Match the Synopsis: The Tales of O Henry (2) Quiz

Answer: 'Springtime à la Carte'

Sarah has a job typing daily menus for Schulenberg's Home Restaurant, as the proprietor's handwritten menus are illegible. In return, she gets free food from the restaurant. The summer before, she had fallen in love with Walter, a farmer, who she associates with dandelions because he made a flower crown of dandelions for her.

When Sarah has to type a menu featuring an egg dish with dandelions, it reminds her of Walter and makes her cry. Walter comes to visit her unexpectedly after finally managing to track her down.

He reveals that he found her by going to Schulenberg's for a meal and finding a tearstained menu containing the words 'Dearest Walter, with hard-boiled egg'; Sarah had typed his name when she meant to type 'dandelions'.

Answer: 'From the Cabby's Seat'

Jerry O'Donovan is a cab driver working in New York City. He parks his cab outside McGary's Family Cafe where the wedding of Norah Walsh is taking place, and gets drunk. A woman gets into his cab and asks him to take her anywhere he pleases, and he goes for a drive through a park, then drops her off at a casino temporarily.

When he asks her for payment, she is unable to pay, so he takes her to a police station and is about to report her when he suddenly remembers that the woman is his wife - she is Norah Walsh, and he is the one who married her.

Answer: 'An Unfinished Story'

The narrator of the story dreams that he is in heaven and encounters an angel policeman, who asks if he is with a group of well-dressed men nearby. The perspective then switches to the tale of Dulcie, a woman who works in a department store and lives in a small furnished room, with little to eat. 'Piggy' Wiggins, a repulsive rich man, is due to take her on a date; he is well known among Dulcie's colleagues for taking women to expensive places.

When Piggy calls for Dulcie, she has a fit of conscience and pretends to be ill, but it is implied that Piggy approaches her again and she ends up going out with him out of loneliness and desperation. We then cut back to the scene in heaven, where the angel policeman reveals that the group of well-dressed men are men who hire poor women like Dulcie and pay them a pittance.

The narrator is disgusted to be associated with them, and says that he only burned down an orphanage and robbed and murdered a blind man.

Answer: 'Sisters of the Golden Circle'

James and Hattie Williams are a newlywed couple on a sightseeing tour, sitting on the top deck of the bus. Hattie talks to the woman in front, who is also with her husband. When they see two policemen, the woman's husband gets off the bus and runs away, and the policemen stop the bus, saying that they are looking for a burglar called Pinky McGuire.

The officers arrest James and he is amused at first, but when Hattie pretends that he is Pinky, he resists arrest and extra police have to be called. Hattie and her uncle arrive at the station to prove his innocence and the police discharge him. Hattie explains that the woman in front was the real Pinky's wife and that they had just gotten married that morning. Hattie was so happy about her own marriage that she wanted the other woman to be happy as well and let her husband get away. (The 'golden circle' in this case is a wedding ring.)

Answer: 'The Romance of a Busy Broker'

Harvey Maxwell is a New York broker whose mind is focused on his job at the expense of everything else. Miss Leslie is his typist and Pitcher, the clerk, tells her that Maxwell has asked him to hire another typist. However, when a candidate does turn up, Maxwell denies requesting a new typist and says that he would rather keep Miss Leslie because she is so good at her job. Maxwell proposes to Miss Leslie and confesses his love for her, only for Miss Leslie to remind him that they got married the night before.

Answer: 'The Furnished Room'

Mrs McCool owns a seedy house in the lower West Side, with a steady flow of tenants coming in and out. A young man enquires about a room and she shows him a room on the third floor, claiming it previously belonged to a vaudeville couple. The man asks if a singer called Eloise Vashner had been there at any time, and mentions she had a distinctive mole near her eyebrow. Mrs McCool denies it, but the man takes the room and smells a familiar perfume.

He believes that Eloise has been in the room and searches the room from top to bottom for any further clues, but when he asks Mrs McCool again who was in the room before, she repeats that it was a Miss B'retta Sprowls and her husband, and gives a description which does not match Eloise's description.

