First Outside Reading

This week I read a short story from the September/October issue of Cicada magazine, one of my favorite literary magazines for teens. The story I read was called The Champion of the Weather by O. Henry. In this story, a group of men are on a hunting/camping trip. Their guide, a man named Bud Kingsbury, has a talent for guessing someone's entire life and backround from just a simple conversation with them. When one of the men say to him, "Nice night," he knows instantly that the man is from New York. Bud then tells the group a story of how no one in New York is decent enough to have an intire conversation with him; they'll just say things like, "nice day" or "nice night" and won't elaborate. In Bud's story, he mentions that he even cornered the owner of a café for doing this and almost threatened him with a gun because the owner would't talk to him past those two words. After hearing this story, the man on the camping trip says to Bud, "As I say, Mr. Kingsbury, there is something really beautiful about this night. The delightful breeze and the bright stars and the clear air unite in making it wonderfully attractive..." and Bud answeres him, "Yes, it's a nice night."

I found this story particularily interesting because I'm not sure what to think of the ending. It's very O. Henry to end the story in a way you wouldn't expect, but this ending really just seems to make Bud's character confusing. Why is he saying this? It might be because he wants to show the camping trip man that he respects him more than he respected the man in the café. It could also be because Bud knows he's sort of a smart alec and is showing it off. I think O. Henry's point though is just that Bud is a very interesting, unpredictable character. Still, this ending seemed sort of cliché and not O. Henry's best. Despite the ending, however, the story was very well written and I definately enjoyed it.