SHORT STORY BY O’HENRY The Higher Abdication Đây là một serries truyện ngắn anh ngữ nổi tiếng với những từ vựng quen thuộc. Nhằm giúp các em và các bạn yêu thich tiếng anh luyện tập và củng cố thêm kỹ năng đọc tiếng anh | SHORT STORY BY O HENRY The Higher Abdication Curly the tramp sidled toward the free-lunch counter. He caught a fleeting glance from the bartender s eye and stood still trying to look like a business man who had just dined at the Menger and was waiting for a friend who had promised to pick him up in his motor car. Curly s histrionic powers were equal to the impersonation but his make-up was wanting. The bartender rounded the bar in a casual way looking up at the ceiling as though he was pondering some intricate problem of kalsomining and then fell upon Curly so suddenly that the roadster had no excuses ready. Irresistibly but so composedly that it seemed almost absendmindedness on his part the dispenser of drinks pushed Curly to the swinging doors and kicked him out with a nonchalance that almost amounted to sadness. That was the way of the Southwest. Curly arose from the gutter leisurely. He felt no anger or resentment toward his ejector. Fifteen years of tramphood spent out of the twenty-two years of his life had hardened the fibres of his spirit. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune fell blunted from the buckler of his armoured pride. With especial resignation did he suffer contumely and injury at the hands of bartenders. Naturally they were his enemies and unnaturally they were often his friends. He had to take his chances with them. But he had not yet learned to estimate these cool languid Southwestern knights of the bungstarter who had the manners of an Earl of Pawtucket and who when they disapproved of your presence moved you with the silence and despatch of a chess automaton advancing a pawn. Curly stood for a few moments in the narrow mesquite-paved street. San Antonio puzzled and disturbed him. Three days he had been a non- paying guest of the town having dropped off there from a box car of an I. . freight because Greaser Johnny had told him in Des Moines that the Alamo City was manna fallen gathered cooked and served free with cream and sugar. .
