When I told my father that I was moving to Des Moines, Iowa,he told me about the only time
he had been there. It was in the 1930s, when hewas an editor if the literary magazine of
Southern Methodist University（SMU）in Dallas, Texas. He also worked as a professor at SMU,
and there was agirl student in his class who suffered from a serious back disease. Shecouldn;t
afford the operation because her family was poor.
Her mother ran a boardinghouse in Galveston, a seaside town near Houston, Texas.She
was cleaning out the attic（阁楼）one daywhen she came across an old dusty manuscript（手稿）
. On its top page were the words, “By O. Henry”. It was a nice story, andshe sent it to her
daughter at SMU, who showed it to my father. My father hadnever read the story before, but it
sounded like O. Henry, and he knew that O.Henry had once lived in Houston.So it was possible
that the famous author had gone to the beach and stayed inthe Gainestown boardinghouse,
and had written the story there and left themanuscript behind by accident. My father visited an
O. Henry expert at Columbia Universityin New York,who authenticated the story as O. Henry’s. My father then set out to sell it.Eventfully, he foud himself in Des Moines, meeting with
Gardner Cowles, a topeditor at the Des Moines Register. Cowles loves the story and bought
iton the spot. My father took the money to the girl. It was just enough for herto have the
operation she so desperately needed.
My father never told me what the O. Henrystory was about. But i doubt that it could have
been better than his own story.