After a year there, he heard that his wife's health was
failing, and returned to Austin to give himself up. He was found guilty,
and sentenced to five years in the Ohio penitentiary. His wife died
before the trial. His time in prison was shortened by good behavior to a
little more than three years, ending in 1901. He wrote a number of
stories during this time, sending them to friends who in turn mailed
them to publishers. The editor of _Ainslie's Magazine_ had printed
several of them and in 1902 he wrote to O. Henry urging him to come to
New York, and offering him a hundred dollars apiece for a dozen stories.
He came, and from that time made New York his home, becoming very fond
of Little Old-Bagdad-on-the-Subway as he called it.

He had found the work which he wished to do, and he turned out stories
very rapidly. These were first published in newspapers and magazines,
then collected in book form. The first of these volumes, _Cabbages and
Kings_, had Central America as its setting. He said that while there he
had knocked around chiefly with refugees and consuls. _The Four Million_
was a group of stories of New York; it contained some of his best tales,
such as "The Gift of the Magi," and "An Unfinished Story." _The Trimmed
Lamp_ and _The Voice of the City_ also dealt with New York. _The Gentle
Grafter_ was a collection of stories about confidence men and "crooks."
The material for these narratives he had gathered from his companions in
his prison days. _Heart of the West_ reflects his days on a Texas
ranch. Other books, more or less miscellaneous in their locality, are
_Roads of Destiny_, _Options_, _Strictly Business_, _Whirligigs_; and
_Sixes and Sevens_. He died in New York, June 5, 1910. After his death a
volume containing some of his earliest work was published under the
title _Rolling Stones_.

His choice of subjects is thus indicated in the preface to _The Four
Million_:

"Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only
'Four Hundred' people in New York who were really worth noticing. But a
wiser man has arisen--the census taker--and his larger estimate of human
interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little
stories of the 'Four Million.'"

It was the common man,--the clerk, the bartender, the policeman, the
waiter, the tramp, that O. Henry chose for his characters. He loved to
talk