The Ransom Of Red Chief
                    by O.Henry

    I waited an hour and then concluded the thing was square.
I slid down the tree, got the note, slipped along the fence till
I struck the woods, and was back at the cave in another half
an hour. I opened the note, got near the lantern and read it to
Bill. It was written with a pen in a crabbed hand, and the sum
and substance of it was this:

    Two Desperate Men:


Gentlemen: I received your letter today by post,
in regard you ask for the return of my son. I think 
you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby
make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined
to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home 
and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, 
and I agree to take him off your hands. You had 
better come at night, for the neighbors believe
he is lost, and I couldn't be responsible for what 
they do to anybody they saw bringing him back.
  Very Respectfully, 
EBENEZER DORSET.


  I love this story because it is very funny. Two guys who are broke kidnap a child in order to gain ransom from his father. The child doesn't want to go home, he only wants to play Indian with the kidnappers. The kidnappers send the ransom note and are replied with the letter above. The child was such a nuisance that instead of them getting the money, they paid the father to take back his son. In the end the kidnappers got nothing, and lost everything. This is why I think " The Ransom of Red Chief" is so funny.