The man shuts himself in the room and gasses himself to death. Mrs McCool later goes for a drink with another landlady, Mrs Purdy, and tells her about the room. Mrs Purdy asks if Mrs McCool had told him about what had happened in the room, and the conversation between them reveals that the previous tenant had committed suicide in the same way - and she was the very same woman the man had been looking for.

Answer: 'The Brief Debut of Tildy'

Tildy is a plain-faced waitress in Bogle's Chop House, a cheap restaurant. While Aileen, her pretty colleague, is popular with male customers and constantly flirts with them, and they give her presents, they tend to ignore Tildy. One day Aileen comes in with a black eye, which she got from a man who would not leave her alone, and Tildy is jealous. One of the regulars, a shy man called Mr Seeders, comes into the restaurant drunk and kisses Tildy. Tildy tells everyone that a customer had kissed her and Bogle, her boss, increases her pay. Tildy starts paying more attention to her appearance in the hope that Mr Seeders will come again, but when he does come back, he apologises to Tildy for kissing her. Tildy is devastated and Aileen consoles her, saying he could not have been much of a gentleman if he apologised.

Answer: 'Hearts & Crosses'

Webb Yaeger is a cowboy whose wife, Santa, has inherited Nopalito, her father's ranch, and runs the business side of the ranch. Webb recalls that Santa's father disapproved of their relationship, so she would send him a secret message by drawing a special sign on goods coming from Nopalito - a heart with a cross in the middle.

Her father finally relented when she fell ill and begged to see Webb. Goaded by his friend Baldy Woods, Webb tries to undermine Santa's authority and eventually moves to another ranch, Rancho Seco, where he becomes ranch manager.

He sends an order for Sussex cattle to Nopalito and Santa responds by lassoing and branding a distinctive white cow among the herd to be sent to Rancho Seco. Webb returns home and apologises to Santa, and Santa reveals that she has given birth to a son who will inherit the ranch from her.

The new Rancho Seco manager notes that the white heifer he received from Nopalito has a distinctive brand: a heart with a cross inside it.

Answer: 'Telemachus, Friend'

The narrator asks Telemachus Hicks, the owner of the hotel where he is staying, how he injured his left ear. Telemachus tells him the story: he once had a friend, Paisley Fish, and the two were inseparable. Telemachus and Paisley travel to the town of Los Piños and meet a widow, Mrs Jessup, who owns an eating-house. Both men fall in love with her and resolve to make her theirs.

They decide to both court her at the same time and she goes along with it; Telemachus cannot do anything without consulting Paisley, and Mrs Jessup is impressed by his loyalty and falls in love with him.

She tells Paisley to go away but Telemachus insists that he stay and invites him to the wedding. When Mrs Jessup, now Mrs Hicks, calls Telemachus in, Telemachus insists on waiting for Paisley - and Mrs Hicks whacks him with a broomstick and injures his ear.

Answer: 'The Handbook of Hymen'

Sanderson Pratt, the narrator, and his friend Idaho Green are prospecting in the mountains and living in a cabin when winter sets in and they are snowed in. They begin to get on each other's nerves and are so bored that when Idaho knocks two books off a shelf, they gamble over the books and choose one each. Sanderson's book is a compendium of random facts, 'Herkimer's Handbook of Indispensable Information', while Idaho's book is 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' (or 'Homer KM', as Idaho calls him). Both men strike gold in spring and go to the nearby town of Rosa for a break, where they meet a widow, Mrs De Ormond Sampson. Sanderson dances with her and then wins her heart by reciting facts from his book but when Idaho reads to her from the 'Rubaiyat', she finds it offensive. Mrs Sampson's house catches fire and Sanderson consults his book for advice, and finds out that flaxseeds can help people recover from smoke inhalation.

He rescues Mrs Sampson and puts flaxseeds in her eyes, and although the doctor tells him that he skipped a page, Mrs Sampson insists that the flaxseeds worked.

She and Sanderson get married and the handbook takes pride of place on their coffee table. (Note: Hymen is the Greek god of weddings.)