- O'Henry's famous story is set in the early 1900s, in and around New York City.
- Meet Soapy (That's right. Just Soapy.), the hero of our story. Soapy is sitting on a bench in Madison Square Park when a dead leaf falls on him.
- Uh oh. Winter is coming and winter means cold. Some people go south for the winter, but Soapy isn't that big on traveling.
- All he wants is to spend three months at Blackwell's Island, just like he's done for several winters.
- (Soapy is homeless. He wants to spend the winter in the penitentiary on the Island to avoid the cold. Read the fascinating history of Blackwell's Island here and be sure to click on the links to the pictures.)
- Soapy doesn't really like to take charity because when people give him things, they think that gives them the right to invade his privacy. In jail, they lock you up, but they don't "meddle unduly with a gentleman's private affairs" (5).
- Now it's time for Soapy to try to get tossed in jail:
- Plan A: First, Soapy goes to a fancy restaurant on Broadway Avenue. He looks good from the waist up, but his pants and shoes have seen better days.
- If he can get to the table before the waiter sees his pants, he can order a fancy dinner and gobble it up. When he can't pay, the cops will be called and he'll be off to the Island.
- Soapy never makes it to the table. The head waiter sees his pants and shoes and knows just what he's up to.
- Plan B: On Sixth Avenue Soapy breaks a display window with a rock.
- A policeman instantly appears. He asks Soapy who broke the window. Soapy suggests it was he himself who broke it, but the policeman doesn't believe him. Who would break a window and then stick around to wait for the police?
- Plan C: Soapy finds another restaurant—this one not so picky about who they let in. He has a nice dinner and dessert. Then he tells the waiter he doesn't have any money.
- The waiter is mad, but he doesn't want to call the cops. Instead, two other waiters toss Soapy out onto the sidewalk, right on his ear. (Ouch!)
- A policeman is watching and he laughs at Soapy.
- Plan D: Soapy sees a pretty lady and decides to pretend he's a "masher" (20). (A masher is a guy who hits on ladies he doesn't know, in an intense way. You know, the kind of guy nobody likes.)
- A policeman is watching as Soapy hits on the lady. She sees the policeman watching, and she tells Soapy she'll go home with him if he buys her some beers.
- The policeman sees her take Soapy's arm and stops watching. Soapy runs away from the lady.
- Plan E: Soapy goes to a fancy area and starts screaming like a maniac, right on the sidewalk. But, the policeman thinks Soapy is a drunk college guy and he has orders to leave drunk college guys alone.
- Plan F: Soapy steals a man's umbrella from him, right in front of a policeman. But the man just lets Soapy have the umbrella, and the policeman goes to help a lady into a taxi.
- Soapy is pretty tired now and he heads back to his park bench in Madison Square.
- But, before Soapy gets home he comes to an old church. He can see a light glowing through the purple glass of the window.
- Someone is playing an "anthem" on the organ. Soapy is hypnotized by the beautiful music, by the moon, by the birds chirping.
- There are hardly any people on the street. Soapy feels like he's out in the country somewhere.
- Soapy remembers the days when he had things like "mothers and roses and ambitions and friends" (42) and church.
- All this makes Soapy experience "a sudden and wonderful change in his soul" (43).
- He feels bad about what his life has come to and wants to change. He's still young and he can follow the old dreams he used to have. Yep. He even knows where he can get a job. Tomorrow he'll go ask for it.
- All of the sudden Soapy feels a hand on his arm; to be exact, a policeman's hand.
- Soapy is arrested and sentenced to three months on the Island.